Sara Gangai was formerly the director of Winchester Writers’ Festival for several years, followed by The Writers’ Weekend. She has a Master’s Degree in local history and archaeology from the University of Winchester. This has led her to an interest in the link between history and storytelling. She is with us this evening to tell us about her latest project – Shared Memories.
Sara begins by telling us about her work organising the Winchester Writers’ Festival, and how when the university stopped it after forty years, she started The Writers’ Weekend – a virtual event due to Covid. She explains that although this was not how The Writers’ Weekend was intended to be, the online nature of the event meant that people could join from all over the world (one of the keynote speakers gave their speech from Arizona). Sara tells us “…it opened up a lot of possibilities.”
However, Sara informs us that her true passion is “storytelling in a different form,” and after working on the writing festivals for many years, she felt it was time to pursue this. There were people in the wings ready to take on the running of The Writers’ Weekend (now called the I Am Writing festival) and this gave Sara the time she needed.
Sara started Shared Memories “…to capture ordinary people’s life stories.” She explains that this fascinates her. She goes on to tell us that quite often when she sits down with people, they tell her that they have nothing to say, but that once they begin talking you realise that that they have lived a very interesting life.
Sarah clearly feels that the service she offers is extremely important and she demonstrates this by telling us the story of her dad, Akira, who was born in Japan in 1920. He led a fascinating life – and at his funeral, she was told many stories about him, that she had not heard before. There is sadness in her voice when she continues, sharing that in her grief she struggled to remember many of these stories and wished there was someone who could have recorded these for her family to listen to (“…it would have been absolutely priceless to me and my siblings.”).
Sara spent a great deal of time listening to tapes in the record office when researching local history for her Master’s degree. Many of the tapes, she says, were recorded in the 1970s and were of people in Winchester. They demonstrated how much life had changed over the years.
What consolidated Sara’s love of people telling their stories, was an 80-year-old man she interviewed as part of her thesis research. She explains that as he talked about his life, he realised that he had never really shared his stories with anyone, “…not even his own children.” He found that by being able to talk to Sara without interruption was “cathartic” and it moved him to tears. Sara says, “I was hooked by that point.”
Shared Memories records people’s life stories on audio and videotape. Once Sara has the material, she adds family photos to create a video that can be shared “…with family and future generations.” At this point, she plays us a snippet of one of her videos – a 90-year-old woman talking to her daughter about her own childhood in her mother’s shop. We hear the lady reminiscing, whilst photos of the shop – past and present, are shown. The effect is very powerful. Sara shares with us that the lady passed away shortly after the making of the video, and her daughter was comforted by the fact that she had this film.
Sara has plans to develop her new business further. One element she is creating is a digital space where families can share their genealogical findings (she describes it as a family version of the TV series Who Do You Think You Are?). Another called Grandma’s Recipes consists of videotapes of people sharing their secrets of family dishes that have been passed down generations.
Sara is currently editing the life story of a lady who has cancer. She has two children in their twenties and she wants to ensure that she was able to talk about her life without interruption. She also wanted to talk about her children and “…what her hopes and dreams are for them.” Sara describes working with her “a real honour.”
Sara’s generation, she says, are the last generation that lived with very little technology (“I was 27 when I got my first mobile phone.”). She is clearly passionate about ensuring that upcoming generations know how the people before them lived their lives – studying, playing, working. She reminds us “some people grew up with no indoor toilet or central heating.”
How can oral histories inform our writing? This is what Sara asks us to consider. She explains how when listening to voices (she give The Archers as an example) the accents an inflections can define a story (“It’s not just what they say, but how they say it as well.”). As writers, our characters can be developed by listening to people telling their stories, and focusing on their voices. There are many ways to access personal histories – Sara puts some web addresses on the screen.
Sara ends her talk by asking us to “…consider adding oral histories to your toolkit as you develop your writing and your voice.”
If you want to find out more, visit Sara’s website: sharedmemories.uk
Report by Sarah Noon
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