International Oral History Association(published twice a year)
Volume 12:1, 2004
From the Editors
A new year and a new issue of the IOHA newsletter, it feels like a fresh start, but as ever with oral history we look back as we look forward. There are items in this issue which follow on from our 2002 conference in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. News of the development of national and local oral history organisations in KwaZulu Natal and in Japan being amongst the most significant. Our conferences bring oral historians together from all over the world, some come from long-standing organisations, others are on their own but hoping to take back ideas and support which will enable them to build an organisational base, or perhaps begin oral history work in their own region or nation.
The newsletter provides us with a window onto these activities as people send us their stories of conferences, seminars, new projects and publications. It provides continuity between our public gatherings, as well as a sense of interconnectedness when we're not actually meeting together.
Our Rome conference, as you'll see from Janis Wilton's report below, promises to be our biggest ever. It is sure to leave a major impression on the world of oral history and, for the future, many more news items for this newsletter.
Do keep sending us your stories there's a world out there that wants to hear what's going on.
IOHA News is also pleased to welcome our new Spanish translator, Isabel Anaya Ferreira, to our international oral history community. Isabel was born and raised in Mexico City, of Mexican and Brazilian parents. She has a Humanities degree with a concentration in screenwriting and has studied dramatic arts.
Isabel learned English as a child at the Anglo American School, and launched her career in translation at an early age. She's been free-lancing since 1985, translating from English and Portuguese to Spanish. She's translated for academic research institutions like the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO), the Institute for Social Research of the National University (UNAM), and the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). We are very happy to welcome Isabel in the world of oral history.
Joanna Bornat and Rina BenmayorCo-editors IOHA newsletter
From the President
Over 600 proposals from 64 countries have been received for the XIIIth International Oral History Conference to be held in Rome in June 2004. This is an affirmation of the work and standing of our conference organiser, Alessandro Portelli, and of IOHA itself. The paper proposals cover a wide range of topics. There are those which address overtly the main conference theme of memory and globalisation; others which cover sub-themes. These include, migration, 1960s activism, multi-media, labour history, violence and trauma, health and healing, religion, and war. The sheer number of proposals slowed down a little the process of selecting and sending out acceptances. However, it is now complete. There is also a conference website – http://www.comune.roma.it/cultura/congressoralhistory.asp – which will carry details about registration, accommodation, and cultural programs. The conference will offer another wonderful opportunity for oral historians from around the world to meet together, exchange ideas and practices, further networks, initiate projects, and enjoy each other’s company. All oral historians are encouraged to attend. The conference is also the moment when IOHA holds its biennial general meeting and offers an opportunity for those who are interested - and have the time and energy - to be nominated and elected to the IOHA Council.
IOHA is still a young organization and one which aims to be inclusive and forward looking. With this in mind, the structure of Council membership includes a balance of new and continuing members, and the work required of Council members is wide ranging, exciting, varied and quite demanding. As an indication, the following are some of the activities in which Council members have been involved over the past six months:
- The ongoing task of editing this newsletter.
- The editing of the IOHA journal, Words and Silence/Palabras y Silencios. The 2003 issue was mailed in October. The call for papers for the 2004 issue is available in this newsletter.
- The ongoing maintenance and hosting of the IOHA website.
- Management of finances and membership.
- The revision of the Constitution and its by-laws. The suggested revisions will be circulated to IOHA members early next year, and will be presented to the Biennial General Meeting of IOHA in Rome in June 2004
- The establishment of a Scholarships Committee and Fund to attract sponsorship to assist oral history scholars who require financial assistance to attend the international conferences. The guidelines for the fund and its distribution will be made available shortly as will requests for donations and sponsorship.
- The development of an IOHA Brochure outlining IOHA activities, membership benefits and rates. Again, this will be available shortly.
- The ongoing work in organising the next conference. The weight of the burden falls on the local conference organiser – for 2004 this is Alessandro Portellli. The IOHA Conference Committee is involved in vetting papers, monitoring the budget, advising on the programme and on the range of other activities and issues involved in organising such a conference.
Above and beyond specific IOHA tasks, IOHA Council members also act as ambassadors for our organization. We each do this in different ways and by participating in different events. As a sample, my commitments in this regard over the past two months have included: speaking about IOHA at the biennial Oral History Association of Australia Conference (held in Perth, West Australia, in September 2003 – there is a report on the conference later in this newsletter) about the benefits of encouraging sustained dialogue between local and global oral history scholarship, and about the ways in which this dialogue could be developed. Particular attention was paid to ways and means of encouraging greater participation from the Asia-Pacific region in the international oral history community. Also in September I was one of four international speakers invited to participate in a day long oral history workshop sponsored by the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) in Tokyo. The other speakers came from Singapore (Uma Devi), Taiwan (Hsu Hsueh-Chi) and the USA (Richard Candida-Smith). We shared our experiences in oral history scholarship and teaching as part of a forum geared to develop and contextualise the elite oral history project maintained by GRIPS, and to further networks in our region. GRIPS also kindly altered my travel arrangements so that I could attend another significant oral history workshop in Tokyo which saw the formal announcement of the foundation of the Japan Oral History Association (JOHA). A report on the JOHA gathering is provided later in this newsletter.
