“A filmmaker hopes a new series of recorded oral histories of elders in pre-1948 Palestine will preserve culture and history in the region, writes Amal Awad.” Read full story here.
Category: Uncategorized
Last African Slave Interviews
“Barracoon is testament to Zora Thurston’s patient fieldwork. The book is based on three months of periodic interviews with a man named Cudjo Lewis — or Kossula, his original name — the last survivor of the last slave ship to land on American shores. Plying him with peaches and Virginia hams, watermelon and Bee Brand insect powder, Hurston drew out his story. Kossula had been captured at age 19 in an area now known as the country Benin by warriors from the neighboring Dahomian tribe, then marched to a stockade, or barracoon, on the West African coast. There, he and some 120 others were purchased and herded onto the Clotilda, captained by William Foster and commissioned by three Alabama brothers to make the 1860 voyage.” Read about Barracoon here.
Papua New Guineans in World War II
Interviews have been recorded with over 220 Papua New Guineans, who either lived during the War, or are descendants of those who have now passed away. See full story here.
Collecting Wagga Memories
“For museum manager Luke Grealy, the thought of missing out on precious Wagga memories and prospective exhibits is almost unbearable. “It honestly keeps me awake at night, the prospect of losing information or people whose stories we can share,” he said. “Trying to collect everyone’s stories and insight is like a race against time.”” For full story click here.
Canoe Installation Wins Prize
“The Tin Canoe installation was previously exhibited at Bondi’s Sculpture by the Sea 2017 and then at Sculpture Bermagui 2018. The sculpture is a handmade tin canoe outfitted with solar and a sound system to reproduce the voice of Bermagui resident Les St Hill via speakers in a sound shell. With the assistance of Ms Ulman, Mr Blay’s vocal recordings of Mr St Hill’s stories were polished to suggest the place and times. For example, the recordings feature the now regionally extinct curlew cries. ” An unusual use of oral history, read the full story here.
1954 – Queensland Commonwealth Games Gold
“Thousands of visitors and locals have already headed to the Gold Coast to see the impressive opening ceremony and watch the athletes compete, while many more are glued to the TV or watching the action online. One of the Sunshine Coast’s greatest athletes, Jim Achurch, was Queensland’s very first competitor to attend the Commonwealth Games. He won gold for Australia in 1954 for javelin and in 1991 was inducted into the Sunshine Coast Sports Hall of Fame.” For full story click here.
Old Schoolyard Days
In a big room filled with Year 2 children, Tamworth historian Rod Hobbs is talking about what school was like “in the olden days”. “It was a big thing that took up most of the front of the room … you wrote on it with chalk, then you had the duster to clean it.” Yes – with apologies to people only in their 20s and 30s who used them – blackboards are now, indeed, history … and one of the many aspects of their school’s past that Tamworth Public kids have been learning about. Read full story, including videos here.
Kids’ Games
“Recently I heard a talk on the radio from a physical educationist who was advising parents that they should be encouraging their children to take up an organised sport as early as possible. When the Oral History group met this month we discussed the many ways in which we obtained the same goal, generally without involving our parents at all.” For full story click here.
Nuclear Weapons Testing in Australia
“When we hear about nuclear weapons, we think of the notorious and devastating Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, but what about Australia? For years, Indigenous communities in South Australia endured extreme nuclear weapon testing at the hands of the British government. It resulted in devastating, long-lasting health effects, if not death. But unlike the bombings in Japan, Australia’s history of atomic testing is rarely discussed.” For full story click here.
Death of photographer Max Desfor
“The striking images that acclaimed photographer Max Desfor took almost 70 years ago of refugees, a divided Korean peninsula and city-destroying weaponry remind us that despite our technological advances in some ways the world has changed very little. Desfor, a former Pulitzer Prize-winning Associated Press photographer, died in the US in February 2018 aged 104.” For full story click here.