Aidan Curtis
A PODCAST that shines a light on community stories has been recognised for its contributions to South Australian history.
Mount Gambier Public Library’s podcast, ‘Don’t Overdue It’, received top honours at the History Council of South Australia annual awards night.
The podcast claimed top spot with the Oral History Excellence Award, and co-hosts Danni Reade and Ricky Koopman said they were overjoyed to see their work get such high praise.
“We found with speaking to other award winners at the event we went to last week, that our relationship with the community and doing a community project was actually quite unique,” Ms Reade said.
“A lot of the other winners were projects for themselves on one topic, and sometimes that was to satisfy a PhD requirement, whereas we are just doing this for the community.
“I like to think the community aspect was what got us over the line.”
Mr Koopman said the community input in making the podcast was vital to its success, so all the people that told their stories along the way deserved a share of the award.
“I was very much surprised because you don’t do these projects with the aim of winning an award,” he said.
“We couldn’t do it without community, we just give them a platform and they create the project for us, almost.
“It’s very much a community project.”
Neither Ms Reade nor Mr Koopman thought the podcast would take off the way it has and they are now loving what they are getting out of it.
Ms Reade said, being the history officer at the library, the podcast ticks many boxes for her.
“A lot of the time, I’m doing research for an individual or a sole purpose and I find out this really great information and I give it to that one person, and they take it away and that’s done,” she said.
“So to be able to look back through my catalogue of years of research that I’ve done and be able to show off some really great, interesting Mount Gambier stories is always really exciting.”
Mr Koopman said the variety in what the podcast covers and preservation of local history have been his favourite parts so far.
“We’ve interviewed people that unfortunately are no longer with us, but at least we got an opportunity to record those stories, preserve those stories, not only for the family but for the community,” he said.
Ms Reade and Mr Koopman are looking forward to continuing to uncover local history through the podcast.