My life has always been about connecting up the dots. Making space for others to connect, making time to connect with myself and with the earth. I document and catalogue, collect and store and hoard. Creating a dialogue with objects and lost forgotten things.
I see this space here as a depository for some of the thinking around this. So what better place than now to start,
let
us
begin.
For Christmas this year I received an archive. Three of them in fact. Packaged in two identical handmade tote bags, was a selection of handwritten diaries and photographs from my grandparents (all of them now passed). The third was a selection of plastic zipper bags containing soil samples collected from my father (by request) on a journey through outback Australia as he turned 70.
He emigrated there with mother 14 years ago.
This Christmas we talked about them returning,
Home.
As I turned 40 this year and reflected on my place in this world, having closed big momentous doors and opened new (smaller) ones, I have come to realise that I am deeply drawn to the archive. It is an activity I have been involved with since I was a little girl. It’s all that gets me going when contemplating story and what it means to tell.
It is now that I feel ready to commit to spending some deep time with this and start writing about it.
deborahjparkes 