"How often has it been said, "I wish I had asked my mother/father/grandparents more questions before they died"? The memories that could have been recorded for posterity are lost. Wanting to emphasis the importance of oral history, Historic Saranac Lake hosted a special workshop to share the best way to achieve success." This article has some good basics, click here for more.
Blog
Koolkhan Power Station
Sue Singleton of Eureka Heritage carried out a series of interviews with former workers of the Koolkhan Power Station as part of an overall heritage management program. Robert Walker and Mike Lloyd of Essential Energy supported the idea for the oral history project when, after careful consideration, there was no reasonable alternative to the demolition of the buildings that housed the former Koolkhan Power Station. For full story click here.
Oral History and Podcasts
James Andrew Miller is best known as the author of big oral histories about big media institutions. Now, Miller is taking his work to podcasting, and he’s bringing that fascination with the beginning of things with him. For full story click here.
Raising Children
Bringing up children seems to depend very much on the times and the circumstances of the parents. The Oral History group has experience of three generations of raising a family: their parents, the way they did it themselves, and the way it is done today. For full story click here.
Californian Migrant Farmworkers
An estimated 800,000 farmworkers in California make up over one-third of the national agricultural workforce. In his new book, Chasing the Harvest: Migrant Workers in California Agriculture, Thompson shares the oral histories of 17 farmworkers, who, in their own words, provide a “birth-to-now” narrative explaining how they got to the U.S. and what their lives have been like ever since. For full story click here.
Some Oral History “Basics”
When attendees were asked about their definition of oral history, the answers varied: personal stories, recollections, memories, told in the first person with a role in the story. Read full story here.
Working Class Narratives
With school getting back in session, today on the blog we are exploring how instructors are using oral history in the classroom. The piece below, from filmmaker and UCLA Lecturer Virginia Espino explores the power of oral history to connect students to their campus community, and to help them collaboratively rethink what working class identity means in the modern era. Read full story here.
Lee Kuan Yew’s Family Lose Appeal
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the appeal by Dr Lee Wei Ling and Mr Lee Hsien Yang over the copyright and use of transcripts of interviews given by their father, founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew. Read full story here.
The Power of Witness in Oral History
Oral history is the collection of the reminiscences of ordinary people as a valued part of the story of a time or an event told from the perspective of those who were caught up in it rather than from the view of the elite that orchestrated it. For full article click here.
Cyprus Invasion in 1974
Having a deep interest in human rights and listening to stories told by many new migrants arriving in Australia while a NewsCorp Australia reporter set Andrea Stylianou on a new path. She started a journey to investigate the story of how she had arrived in Australia as a two-year-old with her family in 1975 after they became refugees from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. To read full story click here.