"Memories Road Show. The event, which has now been held in eight South Shore communities, makes digital records of individual photos and videos of stories to be preserved in the Open Archives at UMass-Boston. The instructions had said, “Bring no more than three photos,” and Bangs had chosen carefully: his parents, two older brothers and himself at his aunt’s 1964 wedding; a 1974 Marshfield High School “powder puff” football game in which the boys were cheerleaders and the girls played the game; and a 1960s childhood scene from Camp Daniel Webster." Full story here.
This is a great idea for a community. Bring along photos and tell the stories with an audio recorder. The photos are scanned and the stories are with them.
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PNG Women’s War Time Memories
“Kokoda” has become iconic in Australian national narratives of the war. Its commemoration most commonly invokes images of Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, local carriers who assisted Allied forces, and whose relationships with Australian soldiers are frequently described in terms of “mateship” and “brotherly bonds”. But there is good reason to look beyond these narratives. Feminist historians and scholars of conflict have urged us to be attentive to the effects of wars on women, as well as to the roles they have played even in seemingly impossible circumstances. Read full story here.
British Library’s Oral History Collection
The oral history collections at the British Library cover a wide range of subject areas. The interviews made available here are only a small selection from the many thousands held in the British Library. See more here.
Sculpture Features WWI Voice
Mr John Blay’s sculpture is a tin canoe that acts as a sound shell for the voice of Les St Hill, a WW1 veteran born in 1892. The canoe is made from two sheets of used corrugated iron, symbolic of the popular make-do craft from Mr St Hill’s time. It will be featured at Bondi's Sculpture exhibition. For full story click here.
The “Real” Secret River
UNSW's Professor Grace Karskens has won a major fellowship that will enable her to use State Library of NSW archives to research Aboriginal names and stories about the Hawkesbury River. Read full story here.
Digital Directions Symposium
Each year the National Film and Sound Archive runs a Digital Directions Symposium to explore key issues in the preservation sector. What do we collect? How do we do it? How will it be used? Get it wrong and we have no heritage, or hide it in deep caves beneath a bureaucratic dragon. Read Part 1 and Part 2 of this very interesting article.
The Memory Man
Rob Mitchell has made hundreds of recordings for families as part of a large scale oral history project. The experiences provided a trigger for the Sydney-based man to develop his Memory Man show, which is aimed at seniors and combines pantomime and storytelling. Using a ‘box of tricks’ including memorabilia such as ‘Bex’ headache powders and ‘sand soap’, Mitchell uses the props to interact with his audience and trigger memories. For full story click here.
Soundtrails in Tenterfield
The Soundtrails phone app serves up location-based tidbits of location history. It was a project of St Joseph’s School to preserve local history in a cyber-modern way back in 2015. Together with input from the Tenterfield Shire Council and the Soundtrails team, the result is an aural walk through history, stopping off at the Tenterfield Saddler, old Tenterfield Star building, the showgrounds, the flood piano and lots of other places in between. For full story click here.
South Africa Oral History Conference
Africans used their collective memory, drawn from narratives about unfulfilled promises made by the government during World War I, to collectively refuse to volunteer to fight on the side of the Smuts' government. This demonstrates the significance of oral history in understanding present realities. I am delighted to observe that the presenters, including some of the learners, in this conference will be talking to some of OR's leadership values and qualities. For full story click here.
Sydney Dance Rites
Indigenous societies are often referred to having an oral history, many stories and the knowledge within them, are told and maintained through dance and song. See full story here.