Hear This 13th June 2025

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Episode Transcript

S1 (00:09):
Take a look. Take a look inside the book. Take
a look.

S2 (00:24):
Hello and welcome to hear this. I'm Frances Kelland and
you're listening to the Vision Australia library radio show. Today
we have our regular guest, Maureen O'Reilly, the library's community
engagement coordinator, with a couple of events that you may
enjoy hearing about. It's always lovely to hear from Maureen.

(00:48):
Doesn't seem like that long since we've seen you, Maureen.
We've got Maureen O'Reilly here. And, uh, so there's a
couple of things that we didn't mention last time, which
are pretty exciting.

S3 (00:59):
They are exciting. Our world is full of exciting stuff
in library.

S2 (01:02):
Yes, I know libraries are the font of so much. Um,
not just books and knowledge and magazines and newspapers and
everything like that, but so in resource materials, but so
many people wanting people to engage with them and creating
events and things, it's so exciting.

S3 (01:18):
It is really different from the old stereotype where you've
got sort of a older woman in a cardigan sitting
there going shush, shush and frowning at everybody that made
a noise there. So, I mean, you go through the
whole life journey there. I remember taking my little tiny
kids to storytime, and that's quite feral. There's thousands of
children running around singing nursery rhymes and having books read

(01:40):
to them and drawing, and then you've got the younger
kids who are just helping themselves to millions of books
and making a whole mess of the whole Dewey Decimal
System all over the shelves. And then I look at
my teenage son now, going there to study with his
mates because they can pretend it's a social thing. I
like to think they're studying, I'm not sure. And then

(02:01):
we have as adults that when we finally get some
time back in our lives, we start to go back.
But it's it's really just a hub. It's a community
hub on so many levels.

S2 (02:12):
Yeah. And I remember when, um, graphic novels started to
become acceptable for a long time it was, oh, comic books. No.
So the ways we read, um, talking books, everything, uh,
it's just expanded so much.

S3 (02:27):
Oh, I remember when my children were quite young, and
I didn't actually realize that the library was full of
DVDs and that you could get talking books and you
could get DVDs of different television series and DVDs of
actual favorite books, like Harry McLeary. And it was this
whole section of the library I didn't know existed. And

(02:49):
they also have so much technical support for people as
well who come in and they're just not sure how
to navigate, whether it be the internet or just generally
using Excel or Word or another program. And the librarians
are just, uh, They really are a font of knowledge
on so many levels, and it's really very vibrant. I

(03:11):
think the the current day library, it's reflective of what
a library always was, which was a community hub that's
full of information, but it's got a very different vibe
to it now, I think.

S2 (03:23):
Yes, I would agree. Yeah. So with this library Vision
Australia library. Yeah. What's coming up.

S3 (03:29):
Well we have well we actually just had our beautiful
first narrator interview with Marilyn Barclay, and that was just gorgeous.
It was so lovely. And one of my favorite things
about it was it wasn't my idea. It wasn't one
of the librarians ideas. It came from our members. So
with our members filling out their surveys at the end

(03:50):
of each program and event that we ran, we got
consistent feedback that they'd love to meet their narrators. So
it was really lovely. And then we have another one
scheduled in October. So anyone that missed meeting Marilyn or
anyone that enjoyed meeting Marilyn. We have Richard Bligh coming
back in October, so it'll be fun. And then assuming

(04:13):
that it's, you know, a program that everyone's really enjoyed
and that we can get some more volunteers from Vision
Australia radio narrators, then we'll run it again next year
as well. So that was very fun.

S2 (04:26):
Well, that would be great. And, uh, yeah. Um, Richard
Bligh's narrated so many books.

S3 (04:31):
I know. And it's to me, they're just like a
friend that you've invited into your home. And when you
were sick, when you were tired, when you were lonely,
when you, um, when it was winter. I mean, winter is,
for me, just so horrific. I like to curl up
where it's really warm. That person is in your home
with you. It's. It's really. It's like a special friend.

S2 (04:53):
Yeah. Well, that's something to definitely look forward to.