What both workshops highlighted for me was the strength and diversity of oral history scholarship and practice in Japan, the desire for models and ideas for furthering networks and exchange among oral historians in Japan, and a willingness to participate in international networks and exchanges. Here was an affirmation of a role which IOHA – and already established national oral history organizations – can play in assisting oral history colleagues. We can offer networks, ideas about established practices and ways of organising communities of oral historians, and opportunities to exchange insights about diverse oral history practices, scholarship and needs through our publications and through our biennial international conferences. In order to become increasingly effective and inclusive in these tasks and the many others which the organisation pursues, IOHA seeks your support: as Council members, as contributors to publications, as participants in conferences, and as paying members.
Janis Wilton jwilton@pobox.une.edu.auIOHA President
The World of Words
Future Conferences and Meetings
INHABITING MULTIPLE WORLDS: AUTO/BIOGRAPHY IN AN (ANTI)GLOBAL AGE.
Fourth International Auto/Biography Association Conference, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 15-20 March 2004.
What implications are there for life-writing in an age that is at once increasingly global and anti-global? In which locality, nationality, race, ethnicity and creed are becoming less important in some places and yet strongly resurgent in others? Many contemporary auto/biographers write of inhabiting multiple worlds, of living between different cultures, languages, ideologies, discourses, localities, domains, or dimensions of experience. Their narratives are often intersected by multiple allegiances, to here and there, past and present, actual and imagined, traditional and modern, centre and periphery, descent and consent. What does this signify? That living in multicultural societies and with rapid intercontinental travel, global media, education and communications, individuals are tending less and less to configure their identities simply within the confines of nation, locality, gender, ethnicity, or race? At the same time, there are signs that identity seems to be enacted by some writers as resistance to such things as linguistic and cultural homogenisation, immigration, multiculturalism, secularisation and economic transnationalism. Are we seeing the end of "identity politics" or its transformation? The beginning of "global culture" or the beginning of its end?
IABA conferences: This conference is the fourth in a series that began at Peking University in 1999. Others have been held at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 2000 and at La Trobe University in Melbourne in 2002. Further conferences are planned for the University of Mainz in Germany in 2006 and Hawaii or Michigan in 2008.
For further information contact: David Parker, Department of English, English Language Teaching Unit, Room 338 Fung King Hey Building, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin NT, Hong Kong.
Tel: (852) 2609 7001/7006
Fax: (852) 2603 5270
Website: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eng/
INTERPRETING NARRATIVES.
Fifth European Social Science History Conference, Oral History and Life Stories Network, 24-27 March 2004, Berlin.
The European Social Science History Conference has been held biannually since 1996. The Oral History and Life Stories network has met at the last three conferences, gathering over forty participants each time. With the International Oral History Association conference now meeting most often outside Europe (Rio in 1998, Turkey in 2000, South Africa in 2002, Rome in 2004, Australia in 2006) the Network has become the major regular international forum for European oral history and life story researchers. For more information visit the conference website at http://www.iisg.nl/esshc.
ORAL HISTORY ON DISPLAY: PRESENTING TESTIMONIES THROUGH MUSEUMS, VIRTUAL DISPLAYS, MULTI-MEDIA AND PUBLICATION.
12-13 June 2004, Annual Conference of the Oral History Society, Bournemouth, UK.
History may be everything that's behind us, but oral history is currently everywhere around and in front of us, as TV and radio listings and museum, heritage and community arts publicity will readily testify. Oral history seems to have come of age in the public's consciousness, with personal testimony being increasingly recognised as a valuable element of contemporary historical interpretation, and an incomparable educational source and artistic resource.
Whilst the interview itself represents the most 'pure' display of oral history, it is the secondary presentation, usually involving interpretation at some level, which is the objective of many oral history projects. But using, or re-using, oral testimony in this way raises practical, technical and ethical issues. Oral History on Display sets out to investigate the challenges, opportunities and implications of putting oral history on display in the wide range of situations in which it occurs, including museums, archives, libraries and galleries, both real and virtual, television and radio, print and electronic publication, performance and artwork, landscape and the built environment, schools and community outreach activities.
For further information about the conference, please contact Frances Cambrook at the University of Bournemouth: fcambrook@bmth.ac.uk
MEMORY AND GLOBALIZATION.
