Blog

Barnardo’s Windrush Generation

THE LEADING children’s charity has worked across the UK supporting children, young people and families of African Caribbean heritage since the charity began in 1866. And now, on Windrush Day (June 22), it is starting a project to celebrate the impact and achievements of the Windrush Generation and their descendants. Read full article here, includes link to the website.

Hawaiʻi Life – COVID-19

The Hawaiʻi Life in the Time of COVID-19 Project is designed to engage our Hawaiʻi communities in examining, articulating and sharing the impacts of COVID-19 upon our Hawaiʻi island ways of life, livelihoods, health, families, communities, education, values and outlooks for the future. Read more about this project here.

Windrush Day

In commemoration of Windrush Day, the Museum of London has released, for the first time, a selection of unheard oral histories from its collection. Recorded in 2018 as part of the Conversation Booth project at The Arrival event in City Hall, the Windrush Conversations tell each individual’s unique story of arrival in London and their time and experience in the city since. Exploring what Britain looked like to the Windrush generation, these honest accounts provide an insight into the strong sense of identity as well as the strength of character and resilience of a community in the face of adversity and discrimination that lingers to this day. These personal stories have been uncovered by community volunteers as part of the museum’s Listening to London project, which explores and reinterprets stories from the museum’s extensive oral history collection. For full story click here and see a link to the Windrush oral histories here.

Bankfoot House Re-opened

Bankfoot House, the Sunshine Coast’s state heritage-listed house museum, will reopen its doors again on Friday, June 19 to welcome locals and visitors to this historic property in the Glass House Mountains. The reopening follows the Queensland Government Stage 2 easing of COVID-19 restrictions. Read full story here.

Irish COVID-19 Project

Dublin City University has today launched the Irish COVID-19 Oral History Project. It focuses on orally archiving the Irish lived experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, for historical purposes. Led by Caitriona Ni Cassaithe and Professor Theo Lynn, the project will curate a collection of oral histories, detailing the Irish experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and how Irish communities are living through it, both at home and abroad. The findings are intended to be used by historians, researchers and policymakers in years to come to inform responses to future pandemics. It was inspired by work being undertaken by Prof Jason Kelly (IUPUI) on the US-based COVID-19 Oral History Project, a partner project of A Journal of the Plague Year, and efforts are being coordinated with the IUPUI project. For full story click here.

Interviewing Family

“Richard MacLeod shares tips to conduct successful oral history recordings — you may have the time during the pandemic. Capturing our local history to ensure that it is never lost, and readily available to generations to come, is a topic close to my heart.” Read this Canadian’s guide to recording oral histories here.

Holocaust Survivor’s Story

It was a moment of quick thinking on the part of 15-year-old Herbert Heller. He was at Auschwitz, standing before the man who would decide whether he lived or died, a man he was told went by the name of Dr. Mengele. “I can work,” Heller said in German, and flexed what he now calls “nonexistent muscles.” He may have been scrawny, but it was enough, and he was sent not to the gas chamber but to the barracks of the camp. Heller, 91, said that moment has never left him. Read full story, includes link to video here.

Recording Oral Histories

For Jane Ingold, a reference and instruction librarian and archivist at Penn State Behrend’s John M. Lilley Library, one of the hardest things about doing an oral history is not turning it into a conversation. “The job of the interviewer is to ask a question and then be quiet,” Ingold said. “That can be hard for me, because I get excited about what they are saying and interrupt. I really have to avoid that temptation and let them do the talking.” For full story click here.

Deindustrialization and Populism

Twenty-four researchers and dozens of partner organizations will collaborate on an investigation into deindustrialization and its political consequences. The project, Deindustrialization and the Politics of our Time, will be based at Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling under the direction of Steven High, professor in the Department of History and founder of the centre. Read full story here.