While the Office of Federal Acknowledgment is reconsidering the rules and criteria for gaining federal recognition, it should consider the way oral history is understood in its evaluations of recognition petitions. Generally, oral histories are considered guideposts for interpreting the history and culture of a petitioning community. Oral histories, however, are not used as direct evidence. The logic here is very legalistic—in court a person’s pleas of innocence, while noted, are not understood as evidence, rather they are seen as a claim that needs discussion and are then considered with the entirety of the evidence. Oral history, whether given by political leaders or elders, carry the norms, values, stories, and knowledge of an Indian community and is considered hearsay, unless supported by independent documentation. For full story click here.
Blog
Traditional Fishing in Alaska
For the first time, centuries-old fishing knowledge from the Upper Kobuk River is being recorded. "The knowledge that is in us, in our brains, has not ever been written," said Virginia Commack, tribe manager for the Native Village of Ambler, "not even the elders, we learned it from, which is like 500 plus years old. I'd say it's a 1,000 or more years knowledge that we've never been able to write down to pass onto our children." For full story click here.
Voices of Partition Survivors
Like many Indians and Pakistanis his age, 75-year-old Ravi Chopra remembers the shocking violence triggered by the countries’ moves toward independence. “Nobody imagined that such a holocaust would take place,” Mr. Chopra, a retired Indian army officer, said in an interview with a U.S.-based oral history project dedicated to recording tales of partition, as the division of the subcontinent into India and Pakistan in 1947 is known. For full story with links to website and video interviews, click here.
Oral Traditions
Oral history raises questions about the relationship between subjectivity and history – particularly the role memory plays in understanding what historical events mean to human subjects who experience them. Beginning its investigation with a performance and painting tradition that is still living, this article asks in what ways oral traditions – songs and performances – can be used as resources to understand the relationship between history and memory. It demonstrates the ways in which oral tradition and oral history might converge and map out a distinct relationship between experience and memory, and thus point towards a different understanding of events and their interpretations. Read the full article and find the link to this paper here.
Star Trek Oral History
In less than two short years, the Star Trek franchise will turn 50. There will likely be many retrospectives on the sci-fi series around that time, but perhaps none so comprehensive—or revealing— as the recently announced The 50 Year Mission: The Complete Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History Of Star Trek. The book, from Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, will follow the long-running franchise from its creation in 1966 through J.J. Abrams’ rebooted take on the series. And while there’s been plenty written about the series before, this history will be told exclusively through firsthand accounts from the show’s cast, crew, and producers. For full story click here.
Voicing Differences
As a method, oral history's origins lie in a commitment to challenge, reveal and give voice to those disempowered, misrepresented, or simply missed out of official, dominant accounts of the past. In this paper, we link the memories of a group of South Asian overseas doctors, working in an elite profession with a distinctly non-elite group of patients, to an earlier set of archived interviews with the founders of the geriatric specialty. Our analysis identifies muted voices, generates recognition, and acknowledges ways of understanding and using the polyphony of difference. We argue that the value of reusing archived oral history data lies in the possibility for multiple interpretations of old and new data, and with this, new ways of hearing and listening to voices in interviews. Read the fully story and download the paper here.
Cold at Mt Stromlo
Atop exposed Mt Stromlo on Wednesday for the launching of the Mt Stromlo Interactive Heritage Trail an icy breeze tousled this columnist's flaxen locks. One fell to wondering where and what is the coldest, bleakest place in our sometimes Siberian city? Read more about the history of this cold place here.
Hot Modernism
When most people think of Brisbane architecture, they usually picture a Queenslander: high-set, timber-and-corrugated iron houses that are ideally suited to subtropical conditions. Modernism fits into that picture awkwardly, as if an intruder. For full story click here.
Ian Thorpe’s coming out – does it matter?
Shirleen Robinson says –
Along with a team of other academic researchers and the National Library of Australia, I am involved with the Australian Lesbian and Gay Life Stories oral history project. We are interviewing 60 gay men and lesbian women across Australia in order to investigate what it has been like to live a gay or lesbian life at a time when social attitudes towards homosexuality have shifted significantly. For full story click here.
Australian HIV/AIDS Crisis
As part of the 2014 International AIDS Conference, taking place at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre this month, the University of Melbourne is convening an AIDS ‘Witness Seminar’, an opportunity to capture testimony from several individuals who were influential during the height of the AIDS crisis, and reflect on the critical role of government and academic institutions in determining and communicating policy at that time. For full story click here.