XIIIth International Oral History Conference. 23-26 June 2004, Rome, Italy.
The XIII International Oral History Conference on 'Memory and Globalization' will take place in Rome, Italy, on June 23-26, 2004. The very number of applications that were received by the deadline of August 31, 2003 – over 600, from 64 countries – is evidence of the growth of oral history internationally, of the relevance of the subject, and of the attraction of the venue.
The Conference is sponsored by the City government of Rome, with the support of the Rome Province administration. It will take place on and around historical Capitol Hill (the original one!), overlooking the Roman Forum and Coliseum.
The conference will include plenary sessions on Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning, and up to twelve concurring sessions the rest of time. The City of Rome will pay for simultaneous translation in Spanish, Italian, and English at the plenaries, while we’re working on arranging some kind of consecutive translation or summarization for the workshops. The conference will end on Saturday with the IOHA membership meeting.
The City of Rome offers free admission to museums and walking tours to places of artistic and archaeological interest. Conference organizer Alessandro Portelli will lead a tour of "sites of memory" of the Nazi occupation and anti-Fascist Resistance (in this case, a small contribution will be required for transportation). At the time of this writing, we are working on a final dinner with cultural event on the Roman Hills, and (if it’s in session) an evening at the Opera.
We have secured spaces at a number of hotels, ranging from 3 to 4 stars, at conference prices; all are situated either within walking distance from Capitol Hill or so that the conference venue can be reached easily and quickly by public transportation. However, the conference takes place at the peak of the tourist season in Rome. While this is a promise of fine weather (the last couple of Junes have been unseasonably warm), it also means that finding hotels has been no easy task, and that late bookings may be complicated. Therefore we encourage all participants to book as soon as possible, possibly before February 15.
In order to ensure that conference proceedings will be available for distribution at the conference and in order to organise the program, we require that your conference paper be received in its final form by February 15, 2004, and that it be accompanied by payment of the conference registration fees. We regret that, for organisational reasons, we will not be able to include in the conference proceedings and program the papers of applicants who have not paid their registration fees by February 28.
Organising a conference is expensive. Most of our costs will be covered by the conference fees. As a matter of policy all participants will be required to pay the full fees. A selected number of delegates from developing countries may benefit from a travel scholarship if the necessary funding is obtained in due time. There are different fees for IOHA and non-IOHA members. If you wish to join IOHA, membership details are available on the IOHA website (www.ioha.fgv.br).
Conference fees are as follows:
IOHA members before 28 February 2004 140 EUROS
Non-IOHA members before 28 February 2004 170 EUROS
IOHA members after 28 February 2004 170 EUROS
Non-IOHA members after 28 February 2004 200 EUROS
The conference fees entitle participants to the following:
- coffee breaks
- CD-Rom with conference proceedings
- Simultaneous translation during the plenary sessions and some of the workshops
- final conference dinner
- free access tours, cultural visits, cultural events
All information on the conference is posted on the conference website www.culturaroma.it/memoria. Following links from this site, participants will be able to book hotels on line and find directions on how to register for the conference.
All conference correspondence ought to be address to the conference organizer, Alessandro Portelli, a.portelli@comune.roma.it
TIME AND MEMORY: The International Society for the Study of Time announces its Twelfth Triennial Conference.
July 25-31, 2004, Clare College, Cambridge, UK.
The International Society for the Study of Time (ISST) encourages the interdisciplinary study of time in all its aspects. The unique character of intellectual exchange at ISST Conferences is vested in cross-disciplinary discussions spurred by participants from around the world and representing many different areas of specialization. The Society seeks always to hold its conferences in a location of memorable beauty and resonance. The 2004 Conference at Cambridge University will be based within the Old Court of Clare College.
The theme of the Society's twelfth conference is ‘Time and Memory’. Memory plays an important role in fields across the disciplinary spectrum as well as several strands of contemporary life and culture. In the face of rapid change in the cosmological, ecological, geopolitical, technological, cultural and individual landscapes, the topic of memory takes on special urgency. New understandings of memory emerge in fields ranging from neuroscience and evolutionary biology to geology and cosmology. Technological forms of memory raise pressing social and political issues, amid shifts in our collective means and modes of memory. Competing accounts of history and personal identity foreground the role of narrative in shaping human memory.
Conference participants must be ISST members. For membership information and application procedures, visit our website or contact Dr. Dr. Thomas Weissert, Executive Secretary, P.O. Box 436, Wynnewood, PA 19096, USA. Membership includes subscriptions to the ISST house organ Time's News, the ISST newsletter, and the journal, KronoScope: Journal for the Study of Time.
TELLING STORIES: NARRATIVES OF OUR TIMES.
