Home > Collective Isolation Project, week 6: Exercise & wellbeing

Collective Isolation Project, week 6: Exercise & wellbeing

A board game cover shows players on a football field
29 May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed lounge rooms into gyms, kitchen tables into stadiums for board game tournaments, and tranquil walking trails into super-highways for pedestrians striving toward 10,000 steps.

All of us, from couch potatoes to Olympians, are finding new ways to keep active, satisfy our competitive urges and seek the equilibrium that exercise brings to the body and mind. 

This week we ask: what is motivating you to keep moving during this time?

Share your response in words or pictures at our Facebook Memory Bank group and tag us with #SLVMemoryBank.

About this collection item

For many Victorians, the most painful blow brought by the pandemic was the indefinite postponement of the 2020 AFL season.

Board games, however, have seen a resurgence in popularity, allowing people of all ages to channel their competitive zeal and rivalries into high-stakes clashes at home.

The National Football board game pictured above was made by the National Game Company of Melbourne and Ballarat. Founded in 1877, the company produced a wide range of games which enjoyed popularity right up to the '40s. Credited as the first large-scale Australian manufacturer of locally-designed board games, the National Game Company's games often spoke to Australians' fondness for sport and recreation.

How to respond

Please feel welcome to respond as creatively or literally as you wish.

We collect all kinds of materials including photos, diary entries, letters, written lists, oral histories, poems and objects ... our collection policy covers almost everything you could imagine, so try us!

If you contribute, we may contact you to discuss collecting and using your images, stories, objects and experiences. We may not be able to accept everything, but we will endeavour to do so! With your permission, your contributions may be added to the State Collection or used in future Library programs.

About The Collective Isolation Project

The Collective Isolation Project aims to cement this current moment in history, and is our inaugural Memory Bank campaign.

Find out more about Memory Bank, including details about how to contribute each week.

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