In our pilot episode we discuss silence and power in oral history. Can oral history teach us to be better listeners? Can we learn how to pay attention–not just to what is being said, but to what isn’t? We’ll talk with Southern Oral History Program founding Director Jacquelyn Dowd Hall about a 1974 interview with Katherine DuPre Lumpkin that is shot through with silences; you’ll get tips on how to handle it a question you ask leads to a long silence; and we’ll hear clips from our collection in which three different women talk about the relationship between silence and their own activism. For full story including podcasts click here. Also click here for second episode.
Author: ohadmin
RIP Apollo 14 Astronaut Edgar Mitchell
Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell passed away on February 4th, on the eve of the 45th anniversary of his mission to the moon. The Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 14, he was the 6th astronaut to step foot on the moon. He was 85. Read the full article here. There is a link on the page to the transcript of an oral history done with Mitchell here.
Easter Rising Oral History Project
There was standing room only in the basement of the National Library of Ireland for the launch of The 1916 Rising Oral History Collection. Not since 1966 have so many relatives of those who fought in the Easter Rising gathered under the same roof. For full story click here.
Bill Bunbury’s new book
A former broadcaster, Mr Bill Bunbury presented an oral history program for many years on ABC Radio National. He came to the conclusion that people and place are one and the same. "Social history is environmental history," Mr Bunbury said. In the 1980s, while working on a social history program about the life of foresters before mechanisation, Mr Bunbury was struck by the deep reverence these men had for the forest, which provided their livelihood. "They felt the forest had a beauty that they wanted to preserve. I learned more and more that farmers have the same feeling. We valued land, but we hadn't learned all its lessons." Mr Bunbury's book is Invisible Country. For full story click here.
Italian Market Gardeners
There will be a presentation on February 3 from writer and oral historian Madeleine Regan, on a project which has grown from a single idea to a substantial archive of interviews held at the State Library and a website with audio, transcripts and photos. In more than 70 hours of recorded interviews, Regan has traced the stories of a group of northern Italians, and their descendants, who came to Adelaide from the Veneto region and took up land in adjoining 10 acre allotments near the River Torrens in the Frogmore and Findon Rd areas in the city’s west. As Regan says, until she began work on the project, she, like me, believed that the Italian community who worked the market gardens here in Adelaide and elsewhere across Australia were post-Word War II migrants who joined the great wave of European-born “new Australians” who had such a profound effect on our Anglocentric culture. For full story click here.
The Oral History Review – 2015 Favourites
In the spirit of Christmas (and in honor of our all-time-favorite daytime talk show host), our present to you is a list of some of our favorite things from 2015. We hope you enjoy reading our list as much as we did writing it. Keep an eye on the blog for exciting new content and some brand new blog series in 2016! – See more here.
Holocaust Interviews (USA)
Patricia Iannaci always liked history and TV production — both her parents were teachers in those subjects — but she readily admits to never being the best student. But when she took an honors class at Bayonne (N.J.) High School during her junior year, everything changed. That class was about the Holocaust. The teacher, Gene Woods, would interview and record Holocaust survivors, and Iannaci was quickly fascinated not just by the subject, but by the very method of archiving these histories. Eventually, Woods, Iannaci and her father worked together to make a handful of documentaries to display at Bayonne City Hall each year. “All of them had really incredible stories,” she said. “I didn’t even know I wanted to do documentaries before then.” For full story click here.
StoryCorps Thanksgiving
In the span of just three minutes, NPR broadcasts excerpts from often deeply personal and frank conversations, allowing listeners to get a feel for what moves their fellow Americans, otherwise perfect strangers. Started 12 years ago by Dave Isay, a radio reporter, the project recently launched its smartphone app, StoryCorps.me, in the hopes of making it easier for people to participate. For full story click here.
“When Silence Falls” Exhibition
When Silence Falls provides a voice for those who have been silenced. Encompassing painting, video and sculpture, the collection-based exhibition presents the work of contemporary Aboriginal artists alongside contemporary international artists. It considers the violence and loss of often-unacknowledged historical events––cultural displacement, political oppression, ethnic cleansing and massacres. For full story click here.
Robert French – LGBTI Activist
Robert French’s proudest moment as an LGBTI rights activist came after police raided and arrested 27 people at a sex club called Club 80 in Paddington, Sydney. The year was 1983, just one year before NSW decriminalised homosexuality. “Twenty-eight of us signed statutory declarations to say we had done the same things. Lex Watson and myself were the first two to present our declarations to the vice squad,” French said. “We said, ‘we’ve done the same things you’ve arrested these people for, arrest us’.” They weren’t arrested and French went on to help form Australia’s first police gay liaison group, based on the San Francisco model. For full story click here.