Annual meeting of the Oral History Association, 29 September - 3 October 2004, Portland, Oregon, USA.
The Oral History Association invites national and international proposals for papers and presentations for its 2004 annual meeting to be held September 29-October 3, 2004, at the Hilton & Executive Tower, Portland, Oregon.
"Telling Stories", the conference theme, invokes both the practice of oral history and the unique ability of oral history to capture stories that are especially revealing and meaningful. The present historical moment lends an especial urgency to this call. War in Iraq, the attacks on the World Trade Center, the Seattle protests over the World Trade Organization--the enormity and significance of these events, and many others, urge us to record and interpret the "narratives of our own times", not only the cataclysmic events at the turn of the twenty-first century, but also the sweep of the twentieth century that lies within living memory. While recent events suggest histories of conflict, change and rupture, the practice of oral history offers the possibility of bridging differences, finding commonalities, and tracing continuity. Turning lives into stories can help individuals and communities negotiate wrenching social and economic changes and undermine hierarchies of power and dominance. We are eager for presenters to help set an agenda for the myriad of stories of our times that need to be recorded and suggest new ways of preserving and disseminating them.
We invite proposals that examine narratives that are meaningful at local, regional, national, and international levels. Among the topics for which we invite proposals are:
- globalization, new forms of labor, and the changing nature of work, education, and knowledge
- the building of, and conflicts surrounding imperial states, past and present
- transformations of local economies, cultures, and environments
- migrations: local, regional, national, and international
- new forms of social and political protest, including antiwar movements
- farm labor, culture and agriculture
- the relationship of the arts to social, political, and cultural changes
- corporate behavior and misbehavior, and the responsibility of business to civic and public life
- new diseases and crises of health and safety
We also invite proposals for presentations that reflect on the process of oral history:
- how narratives of democracy and dissent shape political practice
- how telling stories across generations creates a usable past
- how oral history reveals the connections between seemingly unrelated populations and processes
- the role of emotion in oral history, including humor and irony, pain and trauma
- the theoretical and methodological issues involved in recording an oral history of events as they unfold
The conference location in the Pacific Northwest and on the Pacific Rim offers an opportunity to examine issues of particular regional significance, including:
- the histories, cultures, and struggles of the regions native peoples
- local and regional industries, from logging to high tech to wine-making
- land, water, and the environment
- local and regional variations on protest movements, including environmentalism
- regional developments in art, music, and culture
- the connections between the United States and Asia
We invite proposals from oral history practitioners in a wide variety of disciplines and settings, as we hope to bring together scholars, teachers, students, museum professionals, public historians, activists, filmmakers, radio documentarians, photographers, and journalists. While sessions may be organized in the customary panel format, we also encourage proposals for workshops, poster sessions, media and performance-oriented sessions, off-site sessions, and formats other than conventional conference presentations.
Proposals: Submit five copies of the proposal. For full sessions, submit a title, a session abstract of not more than two pages, and a one-page vita or resume for each participant. For individual proposals, submit a one-page abstract and a one-page vita or resume of the presenter. Each submission must be accompanied by a cover sheet, which can be printed from the OHA web site: www.dickinson.edu/oha. Proposals from international participants are enthusiastically welcomed.
Proposals must be postmarked by January 15, 2004. They may be submitted by mail or fax. No email attachments will be accepted. Submit proposal directly to the OHA office (see below). Proposals along with a COVER SHEET should be sent by January 15, 2004 to:
Madelyn Campbell, Oral History Association
Dickinson College, P.O. Box 1773, Carlisle, PA 17013
Phone: 717-245-1036
FAX: 717-245-1046
For UPS or FEDEX, Add the following:
Holland Union Building
College and Louther Sts.
Queries may be directed to the Program Co-Chairs:
Lu Ann Jones joneslu@mail.ecu.edu and
Kathryn Nasstrom nasstromk@usfca.edu
3rd INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON THE CARIBBEAN.
City of Goiania, 20-24 October, 2004 – Brasil.
The third International Symposium on the Caribbean is sponsored by the Center for Caribbean Studies in Brazil (CECAB); the Ministry of Science and Technology of the State of Goias, the Graduate Program in History; the Catholic University of Goias, the State University of Goias, the Graduate Program in History at the University of Brazilia, Espace Nouveaux Mondes (FLASH - University of La Rochelle), the Institute of History of the State of Michoacan, and the University of the Canary Islands (Gran Canarias). The Symposium theme is "Hybrid Cultures in the Atlantic: Africa-Asia-Brazil-Caribbean Relations," with four sub-themes:
- Cultures of Migration and Work
- Globalization and International Relations
- Literature, Music, Dance, Visual Arts and Memory
- Comparative History and Anthropology
The 3rd Symposium furthers dialogue among scholars of the Caribbean, Brazil and the world by facilitating presentation and discussion of research. The general theme focuses on the problamatic of hybrid formations in Caribbean and/or Atlantic identities. In addition, scholars will discuss the contribution of hybridity to old metropoles in the context of globalization. The symposium will feature work sessions, paper presentations, 2-hour roundtables, and invited 1-hour lectures. The organizers invite individual paper as well as panel proposals. The deadline for proposals, in the form of paper abstracts, is April 30, 2004. Participants will be notified by May 30, 2004.
