Tales Of The Century Secrets Of The History Keepers

How Renee Is Keeping the Past Alive

- Julie Jacobson

When Renee Hollis first told friends about her plan to write a book on the lives of Kiwi centenarians, she only envisaged interviewing a few dozen people.

But the project took on a life of its own and in 2017, Renee wound up travelling 13,000km – the distance from New Zealand to Russia – as she talked to 120 over 100-year-olds from around the country.

She read through memoirs, diaries and military records, and took pictures of each of her participants. She then transcribed hundreds of hours of interviews, each of which took between two and five hours, and edited a similar number of photos.

The result is Keepers of History: New Zealand Centenarians Tell Their Stories, featuring 38 of those interviewees. Renee, a former primary school teacher, says it’s her way of honouring and celebrating the lives of a cohort of older and often overlooked Kiwis.

“The period these people lived through was remarkable,” she says. “I was trying to wrap my head around this huge 100-year timeline and I asked one of the ladies − I think it was just my second interview − whether she was a royalist.