S3 (04:56):
But then we have other special friends that are joining us.
So this is a new friend because we all need
new friends in our lives. We have an upcoming in
Conversation with Erik Weihenmayer, which I probably pronounce wrong. So
I do apologize to anyone that knows better. Erik is phenomenal.
Erik has climbed Mount Everest and then, not to settle

(05:17):
on that achievement, decided that he was going to climb
each of the highest mountain peaks on each of the
seven continents. And then when he'd finished doing his climbing,
he made that accomplishment, decided he was going to canoe
down the entire length of the Grand Canyon, which is
just amazing. That's 277 miles of the Colorado River. But

(05:39):
what is particularly phenomenal about him is that he's actually blind.
So Erik lost his sight at the age of 14.
And at that point took up rock climbing and to
pardon the pun, hasn't looked back. So he has just
been climbing and paddling and really, um, well, in his

(05:59):
line there's no barriers. So that is the name of
his latest book is No Barriers A Blind Man's Journey
to Kayak The Grand Canyon, and his book before that
was the adversity advantage. So he's very much about breaking
through the barriers that people put on. His best selling

(06:21):
memoir was called Touch the Top of the world, and
he really is an inspiration. I mean, he would be
an inspiration whether he only climbed Everest, much less doing
all seven continents, and if he only did the climbing,
much less the canoeing, and then to do all of that,
having lost his sight as well is just amazing. So

(06:42):
Eric has written four books, in fact, and he's going
to be joined by the absolutely gorgeous Dave Tredinnick, who
I know is a favourite with all of our Vision
Australia members, our library members. So Dave, actually the last
conversation Dave did with us was Les Pobjie, who was
also one of our, um, Blind authors. So Dave is

(07:06):
back this time to have a chat with Eric to see.
I don't know where he gets his drive and his
inspiration from, and how he does break through all those barriers.

S2 (07:16):
I know that the library has, um, touched the top
of the world. Yes. That one. Do we have the
adversity advantage?

S3 (07:23):
We do indeed.

S2 (07:24):
Because it's such an interesting title, because that really says
it all. It's like, well, you know what? Other people
see adversity I see as an advantage. And here's how
I have negotiated that and convinced other people that my adversity,
so-called is an advantage. Yeah, that's a beautiful title.

S3 (07:41):
Oh, look, it is beautiful. And his books are very
much about helping other people and inspiring other people. It's
not about look at me and look what I've done.
And he has, uh, he has given so much back
to actually helping people and just trying to show people

(08:02):
that you can do what you want to do. There's
always a way, there's always an avenue. And if you've
got a dream that you just need to be determined.
And so, yeah, I feel very much like an underachiever actually,
but I know.

S2 (08:18):
Yeah. Oh, well, I think I could do without Everest.
I feel like we're living in Everest now. We are
in Melbourne. Yeah.

S3 (08:25):
So Dave will be interviewing Eric on the 8th of
July at 12 noon Australian Eastern Standard Time. So that
is an online event. It's free, sits over lunchtime assuming
you're on the East Coast. And I think it's a
wonderful opportunity to make yourself a little sandwich and a
cup of tea and sit down and just have a

(08:46):
beautiful hour with Dave and Eric. I'll pop in and
do a little cameo at the start and it'll be lovely.

S2 (08:52):
Sounds great. A little bit of armchair travel.

S3 (08:54):
That is it actually. And quite frankly, I'm happy to
armchair travel up Everest. I'm not really keen on doing
that one on my own.

S2 (09:03):
Yep. Yeah. And what else is coming up?

S3 (09:06):
Well, we have a lot of things we touched on previously.
We have our family history course and that is filling
up very quickly. So I do encourage anybody that wants to, uh,
write their family history are looking for a way to,
I suppose, uh, restructure their memoir into more of a
family history vibe about it and wanting to join Jonathan Butler,

(09:31):
that they register very quickly because we've had a great
response to that. We also have our accessible reading and
writing tools, Q&A that we touched on, and my encouragement
on that to everyone is to make sure you put
your questions in. So last time it was predominantly, uh,
I suppose, a webinar where Jim and Dharma and Ken, uh,

(09:54):
presented what were the options that were available in terms
of tools and technology to assist with reading and writing?
And there were all these questions that we barely had
time to address. So this time, because there haven't been
a lot of advancements in terms of technology in the
last 12 months, we will touch on a little bit

(10:14):
of an update on what's new in the field or
what's improved, but a lot of it is going to
be about Q&A. So although we will respond to questions
that are put into the chat in the course of
the webinar, um, it'd be great if people actually put
them in while they're registering as well. And that way,
if it's something that needs a little bit of research,

(10:36):
or Jim needs to look into it, that he'll make
sure that he's actually got the answers ready to go.

