“Facts give us the timeline, but stories give us depth, richness and the chance to connect,” says Jeff Hughes, CEO and co-founder of This Story Australia.
This Story is a not-for-profit that educates, engages and connects communities by producing powerful personal digital stories of Australia’s military veterans.
Though the history of war has been documented extensively, the personal experiences of the men and women involved have been less prominent.
For Jeff, it was this realisation that sparked the establishment of This Story.
“If these stories are not being captured, they’re disappearing,” he explains.
“When we started doing the research we contacted the War Memorial, the Shrine of Remembrance, RSL QLD and Legacy and there was not a single organisation in all of Australia that is capturing the complete human story.
“There might be some interviews about the extent of their military service and what they remember of a battle or what it was like in deployment, but no one was getting into the human story of these veterans.
“This is important to me because I feel that as a society, a lot of us have lost the connection with others. Many people wouldn’t know what to say to a veteran, but if they were to watch the videos of their stories they’d quickly realise they’re just the same people as us.
“They’ve got the same emotions and many of the same life experiences. It just happened that part of their story has been formed through different circumstances.”
If these stories are not being captured, they’re disappearing
This Story is pursuing a growth agenda that will bolster its ability to capture stories from veterans all across Australia. One of its current projects is travelling to the Torres Strait Islands to record the stories of Indigenous war veterans and another is interviewing Australian Peacekeepers who served in countries such as Bougainville, Rwanda and Bosnia.
As a Future Fund holder at Australian Communities Foundation, This Story is building its capacity to extend its long-term sustainability.
In this recent Q&A Jeff Hughes shares his thoughts on the importance of personal stories in shaping the national narrative, his ambitions for This Story Australia and the many ways supporters can get behind the cause.
What’s the story behind This Story Australia? How and why did you establish it?
JH: Back in 2013 a friend of mine asked if I could interview her dad, David, who was a WW2 veteran and we put him on camera. The family wanted to make sure his story was captured on film for the grandkids because he had dementia.
So we went to his house and filmed him over a day going through this big book he’s made with all these memories he’s written down. He spoke of everything from his early life to his service during the war
David passed away in 2016 but I was able to cut together a 2-hour documentary interview of him with photos from childhood and family. The family used a little 10-minute video from the documentary at David’s memorial.
A few weeks after his passing, the family was contacted by a woman who, it turns out, was a daughter David had never known. Unbeknownst to the family, David had been in Sydney before he left for Japan and had a relationship with a woman who fell pregnant. To be clear – this all happened before he returned home, got married and started his family.
Anyway, the mother of the child didn’t expect she’d ever see David again because he was being deployed, and she never told him about their daughter. It was only after David’s death that the daughter reached out to the family.
It was amazing for her to have something of her father, a man she never ever got the chance to meet – and now she’s got this treasured keepsake of two hours of his laughter and his voice and his stories from a man she would have otherwise never known.
It is my hope that This Story Australia acts as a conduit to pull the community closer together. By listening and hearing the stories of others we can develop empathy as we realise that we aren’t alone or unique in our struggles and problems.
I would also like to see This Story Australia as commemorating veterans and their service in a 21st century way – by using media we can preserve not only a veteran’s story in their own words, but the fabric of who they are – smiles, jokes, tears – all of the emotions often come to the forefront in an interview.
And finally, I see This Story Australia as preserving history. We had the technology to interview our WWI veterans, our ANZACs, but no one took the responsibility to do that.
Image: Arthur Leggett – WWII veteran of the Battle of Crete (Army) 104 years old, and Jeff Hughes.
Are there common threads between the stories?
The one thing that surprised me, but perhaps isn’t a surprise at all, is this notion of ordinary people doing extraordinary things in the face of adversity because of the situation they’ve found themselves in.
The common thread I have found is that you can talk to somebody who served for four years or one year or 40 years but in nearly all cases, they maintain some level of service when they leave the military.
And it’s almost a cliché, but no one is a hero and signs up and goes to war. You know, they’re just regular people on a journey who are put into these circumstances where they have served the country. They’re selflessly sacrificing time with family, careers, and in many cases their own health, to serve Australia.
And that’s the thing. Our country is made up of these wonderful people. The people who served come from a cross-section of the community and the common thread I have found is that you can talk to somebody who served for four years or one year or 40 years but in nearly all cases, they maintain some level of service when they leave the military.
They’ll join Legacy, they’ll be doing chook raffles at the local bowls club, they’ll be working in care for elders, they’ll be doing something that is still service related. And often that’s a lifeline.
How can people support or get involved with the work of This Story?
Well, all donations are welcome! Our operational costs are around $300,000 per year and that allows us to do at least 25 veteran videos. We’d like to be able to do many more because the long-term goal of This Story is to offer our services to all veterans across the country, regardless of postcode, age or cultural background.
We also have opportunities for businesses to come on board and support us monthly. For instance, we have a local company near our offices that sponsors our work with a $500 donation each month.
We also host a Charity Golf Day each year which is always a lot of fun. In 2023 we had more veterans, ex-service organisation teams and veteran-owned businesses support us than we ever had before.
To support This Story Australia, please email grants@communityfoundation.org.au or call us on 03 9412 0412.
Visit This Story Australia’s website here.
