On Tuesday afternoons at Emmaus Village, the room would fall quiet. Not with silence — but with listening.

Over the course of one school term in 2025, fifteen students from St Joseph’s Regional College chose to spend their after-school hours sitting across from older members of their community at Emmaus Village, notebooks open, phones switched off, asking a simple question: Tell me about your life.

The project, titled Through Our Eyes, was facilitated by St Agnes’ Catholic Parish in partnership with Regional College. Six residents and their families agreed to take part. What followed was not just an assignment, but an exchange of memories, laughter, grief, and wisdom earned slowly over decades.

The memoir project built naturally on that philosophy: that every person’s story matters, and that identity does not fade with age. Each Tuesday, the students returned to Emmaus, guided by Shane Hyland (Leader of School Evangelisation), teacher George McLeod, with the support of members of the Parish Pastoral and Spiritual Care team, including Roy Fleissgarten and Beth Anderson.

They listened as residents recounted childhoods shaped by war and migration, first jobs, first loves, family traditions, heartbreaks, and triumphs. Sometimes sons and daughters sat nearby, hearing stories they had never been told.

Back at school, the students worked carefully through transcripts and photographs. Using Canva Education, they designed and edited personal memoir books — proofread, refined and prepared for publication. Each finished book carries a photograph of the resident alongside the students who helped tell their story, and a
note of gratitude in the back pages.

For Pastoral and Spiritual Care Team Leader, Justine Worner, the positive impact of the project was undeniable. “When someone sits down and truly listens to you, it affirms your whole life,” Mrs Worner said. “Our residents were not just being interviewed — they were being honoured. Their stories were treated with care and reverence.

For families, these books are priceless. They capture voice, memory and personality in a way that will endure long after we are gone.” Matthew Bushe, Assistant Principal – Mission, said the depth of commitment shown by the students impressed their teachers.

“They gave up their own time, week after week, and approached each conversation with maturity and compassion,” Mr Bushe said. “Each time a group of students undertake this amazing project, we are in awe of the way that they connect so well with the resident and their family.”

By the end of the term, what had begun as a school initiative had become something far more meaningful. Residents were reminded of their rich and complex lives, while students left with more than completed projects; they left with a new perspective.

The memoir project is part of a wider commitment by St Agnes’ Catholic Parish to bring generations together — creating space for young people to learn from lived experience, and for older members of the community to know their stories still matter.

In the pages of Through Our Eyes, decades meet in ink and paper. And for a few quiet Tuesday afternoons, generations did what communities are meant to do: they listened to one another.