Narvyaka

Founding volunteers

This Is Not Someone Else's Job.

No institution is coming to do this for us. Historians will not interview your grandmother. A university will not sit with your neighbour's father before he passes. That knowledge belongs to ordinary families, workplaces and communities — which means its survival depends on ordinary people. Right now we are looking for exactly two.

Two openings

Two people, for the first ten records. Not a shortlist to be whittled down — two roles that need filling, and then we stop recruiting and start recording.

01

Interviewer

Sits with a contributor, works through the eight questions in the protocol, and does not rush them. The single most important role in the project: everything downstream is only as good as the conversation.

  • Roughly two hours per record, including the arranging and the follow-up.
  • Comfortable with long silences and with people who wander off the question.
  • Willing to stop the moment someone hesitates about consent.
02

Writer & archivist

Turns each recording into a readable Wisdom Note without changing what was meant, then files it so it can still be found in fifty years. Transcription and translation only — never interpretation.

  • Roughly two hours per record.
  • Fastidious about not improving on what someone actually said.
  • Happy to be pedantic about file names, formats and dates.

What we ask

  • 01 None of these roles require credentials. They require patience, curiosity, and enough respect for another person's story to get it right.
  • 02 New volunteers begin with guidance and light review; independence is earned through reliable work — because accuracy matters exactly as much as good intentions.
  • 03 Consent is not a checkbox. If someone hesitates, you stop.
  • 04 You will encounter things you are not sure how to handle. Say so rather than deciding alone.
  • 05 Do not ask whether you are important enough to help. Ask whose wisdom you can save.

The founding commitment

“I will help preserve at least one meaningful experience, from one person.”

That is the entire founding commitment. Nothing more is required to start, and almost nothing is easier to keep.

Later, not now

These roles matter, and none of them are needed to make ten records. We would rather leave them empty than recruit people we cannot yet give real work to.

  • Translate a record
  • Research and add context
  • Photograph a person or place
  • Archive and protect
  • Build the tools
  • Coordinate a region
  • Teach others

The Narvyaka Pledge

  • I will not let valuable wisdom disappear without an attempt to preserve it.
  • I recognise human experience as a shared inheritance.
  • I will listen before I judge.
  • I will preserve meaning without deliberately distorting it.
  • I will respect consent, privacy, and human dignity.
  • I will value experienced people whether or not they are famous.
  • I will identify at least one person whose knowledge deserves to survive.
  • I will help carry useful wisdom forward.

Apply

Two places. Applications are read personally — there is no automated stage and no scoring — and everyone who applies gets a reply.

How we reply. Not published, not shared.

Which role or roles interest you?

There is no correct answer here. We are reading for judgement, not for the right words.

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