IN an attempt to preserve the region’s oral history, a new project linking teenagers and older residents kicks off in Orange next week. Villages of the Heart: telling rural stories is a project that aims to help the residents of rural villages from Cabonne, Orange and Blayney tell their stories. Orange City Council’s cultural heritage community committee chair councillor Reg Kidd said there are many rural history stories that are yet to be told. For full story click here.
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British Library Listening Project
Over 350 intimate conversations recorded by people across the UK for the project, which launched last year as a partnership between the British Library, BBC Radio 4 and BBC local and national radio stations, are now available in full on the British Library’s Sounds website. Covering people’s thoughts and experiences of everything from race and ethnicity, to the Iraq War, adoption and even plastic surgery, the snapshot of the nation will now be preserved indefinitely for future generations. Over 700 people have taken part in the project, which asks people up and down the country to share their thoughts and feelings in a recorded conversation on a subject of their choice. For full story with link to the website click here. This site is also on our Delicious page.
Oral Historians jobs axed at Museum of London
The Museum of London (MoL) has confirmed that it will make 17 posts redundant in order to address a deficit to its operating budget. The museum needs to reduce its budget by £1m before April 2014 and said that shrinking its workforce was the only realistic way to cut year-on-year fixed costs. The redundancies will hit a range of functions and levels across the organisation. The museum said it plans to axe all of its dedicated oral historian posts and focus on “digital collecting”.
This is a worrying trend where the value of collecting oral histories has been diminished. See full story here.
OHAA-QLD attends BLHN AGM
OHAA-Qld was represented at the Brisbane Living Heritage Network AGM on 18 September 2013. Held at the State Archives, it was a wonderful opportunity to network and exchange information about what is going on in the cultural heritage sector in and around Brisbane.
Brisbane’s Living Heritage Network is an alliance of almost 80 museums, public galleries, and heritage places that are engaged in the preservation and interpretation of Brisbane’s story. OHAA-Qld is proud to be an active member and to support the other organisations that create and provide cultural heritage information.
The primary aim of the network is to connect everyone to member sites; the many fascinating museums, public galleries, and heritage places located across the greater Brisbane area. BLHN seeks to raise awareness of the valuable contribution of the alliance members to the preservation of cultural heritage.
New Name for OHAA
At the Biennial OHAA held in Adelaide last week, members approved a constitutional name change from Oral History Association of Australia to Oral History Australia. Members felt that this modern and focused name will have greater meaning to a wider range of people and makes our aims more readily identifiable. Another significant change to the constitution is that the state oral history associations are now members of the national body.
OHAA-QLD will not have to change its name, but will need to make minor changes to its constitution to reflect these changes. OHAA-Qld will vote on any changes at its upcoming AGM on 12 October 2013 at State Library of Queensland.
Adoption history in Australia
Adoptions in 21st century Australian have seen a climax of adoption reform, according to Marian Quartly who spoke at a keynote address for the Biennial OHAA in Adelaide this week. As part of a four-year ARC-funded research grant, the Monash University History of Adoption team established a website and put out a call for people to upload their personal testimonies through oral histories. Marian and the team hoped this would result in research results from all points of view. She notes that most responses were from adoptees and birth mothers.
Marian looked at adoptions over a long time period and noted that from the 1920s to early 1970s babies were generally given up to avoid shaming the family – babies were born in secret. From 1860 to 1950 advertertisements in the newspapers can be found for babies (see Trove). The attitude only began to change when abortion became more acceptable and payments were made to single mothers. The popular magazine "The Australian Women's Weekly" helped shape the change in attitude through articles and its "advice" column and the magazine helped establish mothers' groups. A research finding was that society mores in Australia forced adoption for single mothers who felt that they had no choice. On 21 March 2013 Prime Minister Julia Gillard made a national apology for Forced Adoption Practices.
The Adoption Project website also covers inter-country adoptions and how that has affected the adoptees and the adoptive parents. Vietnamese babies came out during the Vietnam War. Babies from other countries continued the trend. Some adoptees suffered from racism and confusion with their dual identity.
The research project has resulted in a book entitled The Market in Babies: Stories of Australian Adoption.
Picturing the Guv, sharing humour about institutional photographs
At the OHAA Biennial this year, there was quite a bit of discussion about the use of photographs in the oral history interview. From the NSW Government Printing Office, an oral history project has emerged that looks at institutionally staged photographs from the worker’s point of view. This evocative project brings humour and humanity to an institutional labour experience, shedding light on the back story behind the photographs.
PhD candidate Jesse Adams Stein interviewed some 31 former workers about their years of working life from 1959 – 1989 at The Guv, as the printing office is described by the workers. Photographs were used at the end of the interviews as memory triggers. Interesting stories emerge that inform the context of institutional memory. Many stories have a shared memory of humorous events about the staged photographs being fake or publicity shots that were very ”stagey”.
This begs the question about description of many of our historical photographic collection. Is there an easy or seamless way for all of us to add description to institutional or business collections as content emerges? How can we join up oral history information with institutional records? Many libraries will add description or tags. It is just a matter of contacting your library or archive and asking if it is possible.
Other interesting aspects of Jesse’s project include transitions as technology changes, how outdated technology can lead to loss of trade skills and identity and how a project like this can give people the opportunity to allow workers to use their skills once more.
From a Queensland perspective, are there institutional photographic collections in the State that could be tapped into with oral history interviews that help inform and add to Queensland memory?
Catherine Cottle
OHAA-Qld President
Interviewing Michelle Potter
As a historian, Michelle Potter has recorded over a hundred oral histories for the National Library of Australia, collecting a diverse collection of stories from Australians from all walks of life. Michelle has interviewed politicians, musicians, artists and designers and conceded it's a job she's honoured to do. For full story including ABC radio interview click here.
Newspaper history – Australia
Collecting oral history is a little like digging for gold. One never knows when a treasure will be uncovered. Some years ago I talked to a very modest man. He had done something incredibly brave on the Somme in the First World War for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross. However, he didn't really want to tell me very much about this, and it was only when I asked about his family history, that he became enthusiastic. Arthur Charles Hall's great grandfather, Edward Smith Hall, was a man of great conviction and compassion. He arrived in Australia from England in 1811 and in 1826 he published the first edition of The Monitor newspaper, in which he advocated trial by jury and freedom of the press. For full story click here.
Share oral history between generations
Sharing oral history between generations is an important way to capture stories that otherwise would be lost for generations. For full story which includes a "how to" list of what to do click here.