S2 (10:42):
It's a great idea.

S3 (10:43):
Um, and then the other thing we have going on
at the moment, as our subscribers to our Vision Australia
Library newsletter would have seen at the start of June,
is we have our library survey. So that is a
big thing for us. We have not done a extensive
library survey for a very long time. We run little

(11:03):
micro surveys after each of our programs and events, just
to check that they touch the mark. They were what
people expected. Ask them, have they got any better ideas
of the other things we could be doing? But this
survey is very much about getting people's feedback on the
entire library service. And one of the things we always

(11:23):
say is that it is very much a member shaped library.
So the catalogue is determined by the book suggestions and
the book requests that we get in. The programmes and
events we run are again largely shaped by the requests.
We get, the feedback we get what people enjoyed, what
they didn't. And this is a long that mindset as well.

(11:47):
So it's just saying to people, what is it that's
working for you in the Vision Australia library? What do
you think we could do better? Where do you think
there's room for improvement and trying to get an idea
of what people really think about the library, because often
people are a little bit loath to complain because they say,

(12:07):
oh no, no, it's a wonderful service. So they don't
want to be seen to be critical or people just think, oh,
I love what you do. So I should be appreciative
of that instead of making additional suggestions as well.

S2 (12:20):
Yeah, what a great idea.

S3 (12:22):
So this is a very big survey for us. We
don't get the opportunity very often. And my personal plea
to everyone is to all the people who have started
the survey but haven't finished it. So we've had a
wonderful response. We've had a lot of submissions, but we
know we have a few hundred people who commenced it

(12:43):
but didn't actually submit it. So I will confess it
is a little bit lengthy. It can take about 20
minutes to do so. I understand that you do come
up with better things to do in that 20 minutes. However,
one of the really good things about it is that
it will save the point that you're up to, so
it will save the progress that you've made. So I

(13:04):
would plea with everyone who has spent five, ten, 15
minutes on the survey to go back. It will allow
you to resume where you were and then just to
finish it and submit it. And that gives you the
opportunity to really shape the future of the library. So
there's no point having all those wonderful ideas that come

(13:27):
from the librarians, because within reason we don't use the library.
We work here and we like to think we're part
of the community, but it's not really our library. So
we really want it shaped by our low vision and
blind members who know what they need from the library,
and they know how they'd like it to look in

(13:49):
the future. So I really, really want those few hundred
people who have made the commitment, but for various reasons,
haven't finished it and submitted it to go back. Definitely
all the work you've invested is saved there, and it
will just let you pick up where you left off,
and then you can keep going from there.

S2 (14:09):
You've mentioned that there's, you know, a few hundred people
that haven't completed it. Is this an anonymous survey?

S3 (14:15):
Yes it is. So I think from memory there is
the option you can put your name in, but you
don't need to. So you can say anything you like.
Feel free to say Maureen is an amazing person and
we love to hear this. And Frances is just phenomenal.
All those bits of feedback are great, but it's really
about shaping the future of the library because we want

(14:38):
the library to be vibrant and we want the library
to be developing a bit, like we were saying before
about how libraries have changed over time. We want to
make sure that the Vision Australia library is keeping up
with the needs and the interests of its members.

S2 (14:55):
Yes, absolutely. Because, you know, it's all it can be
a bit remote as well, you know, whereas a another library,
a standard library. People walk in and they give their
feedback at the desk and let the staff know what
they're enjoying. We don't have that luxury here.

S3 (15:13):
And it's often those anecdotal little conversations at the front
desk that help shape the programs and the look of
the library, and we just don't really have that. We
do have some beautiful clients that come in to collect
their Braille books each week. We have some wonderful clients
who bring in their envoys if there's a problem with

(15:35):
them or they need some assistance downloading books. So we
do have regular clients who come in, which is just beautiful.
But on the whole, our clients have a, I suppose,
a degree of distance between us. So this is a
great way to just connect with your library.

S2 (15:56):
Thank you Maureen. Is there anything else?

S3 (15:58):
No, I think that is me done for now.

