FIRST / LIGHT

First Light records Australian service stories while they can still be told in person. Through contemporary portraits, filmed conversations and personal archive, the project preserves the human record behind conflict: not only what happened, but how people remember it, carry it, and pass it on.


WWII | Korea | Vietnam | Iraq | Afghanistan | East Timor

FIRST / LIGHT

First Light records Australian service stories while they can still be told in person. Through contemporary portraits, filmed conversations and personal archive, the project preserves the human record behind conflict: not only what happened, but how people remember it, carry it, and pass it on.


WWII | Korea | Vietnam | Iraq | Afghanistan | East Timor

FIRST / LIGHT

First Light records Australian service stories while they can still be told in person. Through contemporary portraits, filmed conversations and personal archive, the project preserves the human record behind conflict: not only what happened, but how people remember it, carry it, and pass it on.


WWII | Korea | Vietnam | Iraq | Afghanistan | East Timor

THE PROJECT

Stories told in their own words.

Stories told in their own words.

Some stories have been told often. Others have only been mentioned once, across a kitchen table, in a car, at an RSL, or late in life when someone finally felt ready. Every year, more first-hand memory disappears. First Light gives veterans and families a way to preserve those memories with dignity, warmth and care - safeguarding the cultural fabric that defines us.

The person behind the service

Childhood, family, early work, friendships and the road into service.

The years that shaped them

Training, travel, mateship, danger, humour and the details that remain decades later.

Coming home

Return, family life, work, community, silence, resilience and what they want remembered.

IN THEIR WORDS

First Light: Vietnam

The first chapter begins with Australian Vietnam veterans. Their stories sit at the intersection of conflict, protest, media, homecoming and changing Australian identity. They are not a single version of Vietnam. They are personal accounts: different roles, different memories, different ways of making sense of what came home with them.

NOMINATE A VETERAN

Help bring stories into the light.

Help bring stories into the light.

First Light is seeking veteran nominations, family contacts, archive material, and practial support for the first phase of the project.

NOMINATE A VETERAN · SHARE FAMILY MATERIAL · PARTNER WITH US

Get in touch

FIRST / LIGHT

FIRST / LIGHT

Preserving voices, one story at a time.

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