“It is a pretty universal question: how will the world remember us when we are gone? For terminally ill patients, the question may be more urgent than for most. In Canberra, people in palliative care have the chance to — literally — write their own legacy, through a project called Life Stories. The program is the brainchild of Palliative Care ACT, which enlists a team of volunteers to record the reflections of people with life-threatening medical conditions.” Read more here. Palliative Care ACT CEO Tracy Gillard has confirmed the recordings are given to the interviewee and/or their family, as well as the book.
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Dubbo Oral History Project
“Discover the stories of Dubbo through the library’s ‘Reliving the past: Stories from our communities’ oral history project. Listen as Dubbo locals tell their stories of the early days.” Read more here and see the oral histories.
Tuam Mother and Baby Homes Drama
“Galway Bay FM Newsroom – Drama and Theatre Studies students at NUI Galway have come together to compile a series of scenes drawn from the testimonies of survivors of the Tuam Mother and Baby Homes that will be broadcast from 2pm today for the duration of the month.” See full story here with a link to the video.
1970 Kent State Shootings
“Mathew McManus, one of eight Ohio National Guard members who were indicted and acquitted in the fatal Kent State shootings that transpired on May 4, 1970, can still recall what he saw and did that day as a sergeant for Company A. “The troops reached the top of the hill and I was in front of them… The line suddenly turned. Did an about-face. These men are in gas masks. Their sight is limited. So, they were going by feel; what this person did, they did. So, it was a chain reaction, right across the line. The weapons were coming down almost like dominoes from my left to my right.” McManus said. He noticed another superior officer running down the line, grabbing the ends of rifles and shoving them toward the sky. ” Read full story here.
Indian Film Archive Project
“On the occasion of the 151st birth anniversary of Dadasaheb Phalke, hailed as the ‘Father of Indian cinema’, the city-based National Film Archive of India (NFAI) has published 8,000 minutes of audio recordings on its website in the form of interviews with renowned artistes and technicians recounting the fascinating journey of Indian cinema.” Read full story here, includes link to the recordings.
Students learn history with COVID project
“In her first year on campus, a unique opportunity presented itself to Dr. Rachel Miller, courtesy of the COVID-19 pandemic. “We study them (historical events and periods), we look at them in the rearview mirror,” said Miller, an assistant professor of history. “But rarely do we have room in a history class to process what it’s like to live through all that.” Read more here.
Pride in Defence
“ACU historian Professor Noah Riseman has been shortlisted for the Ernest Scott Prize for his book Pride in Defence: The Australian Military & LGBTI Service since 1945. The book, written with Shirleene Robinson and published by Melbourne University Press, is one of only six books from a list of 67 shortlisted for the prize.” Read more here.
Students explore past through interviewing
“Long before there were text messages, property records, depositions or love letters, before there was a keyboard, printing press, quill pens or even crudely sharpened stones that could carve into the wall of a cave, people were learning about life from other people’s stories. And thousands of years later, we still like learning things that way, says historian Roger Horowitz.
“The past is not abstract,” he said. “It’s about John, Sam, Irving, Phyllis. And that connects with the way we most want to learn about history — through their stories.”
Horowitz recently taught students at the University of Delaware how to capture and curate such stories, collaborating with the Jewish Historical Society of Delaware on an oral history project that focused on senior members of the Jewish population in Wilmington, Delaware.” Read full story with link to website here.
Exploring oral history at Smithsonian
“Oral history is an integral part of the research and culture at the Smithsonian. But while there are historians, researchers, curators, and volunteers across the Institution conducting oral history interviews, there is no central oral history office or collection at the Smithsonian. Since the medium gained popularity with the rise of social history during the mid-20th century, the Smithsonian considers oral history a methodological tool of research, preservation, and interpretation.” Read more here.
Reviving Native American audio cassette tapes
“More than 40 years ago, Gary Wade, a citizen of South Carolina’s indigenous Catawba Nation, sat down for an interview as part of a project to gather oral histories for UF. The 15-minute interview touched on Wade’s religious life, his service in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and his childhood, which was marked by racism as early as elementary school. Despite this, he said he maintained pride in his Native American identity.
The Samuel Proctor Oral History Program — a research center at UF dedicated to collecting audio interviews to preserve historical events and information — will work with UF libraries and the foundation to digitize existing oral history and house it on an online platform, Mukurtu, named after the indigenous Australian Warumungu word for “a safe place to keep sacred materials.” Although still in testing stages, the platform hopes to collect and share materials from each of the universities involved in the project.” Read full story here.