In just a year, a small Bosnian museum dedicated to the experience of growing up during the Balkan wars has opened its doors, won a best European museum prize and decided to go global. The War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, a trove of memorabilia from Bosnians whose childhood was traumatized by the 1990s war, has started collecting personal items from children affected by other wars, such as those in Syria and Ukraine. The idea was born out of the experience of the museum's founder, Jasminko Halilovic, and has become a long-term project to create the world's largest archive on the impact of war on children. For full story click here.
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Sunshine Coast Band
THE early community halls and clubs played a large part in the Sunshine Coast's social development. Many of the region's older halls remain almost unchanged since the day they were built and are a testimony to our pioneers. During the early 1960s, the halls and other venues came alive to the sound of a special band known as the Blue Hawaiians. The Blue Hawaiians formed in 1964 and soon became a drawcard throughout the area. For full story click here.
Busselton Oral History
After nearly a year’s work, a book detailing the history of the City of Busselton through the accounts of its residents past and present has been released. Busselton Life in Snips & Snaps was written and edited by Dr Colleen Liston with photo-editing by Heather Hill for the Busselton Oral History Group and details the past, present and personal histories of Geographe Bay. Group president Margaret Dawson helped by providing many old photographs. The book includes excerpts from more than 450 hours of oral history interviews that have been recorded over a 32-year period by volunteers. For full story click here.
An artist’s Aboriginal Oral History Project
A Wellington-born artist’s exhibition uncovering the history of 12 Aboriginal people with a lived experience and connection to the Cooks River has been put on show in Sydney. The Cooks River? exhibition is the third Aboriginal oral histories project undertaken by Asher Milgate. The exhibition – showing at the Bankstown Arts Centre until November 29 – pairs photographic portraits and oral histories together with a video compiled with abstract images and natural soundscapes of the Cooks River. For full story click here.
Oral History Association (in USA)
Middle Tennessee State University is the new home for the 900 member Oral History Association. Oral history collection is enjoying something of a renaissance, thanks in large part to the Association’s work. A good case in point: The popularity of StoryCorps histories as aired each week on National Public Radio. For full story click here.
Holodomor Research
Four researchers of the Holodomor presented their findings at the annual meeting of the Oral History Association (OHA). The theme of the international conference, which took place October 4-7 in Minneapolis, was “Engaging Audiences: Oral History and the Public.” OHA is the major organization devoted to oral history, a field that approaches history through interviews with people having personal knowledge of past events. Ukrainian researchers tell the story of this famine in the 1930s. For full story, click here.
Students interview nursing home residents
The ABC TV News on Saturday 25th November showed a story about high-school students in Adelaide who have been visiting a nursing home to collect the stories of residents. The results of the interviews were presented in a book for the interviewees. To watch the story click here, then go to 14:00 minutes. The story finishes at 16:48 minutes. Also find the written story at the ABC website here. This is a great example of the use of oral history helping two groups learn from each other and enjoy that connection. Allity Aged Care said they will expand this program to their other facilities Australia-wide.
Latest on Boston College Tapes
Police and prosecutors have been given two weeks to provide reasons why recorded interviews with a former IRA man should not be sent back to America. High Court judges sitting in Belfast set the deadline in Anthony McIntyre's legal battle against police accessing his "Boston tapes". The tapes are candid interviews with loyalist and republican paramilitaries held in a library at Boston College. For the full story on this development click here.
Royleston Home for Boys, Glebe, Sydney
FROM the outside, Royleston Home for Boys in Glebe looked like a majestic Victorian manor, with magnificent arched windows and a sweeping veranda. Yet behind the facade the secrets of hundreds of young boys were hidden for almost 60 years. With as many as a dozen different names – including Royleston Home for Wayward Boys – the home was established to provide accommodation for boys who were wards of the state waiting to be placed in foster care. Read the full story here.
Reminiscing
"In record-breaking heat on what became known as ‘Black Sunday’, thousands had flocked to take part in Sydney’s favourite pastime, surfing at Bondi beach. “Two hundred surfers were swept out to sea by the backwash of huge seas yesterday afternoon,” reported the newspaper. Four people drowned and scores were rescued in the last stages of exhaustion as a sandbank gave way in heavy seas. One of those rescued was Bill, an Oral History group member, who remembers when the sandbank on which he and dozens of others were standing that hot afternoon gave way." Read the rest of Bill's story and others by clicking here.