Home means you must have memories

Posted by aurelia on 19 July, 2011

It wasn’t my cup of my coffee that woke me up yesterday morning. It was the headline story that I read from Today newspaper.

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong at the opening address during the launch of this year’s HeritageFest, a community trail project by the National Heritage Board said:

“Home means you must have some memories, you must have shared experiences and you must have some sense of where we came from, why we are here what it means to us… we will tell the stories about it to the younger ones and the next generation…we will connect to one another, connect to our parents and past, and to our children and future.”

Wow I thought. “Yes, that’s it. That’s what we do. That’s what Digital Storytelling is all about. That’s what we want to bring to society, to schools, to individuals, to communities, to Singapore…”

We want to see storytelling become a movement. And I don’t mean the “once-upon-a-time” fairy tales but the stuff that life and memories are made of — the stories of our lives, the shared memories that make us who we are and bind us as a family, as a community.

The late Dana Atchley, also known as the Father of Digital Storytelling, said, “The stories and anecdotes we share with one another are the ways we let each other know who we are, what we care about, where we come from, where we are going, and most importantly, what we care about.”

Aren’t we singing the same song?

In the midst of all the challenges, the thrills, and the ups and downs any pioneering work faces, what PM Lee said was a beacon of light to a trailblazer.