Suzanne Franklin's keepsake is a picture of her great-great-grandmother, Alice Franklin, the Lady Mayoress of Perth and an unused leather-bound railway ticket to the official opening of Parliament House in 1927.

Alice's husband, James Thomas Franklin, was the last Mayor of Perth and the first Lord Mayor of Perth. In 1927, James and Alice were invited to the grand opening of Parliament House and given first-class railway tickets with sleeping berths from Sydney to Canberra and then Canberra to Perth. Many events and newspaper articles were written about them leaving for this historic event.

The tickets went unused. A few days before departure, their eldest son George, 48, was run down on Bulwer Street while on his way to work. Alice and James stayed by his side in the hospital. George passed away two days later. On the day they were meant to be leaving, they buried their son.

A week later, they went to the opening of Parliament House to represent Western Australia and meet the Duke and Duchess of York, who they would soon be hosting in Perth.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia’s exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories , The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Sophies keepsake is her husband's grandma's handwritten cookbook. Joan Patricia Vowles lovingly added to this cookbook over forty years (1950 -1990), and Sophie inherited it when she passed away in 2006.

The cookbook is made out of a notepad and filled with delicately handwritten recipes and poems, resplendent with butter, egg and oil stains. The recipes come from friends, family, church group members, and cutouts from cereal boxes and magazines. There are recipes for cakes, puddings, sauces, jams, relishes and pies. Ticks appear next to the recipes she likes and crosses next to the ones that didn't work out.

Sophie has made many recipes from the cookbook, but perhaps not the Veal with Bananas. Her favourite recipe is the light ginger cake with golden syrup or treacle running through it with a hint of lemon.

Sophie was interviewed and published in Coles Magazine in March 2021 with this recipe after posting a few recipes from the cookbook in the Coles Cooking Club Facebook Group.

Joan Patricia Vowles (nee Keeping) was born in Narrogin in 1917 and lived in Tincurrin, a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia. The town has a street called "Keeping" named after her father, Walter. Joan became a hairdresser, moved to Perth in 1935, married in 1938 and had three kids (Patricia, Rupert and David). She loved a good chat, and her secret to a good cheese and tomato sandwich was celery salt.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia’s exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories , The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Petronila's keepsake is a traditional Tokelauan hand-carved mother of pearl fishing lure (Pa Hi Atu) made by Papa Fofo Poasa, her father-in-law.

Papa Fofo Poasa hand-carved this traditional fishing lure with his son, Himona Poasa, the week before Himona suddenly passed away in February 2023. They carved the Pa Hi Atu in their home in Mandurah, Western Australia, using mother-of-pearl shells from Broome.

Pa Hi Atu translates to fishing lure to catch the bonito (type of fish). Papa Fofo Poasa is one of the few Tokelauan traditional carvers in the world. Tokelau is a small, dependent territory of New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean consisting of three atolls.

Petronila's husband, Himona, regularly caught fish in the Mandurah Estuary and distributed them to his community's elders and families according to the Tokelau traditions. The fishing lure is a special heirloom because it was made with love and represents the relationship between father and son.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia’s exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories , The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Cheryl Burton was adopted in 1962 and immigrated from the UK in 1967. Her mother didn't know she would be giving Cheryl up for adoption until the birth and had mere moments to say goodbye.

In 1990 when Cheryl was 28, she flew back to meet her mother for the first time. Cheryl's keepsake is a gold kangaroo brooch she gifted to her mother when they first met.

Her mother never wore the brooch but kept it as a prized possession. Upon passing, she left Cheryl many items and personal treasures under her bed, including the brooch.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia's exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a mini podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories, The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Imagine the first time you ever see an airplane and it crashes into the ocean. Gerry's keepsake is his great-granddad's utility knife, which was gifted to him for saving the life of a world-renowned and revered Australian test pilot, Harry Hawker, in 1913.

Harry Hawker was the chief test pilot for Sopwith Industries; this was only 11 years after the Wright brothers flew the first-ever successful airplane flight. Harry Hawker and his copilot (mechanic) Harry Cauper (also Australian) were test-flying a biplane over the Bay of Loughshinny in North County Dublin, Ireland, when they crashed into the sea. Gerry's great-granddad, Frank Ryan, was a local fisherman who rowed out and rescued them.

No one in the community had ever seen an airplane. The next day, when a team tried to salvage the airplane, it was gone, except for one spark plug; the fascinated locals had stripped it for souvenirs.  The local Lord of the Manor, Roger Palmer, gifted Frank a special engraved utility knife for his service.

