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OHAA National Conference – Migration Museum Tour

Whose history? a program at the Migration Museum, Friday 20 September at 2.30 pm, 82 Kintore Avenue, Adelaide

This was a tour of the Migration Museum. The title “Whose history?” was meant to show us different perspectives of the museum. We were initially taken through the museum by one guide and we were instructed to listen, not ask questions, interject or make comments during the tour. About five minutes in to the tour, most of our group had realised the purpose of this tour. We were asked to see the museum and its exhibits through the eyes of people who would have seen the museum in about the 1950s or earlier. For example, the aboriginal people were depicted as savages who were saved from their simple lifestyle by the white people who colonised the area. They were given rations of white flour, sugar, tea and tobacco so they would no longer have to scratch around in the dirt to find food nor hunt for it. They became “civilised” and were not driven from their homes as they were in the eastern states. The colonisers built fences to keep their crops and livestock contained, not to keep the natives out.

This was interesting and confronting for us as people in 2013 to listen to this “perspective” but we understood the point the guide was making. We then returned to the entrance of the Museum to be taken on the same tour with a different guide, but this time from a 2013 perspective. She explained the purpose of the previous tour and then showed us the same exhibits giving a more “truthful” interpretation. For example, the rations given to the aborigines were not healthy alternatives to the food they had taken from their environment. The change in diet produced serious health issues.

Some of us who participated in the tour discussed how we felt about it later. The first tour was confronting and purposefully so and the second gave us a different insight into the change in attitude towards our history, particularly regarding aboriginal people. We thought this tour method might be controversial and perhaps not always acceptable to some people. It was certainly designed to promote a lot of discussion.
Suzanne Mulligan

Copyright issue with Bill Bryson interview

British travel writer and guidebook author Mike Gerrard, who interviewed Bryson in 1994, recently decided to republish the interview as an 8000-word, 27-page e-book. According to travel industry blog, World Travel Market, Bryson’s lawyers took exception to Gerrard’s enterprise, claiming it breached the award-winning author's copyright. They demanded the book be removed from the Amazon store, a request Amazon agreed to, much to Gerrard’s annoyance.

Note – this may have wider implications and oral historians must ensure they have their release forms signed. See full story here.

Students contribute to JFK Project (USA)

“History is the ultimate reality show,” Dr. Clive Siegle said and students in history classes this semester have an opportunity in helping create it. During the semester, students chose to either interview someone who lived during the John F. Kennedy era or a war veteran (of any conflict, period or nationality). These interviews are being collected into a larger oral history and since all history classes at Richland are participating, this makes it the the largest oral history project in the nation said Siegle. For full story click here.

Solitary Islands (NSW)

The Solitary Islands Oral History Project collects perspectives and memories of people intimate with this coastal and marine environment, users of all kinds from fishers to Aboriginal knowledge holders, tourism operators, surfers and divers. Nicola Johnstone, Manager, Solitary Islands Marine Park has developed this project interviewing over thirty people with a connection to the Solitaries region. For full story with ABC audio click here.

OHA (USA) Conference

Clifford Kuhn, executive director of the Oral History Association (OHA), believes it’s the duty of Oklahomans to preserve every bit of this state’s history, all from a first-person narrative. “The Oral History Association is a national organization of people who engage in oral history interviews, recording people about their firsthand experiences of the past,” Kuhn said. “We try to improve the standards and upgrade the practices of recording oral history, elevating what people are supposed to do when they do interviews, from the equipment you need, the questions you ask, how you present the material and what you do with it. In other words, it’s not as simple as ‘Tell us about the good old days, Grandpa.’” The OHA holds an annual meeting and offers workshops designed to help and guide oral history enthusiasts, from the novice to the seasoned. The event includes presentations on the importance of oral history in the digital age, folk music as oral history and a special public event by Edward T. Linenthal, author of The Unfinished Bombing: Oklahoma City in American Memory, at the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. For full story click here.

Australians tell their stories

Historians gather the big stories, as if viewed from above. Old people tell the little stories from down below, the ones that fill the gaps in surprising and intimate ways. Who but someone who had experienced the moment could recall with such clarity when a world war ended and the bells began ringing and there was nothing but a borrowed bike and a long rural road to be battled until the proper celebrating could begin? Read more of this excellent article about the value of oral history here.

Connecting teenagers and older people in Orange

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.

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.