A comedy song written in 1960 for British comedian Peter Sellers and Italian screen beauty Sophia Loren was used in the Telethon. For many West Australians, it will always be remembered as the song performed by soap star Chantal Contouri and heart surgeon Christiaan Barnard on Telethon in 1979. “I always loved coming to Telethon and singing that song with Professor Barnard was a real highlight,” 67-year-old Adelaide-based Contouri recalls. “It was a one-off but it has become a television classic. It was great fun, having this world-famous surgeon chasing me around a couch. I remember it very fondly." For full story with video click here.
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Nimbin’s Aquarius Festival
Seventy-five hours of interviews with Nimbin locals about the 1973 Aquarius Festival have been released online, with a plea to ‘digital volunteers’ to help transcribe them. Using a new innovative online tool called Amplify, developed by the State Library of NSW in partnership with the New York Public Library, anyone from anywhere can now search, listen to and help transcribe the audio collection. For full story click here.
History of Lameroo Beach baths, Darwin
On Larrakia land, near a freshwater spring, a pool was once open to anyone "except full-blooded Aboriginals [sic], who shall not be allowed to use the baths at any time". That was according to the Lameroo Baths Regulations, which governed the official swimming spot when it opened on the city shoreline almost 100 years ago. Matthew Stephen, who manages the NT Archives' Oral History Unit, told 105.7 ABC Darwin the pool opened in a special place for the area's first inhabitants. For full story click here.
Interview with Dr Who star Janet Fielding
The State Library of Queensland recently asked a Brisbane Doctor Who fan to record an oral history interview with a Brisbane actor who starred in the British science fiction show. The Doctor Who fan? That would be our own Spencer Howson. The actor? Janet Fielding, who played Tegan – companion to the fourth and fifth Doctors, Tom Baker and Peter Davison. For full story including short audio and link to full interview click here.
Anisa Puri discusses oral history project
OHR: The article highlights the importance of the aurality of oral histories – of actually listening to the words as opposed to just seeing them printed on the page. In your work, how do you see this emerging awareness changing the field of oral history in general?
Anisa Puri: I think this is a really important shift. As oral historians, we know how essential it is to listen to an interview in order to interpret it. By listening, we observe and interpret meanings that are often lost in an interview transcript or summary. Speech carries meaning—whether it’s the quickening of the pace, the softening of a tone, or a pregnant pause. The cadence and emotional qualities of a voice offer important aural clues for us to interpret. Appreciating the importance of aurality extends into how we present oral history in creative and immersive ways too, whether it’s via a website, podcast, digital story, art installation, audio walking tour, museum exhibition or heritage interpretation.
For full story click here.
Telling the story of Paris attacks
As The New York Times considered how best to commemorate this shocking and devastating event, senior editors wanted an approach that was different but true to those who had lived through it. The idea emerged of compiling an oral history. For full story click here. There is a link in the story to the result of the project.
“Oral History” and oral traditions
Contemporary Pacific academics are giving oral tradition an identity so this article briefly overviews the discourse of oral tradition, meaning of its forms — oral history and oral literature — and their relevance to the Pacific Islands. Oral tradition is a form of human communication where useful information is received, preserved and transmitted orally or verbally for posterity. The transmission of a preserved cultural knowledge is done via vocal utterances prevalent especially in preliterate societies. It includes spoken words in form of folk tales, ballads, chants, jokes, riddles, stories, legends, proverbs, belief, motion, music and songs. This tradition does not remain stagnant in terms of its historicity as it keeps on changing and evolving over time, filtered and codified with every generation. For full article click here.
Black Pioneers share memories
John Sellars will never forget the night of April 4, 1968. He was in his dormitory room at Hinton James Residence Hall when he heard people running up and down the corridor and celebrating on the balconies. When he went out to see what was going on, someone told him that Martin Luther King Jr. had just been killed. "The reason for the cheering—cheering—was because King just got assassinated," Sellars says. For full story click here.
Court case re Lee Kuan Yew’s Oral History
SINGAPORE — A High Court has dismissed a bid by Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s two younger children to gain control of oral history transcripts of the Republic’s founding Prime Minister from more than 30 years ago. In his judgment released on Thursday (Sept 29), Judge of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang ruled that the content of the interviews was of a politically sensitive nature that Mr Lee himself had wanted to safeguard the confidentiality of, going by an agreement that he had signed after the interviews. For full story click here.
Darwin’s first backyard swimming pool
Cracked with age and filled only with a thin layer of dirt, the Kennon family's backyard swimming pool has not hosted a neighbourhood party in many years. Yet it was once the coolest thing going in Darwin. For full story, with audio click here.