58 | My Grandfather's Key (Live at Footscray West Writers Fest)

Clare and Yves are joined by writer and academic Dr Micaela Sahhar to unlock the vast ephemera and stolen inheritance of the Palestinian diaspora.

Episode 1 of the Archive Fever podcast, hosted by Claire Wright and Yves Rees, titled "58 | My Grandfather's Key (Live at Footscray West Writers Fest)" was published on March 31, 2026 and runs 56 minutes.

March 31, 2026 ·56m · Archive Fever

0:00 / 0:00

Summary

Every family has its secrets—but what happens when a writer dives into the family archive to uncover and share those stories with the world? In this very special final episode of Season 7 (yes, already!) - recorded live on Gadigal land at the 2025 Sydney Writers Festival — Yves and Clare probe Australian-born Maori poet Anne-Marie Te Whiu (Mettle) and Queensland-born author and journalist Lech Blaine (Australian Gospel) about the promises and pitfalls of working with stories close to home. Why rattle the bones of family skeletons? How important it is to have one member of the family who is a hoarder of seemingly minor items or insignificant facts that can, to a writer, be like shards of gold? How to navigate the ethical and emotional minefield of finding uncomfortable truths about loved ones and forebears? And what does excavating the roots of the family tree do to the writer themselves?

Episode Description

In this special live episode of Season 8, recorded at the Footscray West Writers Fest, Clare and Yves are joined by writer and academic Dr Micaela Sahhar to unlock the vast ephemera and stolen inheritance of the Palestinian diaspora.

How do archives and archiving operate as technologies of settler colonialism? Why have Palestinians been disappeared at both ends of the story - both from Nakba and assimilation? How does Micaela’s award-winning book Meet Me at the Jaffa Gate (NewSouth, 2025) provide a counter archive that allows Palestinians to assert authority over their own stories of exile and homecoming? And how can a single key embody a Palestinian past and present in the midst of an ongoing genocide?