S2 (16:00):
Okay. And that was Maureen O'Reilly, community engagement coordinator at
Vision Australia Library. And I've had some technical issues, so
I was going to play a sample of No Barriers
A Blind Man's Journey to Kayak, The Grand Canyon by
Erik Weihenmayer. So what I'll do is I'll just spell

(16:23):
his name. So his first name is Eric e r
I k. His surname is w e h e m
h e r w e h e n h e
r Erik Weihenmayer. Since coming down from Mount Everest in

(16:44):
2001 and the path to where I am today, and
it's a story of my own life, the personal and
professional struggles in the pursuit of growth, learning and family,
as well as a dream to kayak one of the
world's great rivers as a blind athlete. So if anybody
is interested in reading that book that's available in audio,

(17:05):
and hopefully I'll have a sample of that next week.
And apologies again for the technical issues today, but just
a few reader recommended here. So Burial Rites is the
first one. And this is by Jacqueline Kent, set against
Iceland's stark landscape. Hannah Kent brings to vivid life the
story of Agnes, who, charged with the brutal murder of

(17:26):
her former master, is sent to an isolated farm to
await execution. Horrified at the prospect of housing a convicted murderer,
the family at first avoids Agnes, only Toti, a priest.
Agnes has mysteriously chosen to be her spiritual guardian, seeks
to understand her. But as Agnes death looms, the farmer's

(17:48):
wife and their daughters learn that there is another side
to the sensational story they've heard. Let's hear a sample
of Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. It's narrated by Morven Christie.

S4 (18:00):
She is discontented with her current spiritual administrator, and has
used one of her few remaining rites to request another priest.
She has requested you, Assistant Reverend Torvaldo. It is with
some uncertainty that I approach you for this task. I
am aware that your responsibilities have so far been confined

(18:21):
to the spiritual education of your parish's youngest members, which
is to say, of undoubted value, but it is of
little political import. You may yourself admit that you are
too pale in experience to know how to bring this
condemned woman to the Lord and his infinite mercy. In
which case I would not protest your disinclination. It is

(18:43):
a weight that I would hesitate to bestow on the
shoulders of experienced clergymen. Should you, however, accept the responsibility
of preparing Agnes Magnusdottir for her meeting with our Lord,
you will be obliged to visit council regularly when the
weather allows. You must administer God's Word and inspire repentance

(19:05):
and an acknowledgment of justice. Please do not let flattery
influence your decision, nor kinship, if any, resides between you
and the convicted in all things, Reverend. If you cannot
construct your own counsel, seek mine. I await word of
your response. Please provide my messenger with such. District Commissioner

(19:30):
Bjorn Blundell. Assistant Reverend Thorvald Johnson was inside the small
farmstead adjoined to the Church of Breda, repairing the hearth
with new stones. When he heard his father clear his
throat in the doorway. There's a messenger from farmer outside. Toti.

(19:50):
He's asking for you. For me? In his surprise, he
let a rock slip out of his hand.

S2 (19:57):
And that was a sample of Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Hannah is h h h a n a h Kent
is k e t k e t. I'm not sure
how long that book goes for, but if you're interested
in reading it or what may make you really want

(20:18):
to read it is if you go to ABC Radio
National and you do a search for Hannah Kent, um,
you will come up with an interview that was in
conversation with one of those two hosts of that show,
talking about how she came to write the book. Some
of it's almost a bit spooky in, in the way
that she felt compelled to write, but also pointed along

(20:39):
the way of this amazing true story. Hannah Kent was
born in South Australia and grew up in the Adelaide Hills.
Burial rites was published in 2013, and that was followed
by The Good People, set in Ireland in 2016, and
her third novel, devotion, was published in 2021. And we

(21:00):
also have that in the in the collection. The reason
she chose, um, Agnes and this is a novel I
should have said it's based on fact and research, but
it is a novelization of the supposed life of Agnes.
She was the last woman put to death in Iceland,
and Kent was drawn to the idea of writing her
story after a visit to the scene of the woman's execution.

(21:22):
And it was close to where she stayed for some
time as a Rotary exchange student when she was 18
and was reading from Wikipedia. Here, the novel crafts a
more ambiguous, sympathetic image of the life of a woman,
widely regarded in popular opinion to have been, in quotes,
an inhumane witch stirring up murder. In 2017, it was

(21:43):
announced that Jennifer Lawrence would play the role of Agnes
in the movie adaptation of Burial Rights. As of May 2025,
the film is still in development. The next book is.
The next novel is The Signature of All Things. This
is by Elizabeth Beth Gilbert, spanning much of the 18th
and 19th centuries, this novel follows the fortunes of the