For more information contact: Olga Cabrera (Centro de Estudios del Caribe en Brasil/UFG/Goiânia), Presidenta
Email: ocabrera@fchf.ufg.br
CONSTRUCTING URBAN MEMORIES: the role of oral testimony.
27-30 October 2004. 7th European Urban History Association Conference, Athens Piraeus, Greece.
Oral testimony is one of the most valuable but challenging sources for the study of urban history in the 20th and 21st centuries. It allows us to access knowledge and experience that is both unavailable to historians of earlier periods, and inaccessible through contemporary documentary sources. It can offer insights and perspectives that enhance and sometimes force us to re-examine 'official' histories, and own approaches to urban historical research. And it enables us to understand something of the nature of memory - of how people construct their own versions of the urban experience, and try to 'make sense' of the past.
The collection of oral testimony involves more than simply putting a microphone in front of someone and inviting them to 'talk.' Analysis of the testimony itself needs to be informed by an understanding of the class, gender and cultural factors that may distort or liberate individual 'voices' during the interview process.
A major session of the 7th European Urban History Conference Athens will be devoted to oral histories of the city, and the organisers invite paper proposals on issues such as:
For further details of the Conference see
http://www.le.ac.uk/ur/conf.html#october and
http://www.le.ac.uk/urbanhist/urbanconf/athens.html
USING THE WAR: CHANGING MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR TWO.
Annual Conference of the Oral History Society in association with the InternationaL Reminiscence and Life Review Association and King's College, University of London, 1-3 July 2005, London.
This international conference marks the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. It seeks to address the War’s consequences and legacy in the memories of participants and for successive generations. The conference is organized with two major themes which reflect the ways in which the War continues to play a part in historical consciousness and everyday life.
Remembering, Forgetting and Silence
The conference will explore how different individuals who lived through the war choose to remember or choose to forget their experiences. What are reasons for this? What are the relationships of individual memories to dominant historical discourses? In exploring this we also want to uncover the costs and rewards of remembering the War in relation to a range of perspectives from the psychological (trauma) to the economic (pensions).
We are also interested in inviting papers that address the issues of intergenerational communication of memories of war. What impact does remembering and forgetting have on the individuals themselves and their families and other potential audiences? What does it mean for those (and their families) whose war experiences are hidden from history? Or, how are those who cannot talk about their experiences recalled by others?
A final strand within this theme is mythic memories, including the adoption of ‘war identities’.
Using memories of War
Another major theme of the conference will be the ways in which memories of the conflict have been used in the production and use of history. This includes the use of social memory in establishing and maintaining (or not preserving) memorialisation and in the commemoration of the conflict. Does this have a particular resonance for displaced peoples?
Our second theme also includes the ways in which oral history and reminiscence have been employed by the media and in education to publicly represent the War both in histories and in the ways this representation has been used to ‘frame’ and ‘benchmark’ the memories of subsequent conflicts. Has the use of memories changed media and education representations of the War? Similarly, we are calling for papers that consider how reconciliation events and battlefield tourism has shaped memories of war.
In considering how memories of war are used, we would also want to invite the participation of those who have utilized these memories in reminiscence as a health treatment. How does remembering the War promote wellbeing?
For more information contact: Joanna Bornat: j.bornat@open.ac.uk or Graham Smith: graham.smith@sheffield.ac.uk
Face to Face
Conference and Association reports
AUSTRALIA
FROM ALL QUARTERS. 25th Anniversary Conference of the Oral History Association of Australia, Perth, Western Australia, 4 - 7 September 2003
This was, much to my disgrace, my first attendance at an Australian oral history conference (given that I live just across the Tasman), but it won't be my last. Participants included independent researchers, public historians, archivists, museum curators, journalists and postgraduate students, although there were relatively few teachers or university staff. The programme was diverse and interesting, covering everything from workshops for independent oral history contractors to papers exploring theoretical and methodological issues arising out of postgraduate research.
