The Greatest of Privileges

I’ve had a long career in this “business we call show”.

Forty-plus years in theatre and more recently film and television- and a huge part of that has been my audiobook recording. I first began this part of my career as a fresh-out-of-NIDA ingenue, recording for the former Royal Blind Society in Sydney, now known as Vision Australia after its merger of all the associated bodies in each state (RVIB, VAF, NILS) in 2004. Since then I’ve recorded titles probably numbering in the hundreds (yikes, that makes me so old!) for Vision Australia, Bolinda, Squaresound, Production Alley and Soundkitchen, most of which are to be found on Audible.

Jennifer Vuletic and former PM Julia Gillard

I’ve worked extensively in radio drama and for SBS voicing many re-narrations, and had the good fortune to be the chosen narrator of the multiple international award-winning Once My Mother, Dir. Sophia Turkiewicz. I’ve been the lucky and grateful recipient of multiple narrator awards (1993 3M Talking Book of the Year Award for Lover’s Knots by Marion Halligan, 1997 TDK Unabridged Fiction Award for The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, 1998 Trish Trinick Prize for the Best Narrator for The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - clearly, in the years when they still gave out awards!)  

However, I have to say, not many things come close to this particular day, in which I met the estimable Julia Gillard, former PM, having narrated her autobiography My Story. At the time, I was taking a break from the industry and pursuing full time studies in International Relations at La Trobe University and later at Potsdam University in Berlin. I had to miss an anthropology lecture and a politics tutorial to attend the luncheon at which I was to meet her (arranged by her very personable right hand man, Bruce Wolpe) and when I tendered my apology to the anthropology lecturer, she said it was the best excuse she’d ever had for missing a lecture and would I please describe it to her in detail when next we met!

Julia, upon meeting me, greeted me warmly with “Oh! You’re my Voice! I should take you everywhere with me!” Whatever differences of opinion over certain policy decisions I might have had with our former PM, I had always esteemed her as a worthy and genuine candidate, with a strong commitment to education, disability services, aged care, and to women’s rights. After having read and recorded her book, I was even more firmly convinced of her integrity and resolute purpose. To have the opportunity to interpret the misogyny speech as her narrator was the greatest of privileges. I remain grateful for that and for the opportunity to keep creating multiple characters and telling stories through the magic of audiobooks!

Jennifer Vuletic is the narrator of The Good Woman’s Guide to Making Better Choices, out on audiobook with Wavesound end January 2024.