(22:05):
extraordinary Whitaker family, as led by the enterprising Henry Whitaker,
a poor born Englishman who makes a great fortune in
the South American quinine trade, eventually becoming the richest man
in Philadelphia. Born in 1800, Henry's brilliant daughter alma, who
inherits both her father's money and his mind, ultimately becomes

(22:27):
a botanist of considerable gifts herself. As Alma's research takes
her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, she falls in
love with a man named Ambrose Pike, who makes incomparable
paintings of orchids and who draws her in the exact
opposite direction into the realm of the spiritual, the divine,
and the magical. Alma is a clear minded scientist. Ambrose

(22:50):
a utopian artist. What unites this unlikely couple is a
desperate need to understand the workings of this world and
the and the mechanism behind all life. Let's hear a
sample of The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
It's narrated by Juliet Stevenson.

S5 (23:08):
For the first five years of her life, Alma Whittaker
was indeed a mere passenger in the world, as we
are all passengers in such early youth. And so her
story was not yet noble, nor was it particularly interesting
beyond the fact that this homely toddler passed her days
without illness or incident, surrounded by a degree of wealth

(23:28):
nearly unknown in the America of that time? Even within
elegant Philadelphia, how her father came to be in possession
of such great wealth is a story worth telling here.
While we wait for the girl to grow up and
catch our interest again. For it was no more common
in 1800 than it has ever been for a poor,
born and nearly illiterate man to become the richest inhabitant

(23:51):
of his city. And so the means by which Henry
Whittaker prospered are indeed interesting, although perhaps not noble as
he himself would have been the first to confess. Henry
Whitaker was born in 1760, in the village of Richmond,
just up the Thames from London. He was the youngest
son of poor parents who had a few too many

(24:13):
children already. He was raised in two small rooms with
a floor of beaten earth, with an almost adequate roof,
with a meal on the hearth nearly every day. With
a mother who did not drink and a father who
did not beat his family. By comparison to many families
of the day, in other words, a nearly genteel existence.

(24:35):
His mother even had a private spot of dirt behind
the house in which to grow larkspurs and lupines decoratively,
like a lady. But Henry was not fooled by larkspurs
and lupines. He grew up sleeping one wall away from
the pigs, and there was not a moment in his
life when poverty did not humiliate him. Perhaps Henry would

(24:57):
have taken less offense at his destiny had he never
seen wealth around him against which to compare his own
poor circumstances. But the boy grew up witnessing not only wealth,
but royalty.

S2 (25:09):
And that was a sample of The Signature of All
Things by Elizabeth Gilbert. Elizabeth is l I z a
b e t h e l I z a b
e t h Gilbert g I l b e r
t g I l b e r t. And again,

(25:29):
sorry about that. I don't know how long it goes for,
but Julian Stevenson's narration of this book is just magnificent.
Elizabeth Gilbert hit the headlines for eat, pray, Love, which
was her autobiographical story of her journey of going through
a divorce and then discovering various pleasures of praying, of
of falling in love and of food in countries around

(25:51):
the world. I think there's four different countries. A lot
of people loved that book. This was her second book,
and The Guardian review gave it an amazing, um, amazingly
positive review from Elizabeth Day in 2013. Um, she said
she'd been slightly dismissive of Gilbert because of the eat, pray, love, um,

(26:12):
thinking it was a bit mawkish. The movie was made
of the of that book with Juliet Roberts, Julia Roberts,
but she said that the signature, of all things quite simply,
one of the best books I've read in years. She
also says, as well as being beautifully written, the signature
of all things brings to the fore all those forgotten
women of science whose trailblazing work was swallowed up by

(26:32):
more famous men. But it also asks us to consider
whether a life lived in the shadows, comprising of a
million small, unnoticed actions, is worth any less than a
life of big gestures and public recognition. And I really
enjoyed this book as well. I was of a similar mindset, um,
not having read eat, pray, love and thinking, oh, it's

(26:53):
a memoir. And, you know, the film with Julia Roberts,
all of that sort of schmaltzy stuff. Uh, I was
surprised myself by the signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Thanks for joining us on here this today. Thanks to

(27:15):
Maureen for dropping in to have a chat about what's happening.
And if you need any clarification about anything that we
talked about, you can always call the library. You can
call the library if you're interested in joining or if
you're interested in finding out for somebody else who you
think may benefit from hearing about it, just give the
library a call on one 300 654 656. That's 1300 654 656.

(27:41):
Or you can email library at org. That's library at org.
Have a lovely week and we'll be back next week
with more here this.