Some of the latter papers illustrated a frustrating problem, but one not unique to Australia. The following could also be said of papers given at oral history conferences in Britain, New Zealand, and the conference on narrative I attended recently in Finland. Postgraduate history students, undertaking oral history research, often show poor preparation and training and even less knowledge of the rich and sophisticated historiography. I do not know whether this reflects the continuing influence of an unreflexive empiricist stance among historians, hostile to theory of any kind, or is simply the product of poor supervision at the tertiary level. These shortcomings are much less in evidence among postgraduate students working in cognate fields, such as education, women's studies, or sociology.
The conference was well organised, but above all, it was very friendly, and every effort was made to acknowledge and include those who came from some distance - Singapore and Mexico, among other places. (I really appreciated the opportunity to meet Gerardo Necoechea Gracia, the IOHA Vice President.) My only query might be the relatively high registration fee, probably dictated by the cost of hiring appropriate venues, but it must deter those without institutional funding? The conference lasted four days: the organisers elected to run only two parallel sessions, and to give each presenter 45 minutes. By international conference standards, this is extremely generous but the positive result was that each session attracted a good-sized audience and there was adequate time for discussion and debate.
The wide-ranging activities of oral historians present at the conference were reflected in the breadth of papers. One paper I enjoyed very much was by an independent oral historian and documentary maker, Frank Heimans. Commissioned by the Department of Public Works Services to record interviews with construction workers, unionists, and builders/contractors involved in the Sydney building industry, Frank took us through the entire process of tendering for the project to burning the final C.D. He was given four months to do the whole project: including background research (reading all the volumes of the most recent Royal Commission took three weeks), locating interviewees, recording interviews and editing a compilation tape. In the course of his paper he played excerpts from the tapes, but I think the best story was one of his own: paying his niece $50 to stand and shake a tree outside a house where he was recording - to keep the cicadas quiet!
A paper of interest to librarians and archivists related to the role of oral histories in archival institutions. Julie Horne argued that oral histories had become central to the collecting function of archives. She described recent deposits of personal papers at her institution in Sydney, and argued that the range of content was very limited. By the time documents relating to working life had been removed (minutes of meetings, published material, etc) there was virtually nothing left. There were few personal letters, and no records of electronic correspondence, such as email. The absence of such personal written material, she suggested, meant that oral biographies were the way of the future for archives.
Finally, if anyone thought the ANZAC legend was in danger, fear not. Peter Rubinstein, a journalist, had prepared a radio programme to be played upon the death of Australia's last ANZAC survivor of the Gallipoli campaign in World War One. When Alec William Campbell died in Tasmania at the age of 103 years, the programme was syndicated throughout Australia. At the conference Rubinstein discussed his interviews with Alec Campbell, then played the radio programme in full. Some members of the audience were very moved. I found the use of background music (in turn martial, sentimental or nationalistic) while Campbell spoke both intrusive and emotionally and intellectually manipulative. There was, I thought, clear conflict between Campbell's actual memories of war - physical discomfort, illness, death - and the glorification of sacrifice implicit in the whole presentation. Finally, the repeated assertion that Australian national identity derived from the Anzac experience had some historians in the audience rolling their eyes. Legends, indeed.
A number of papers given at the conference are published in From All Quarters, Oral History Association of Australia Journal, 25 (2003),
Anna GreenUniversity of Waikato, New Zealand
Jan McCahon (President, West Australian branch of OHAA), Rosie Block (President, OHAA), Hon. Sheila McHale (Member of the state government of Western Australia), Janis Wilton (President, IOHA), Margaret Hamilton (Convenor, 2003 OHAA Conference), Gerardo Necoechea (Vice President, IOHA).
A PAIR OF MEXICANS HAPPILY STRANDED IN THE ANTIPODES
Last September, the members of the Oral History Association of Australia had their biennial Conference in Perth, the lovely capital city of Western Australia. The theme, From All Quarters, aimed to present the inspiring diversity of approaches to the practice of oral history. Indeed, diversity -whether in backgrounds of interviewees or the objectives and theoretical perspectives of those who record interviews- was a good reason to make a pair of amazed Mexicans feel a sense of belonging in spite of the enormous cultural and historical differences that set apart the two countries: Australia and Mexico. Gerardo Necoechea and myself, as overseas participants at the meeting, felt very welcome but more than that we had the chance to prove that oral history is a world wide movement open to people engaged in the search of the past.
Sharing with our Australians colleagues our findings and perspectives in relation to place and identity -topics we studied by interviewing three generations of inhabitants of the first modern massive residential complex built in Mexico and Latin America- was an invigorating experience. The discussion put forward interesting contrasts and suggestive ways to analyse complex evidence, especially when dealing with the individual response to the places people live and value.
The fact of the matter is that local oral history associations are essential to profit from diversity by bringing in together oral history practitioners most willing to exchange their experiences, perspectives and expertise in relation to crucial theoretical and methodological issues for the discipline and why not? To build up an international community of friendship and support. Let us hope that the International Oral History Association keeps on succeeding in conforming a global village of oral historians with sounding effects.