Gerry's father handed the utility knife down to him. Gerry's father inherited it from his mother (Gerry's grandmother), who got it from her dad, the hero fisherman.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia's exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a mini podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories, The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Anne Chapple's grandfather's WW1 medals are an extraordinary keepsake as they signify the beginning of the Anzac Cottage story. Her grandfather was considered an older recruit (30s) and served in the 11th Battalion, C Company, who were amongst the first who landed on the shores of Gallipoli. He was wounded on the first day and then deemed unfit to serve.

e was one of the first returned wounded soldiers to Mt Hawthorn. Due to his leg injury, he was unable to work and worried the family would lose their borrowed home. A neighbour from the Mt Hawthorn Progress Society heard his story, and the society decided to build a "practical memorial" honouring the soldiers who fought in Gallipoli and double as a home for Anne's grandfather and his family. The community rallied and donated money, goods, furniture, skills and labour.

Mt Hawthorn was largely still forest, so a busy bee cleared the land. Later, a procession of 75 horses, carriages and cars took the building material to the newly cleared site.

In one day, on 12 February 1916, over 200 people helped build the outside of the cottage, four thousand people watched, the Police Band kept them entertained and the Ladies Patriotic Guild brought them lunches and refreshments.

As part of the State Library of Western Australia's exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a mini podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories, The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Amber Blake's keepsake is a much loved and very used Scrabble board in the original box from the 1970s. Her family took an annual holiday to Rottnest Island, marking the years on the board (70s to 90s) and the odd landline phone number in "graffiti". Back then, the showers were salt water from the ocean and all food was BYO. Amber fondly remembers zero-screen holidays full of family tournaments, charades, sandcastles, rides, a few dramas and Scrabble!

As part of the State Library of Western Australia’s exhibition Keepsake: Cherished Family Mementos from the Collection, we asked The Chin Wagon to create a podcast series collecting stories from members of the public about their family treasures and heirlooms. Scrabble boards, cookbooks, medals, fishing lures, trinkets and tools. Why are these items so important to the people that hold onto them?

The Chin Wagon is a mobile recording studio designed to capture WA’s stories. Run by much-loved storytelling collective Barefaced Stories, The Chin Wagon provides a fun, cosy hearth for people to share their most treasured memories, tall tales or embarrassing spills. Andrea Gibbs interviewed seven members of the public in this mini podcast series.

Keepsake exhibition runs at the State Library of Western Australia until 4 February 2025.

Yorgas kaala katitje is a podcast and short film exploring the fire knowledge of Aboriginal women. Such knowledge has been essential to the survival and cultural practices of Indigenous communities across millennia.

However, it was not within early explorers’ frame of reference to see women as fire managers, and these European understandings have shaped the way we have thought about fire management in this country. Over three centuries later, fire is pivotal to land management across a nation seasonally ravaged by fatal bushfires.

Increasingly, Aboriginal women and men are creating better management by sharing their knowledge through the Bushfire Centre of Excellence in Perth and the Kimberley Land Council’s Nyul Nyul female ranger program based in Beagle Bay on the Dampier Peninsula.

In the short film, we hear Nyungar Elder Irene Stainton AO; Traditional Custodians Barbara Hostalek, Marlene Warrell and Gladys Yarran; Wetlands Centre Elder in Residence Marie Taylor; Nyungar Maaman Neville Collard; and Professor Susan Broomhall, Director of the Gender and Women’s History Research Centre at Australian Catholic University.

The podcast features these voices along with Traditional and Cultural Fire Officer Clifton Bieundurry; Whadjuk Nyungar Ballardong Nyungar and cultural fire practitioner Oral McGuire; the Kimberley Land Council’s Sarah Parriman, Jackie Wemyss and Zaripha Barnes; Nyul Nyul rangers Sharon Cox, Helena Williams and Lilian Lawford; Dutch texts read by Dr Arvi Wattel, The University of Western Australia, and producer Gina Pickering.

Yorgas kaala katitje has recently been donated to the State Library’s West Australian heritage collection and is available online through the catalogue .

Executive produced by Professor Susan Broomhall, supported by Australian Catholic University, and written and produced by Gina Pickering from Latitude Creative Services.

The short film is available on the State Library of Western Australia website slwa.wa.gov.au

Join writer and storyteller Sisonke Msimang when she asks Elders Aunty Irene and Uncle Albert McNamara, Elder Farley Garlett and youth leaders Ezra Jacobs-Smith and Sophie Coffin to share their stories, thoughts and hopes on what the future will look like for all Australians in the next chapter of our shared history.

In 2023, Australians will vote on whether to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. To help inform individual decisions in relation to this important national event, the State Library held two free public panel conversations called Voices.

This is Panel 2, recorded at a live event in the State Library theatre on 4 October 2023.

Former Liberal Cabinet Minister the Hon Ken Wyatt, academic and expert on Indigenous human rights law, Dr Hannah McGlade, storyteller and intercultural dialogue specialist Shenali Perera, former Chair Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service Jackie Oakley and moderated by award-winning journalist Victoria Laurie to discuss the background to the Voice vote, why this referendum has become a political hot potato and what it looks like from an international perspective.

Recorded at a live panel event at the State Library of Western Australia on 31 August 2023.

In 2023, Australians will vote on whether to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. To help inform individual decisions in relation to this important national event, the State Library held two free public panel conversations called Voices.