COVID Kids Oral History Project
COVID-19 has changed our world. Numbers, statistics and movement-limiting restrictions have come to dominate our lives as we alter the way we live, work and educate in the hope of stopping the spread of coronavirus. Our homes have been transformed into places that accommodate all aspects of life: work, school and leisure. What we can do outside of our homes and when we are allowed to leave them has also drastically changed.
It was in this context in September 2020 that Way Back When began to wonder – how has the pandemic impacted children and young people? What observations are they making about how our world has changed? Is anyone asking them and recording their answers? In response, we created this project to capture the stories, observations, experiences and reflections of children in relation to COVID-19, and how the pandemic has impacted their reality.
The short film below, created in partnership with Tiny Empire Collective, provides a snapshot of the unique stories we collected.
Click the CC button on the bottom right to turn on captions.
What’s next?
We are delighted that our COVID Kids collection has found a permanent home at the National Library of Australia, where it will be made available to researchers and preserved into the future. We believe this collection will make an exceptional contribution to our understanding of the way lives have changed over this extraordinary period of time. As historians, we know that this will be of great benefit to us now, and to people in the future.
But these initial 50 interviews (with children and young people aged 4 to 19) are just the beginning. With the pandemic continuing and communities around Australia still experiencing periods of isolation due to new outbreaks, this story is not yet over. We would love to build on this oral history collection and record the experiences of more children and young people who are experiencing the pandemic in many diverse ways.
If you are interested in getting involved and supporting our COVID Kids project, please get in touch with us.