Graciela de GarayInstituto Mora, Mexico City, October 2003.
Editor’s note: For further views on the 2003 OHAA Conference visit the report published in newsletter of the Queensland branch of OHAA at
http://www.home.gil.com.au/~mulligan/National%20Conference.htm
JAPAN
JAPAN ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION (JOHA) INAUGURAL MEETING, Tokyo September 23, 2003.
September 23 witnessed the launching of the Japan Oral History Association (JOHA), as more than 100 oral historians throughout Japan participated in an international forum held at Chuo University in Tokyo. We were honored to have two distinguished guests from the US Oral History Association, Dr. Laurie Mercier, former president, and Dr. Jaclyn Gier-Viscovatoff, as our keynote speakers, as well as Dr. Janis Wilton, the IOHA President, from Australia, and Professor L. Fangshang from Taiwan as special guests. The JOHA Prospectus was announced, explaining its goals of developing and promoting oral history and calling to practitioners, researchers, and other interview users regardless of their academic disciplines or background to join.
Kayoko Yoshida translating for Laurie Mercier
Entitled 'Oral History Research and Exchange Forum: Celebrating the Start of the Japan Oral History Association', the inaugural conference sponsored by the JOHA Preparatory Committee took place on a national holiday from 10am until 5pm. In the morning, keynote speeches were given in English with Japanese translations: 'Different Ways of Incorporating Oral History in Writing History' by Professor Mercier and 'Gender, Generation, and Oral History in the Great British Miners’ Strikes of 1926 and 1984-86' by Professor Gier-Viscovatoff. Questions and comments ranged from the validity of oral history interviews as historical data to issues of subjectivity, class, and women’s lives.
The plenary morning session was followed by Dr. Wilton and Dr. Fangshang's speeches, as well as the congratulatory messages from oral historians overseas, such as Dr. Arthur Hansen and Dr. Robert Perks. Then the JOHA Preparatory Committee announced its prospectus. In the afternoon, three concurrent sessions, focusing on 'Community, Gender and Life Story', 'Wars and Memories', and 'Immigrant Experience and Ethnic Stories', were held. Each session consisted of a few presentations by Japanese practitioners and scholars, followed by comments, questions and answers and a discussion. The audience showed deep interest and raised questions on methodological issues, research results, privacy, etc.
In our last plenary panel, 'Oral History Practitioners’ Meeting', the international guests and some major Japanese scholars discussed the organizing of oral historians. The Japanese panelists included Professor Shinzo Araragi of Kyoto University, Professor Ichiro Kuraishi of Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and Professor Atsushi Sakurai of Chiba Univ., some of whom wondered about the label 'oral history' for their interview-based approach. However, Dr. Wilton emphasized the benefits of networking on national and international levels. On behalf of the JOHA Preparatory Committee, I then gave a concluding remark, thanking everyone, explaining our future plans—especially a convention next year — and encouraging the audience to join.
Eriko Yamamoto reading out greetings from oral history organisations around the world.
The Forum ended with a positive tone. Two other lectures were held in Nagoya and Sapporo in conjunction with the JOHA inauguration. Currently we are in the process of summarizing the Forum, creating the initial network and organizational structure, and working on a first newsletter and a formal invitation for potential members.
This was a modest beginning for an organization aspiring to attract a nationwide membership, but we are pleased with its success so far. We especially feel indebted to Dr. Wilton, Dr. Mercier, and Dr. Gier-Viscovatoff.
Eriko Yamamotoeriko@abox22.so-net.ne.jp
SOUTH AFRICA
THE OFFICIAL LAUNCH OF THE KWA-ZULU NATAL ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION
The 17 September is an important date in the history of the oral history movement in South Africa: it marked the official launching of a new regional oral history association in South Africa. This is the second one to be launched in the wake of the 2002 IOHA conference held here in South Africa. (The first one, the Free State & Northern Cape Oral History Association, was started in October 2002). The launch took place within the context of events planned around the theme of heritage, since September in South Africa is regarded as Heritage Month.
A total of eighty people from various sectors which employ oral history methods were present at the seminar entitled "Our Roots are Speaking". This was a joint project of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Archives, the Voortrekker Museum, the Sinomlando Oral History Project, the steering committee of the Kwa-Zulu Natal Oral History Association and the Alan Paton Centre.
A number of speakers gave short talks regarding the various oral history projects being run in the province. Professor Philippe Denis outlined the mission of the Sinimlando Oral History project. Mr Sibongiseni Mkhize, the Director of the Voortrekker Museum discussed some of the problems inherent in oral history projects. Mrs Nokhaya Makiwane and Ms Sibongile Mafu enlightened the attendants about the Memory Box project they are conducting with families affected and infected by HIV/AIDS. Mrs Vino Reddy of the University of Durban-Westville Documentation Centre gave an account of their project which collects the oral testimonies of anti-apartheid activists of Indian ethnicity in the 1970's and 1980's. Mr Peter Croeser of the Natal Museum explained the family history project they run at the local Edendale township. Mr Alfred Ngwenya of the National Botanical Institute reported about a ground-breaking research they are conducting: to list the indigenous Zulu names of botanical species in Natal. Lastly, we had Mrs Portia Mwandla of the KZN Ulundi Archives, who sketched for us the research they are conducting on the cultural aspects of life in rural Zululand.
After the formal launch of the association, elections for the five-person committee were conducted. The members elected were: Professor Philippe Denis, Mr Peter Nel of the Archives at Pietermaritzburg, Mr Sibongeseni Mkhize , Mrs Portia Mwandla and Mrs Vino Reddy.
The speakers and organisers of "Our Roots are Speaking", an Oral History Seminar which took place at the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg on 17 September 2003. They are (L-R back): Pieter Nel of KZN Archives, Pmb.; Phumuzile Mwandla of KZN Archives, Ulundi; Philippe Denis of the Sinomlando Project, UNP; Sibongiseni Mkhize of Voortrekker Museum; Sibongile Mafu of the Sinomlando Memory Box Project, UNP; Vino Reddy of UDW Documentation Centre, and Nokhaya Makiwane of the Sinomlando Memory Box Project. In front are Mkhipeni Ngwenya of the Botanical Knowledge Project, National Botanical Institute, Durban; Peter Croeser of Natal Museum Edendale Local History Project and Jewel Koopman of the Alan Paton Centre.
A MEETING OF ORAL HISTORY PRACTITIONERS IN SOUTH AFRICA, Pretoria, 13-17 October.
During the week of the 13-17 October, about fifty oral history practitioners met in Pretoria, at a conference organised by the Department of Arts and Culture. This was billed as a pre-Citra workshop, preparatory to an international conference of archivists to be held in Cape Town from the 20 to the 24 of October. CITRA is the French acronym for the International Conference of the Round Table on Archives.
The theme of the workshop was 'Popular Memory, including Oral History Issues'. Reports from the National Oral history Programme and the National Indigenous Music Programme were given. There was also input from the Indigenous Knowledge System directorate of the Department of Arts and Culture. Another aspect of the gathering was the showcasing of the main national oral history projects. The meeting was also attended by representatives from the national archives of Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
Most of the attendants, who included archivists, academics and cultural activists, were appreciative of this initiative to reason together on the state of oral history in South Africa. The need for a national oral history association was once more keenly felt. In one of the resolutions adopted at the end of the conference, it was strongly recommended that an annual meeting of this kind be held. So far we only have only two active regional oral history associations.
Other than the presentation of papers, delegates were also taken on a tour of the National Archives Repository as well as the National Film, Video and Sound Archives of South Africa. An excursion was also undertaken to the Sterkfontein caves, a World Heritage Site.
Abraham LietaDeputy Director: Sinomlando Oral History Project, School of Theology, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg
From Page to Mouth
New Projects
CZECH REPUBLIC
THE SUBCULTURE OF WEEKEND HOUSE HOLDERS IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA :1950-89.
The phenomenon of weekend houses spread in Czechoslovakia over the second half of the twentieth century. The country house was not primarily built for recreation and was typically settled within a village. This is different from the second form of recreation – cottages.
First, I have to explain what is meant by weekend house and cottage. A term cottage refers to a house that is primarily built for recreation. In contrast, a weekend house is a country house which has been converted to be used for recreation. Both types of housing are still popular today.
These forms of recreation were not only found in Czechoslovakia, they are typically found in other European countries. Summer residences were popular, for example, in France, Switzerland, Germany and Scandinavian. However, in Western Europe to own a cottage or weekend house had a different meaning from that in Czechoslovakia, a high level of exclusivity being the main contrasting feature. In the west such accommodation pointed to wealth and prosperity, whereas in Czechoslovakia almost everybody could afford a cottage or a weekend house. At the end of the 1980’s there was even a weekend housing shortage.
My research is focused on weekend houses. Field research took place in the Jizerske Mountains in the north of the Czech Republic. In the future I plan new fieldwork in other localities and to compare results. I am interested in the period 1950-1989 when Weekend housing went through several phases. These phases were determined by historical events and social situations of that time.
During the first stage – the1950’s and 1960’s – weekend housing was bound up with the German exodus from the border area after the Second World War. Many people had to leave their houses unoccupied and they began to decline. A second aspect of this period was the modernization of the countryside.
The 1970’s and 1980’s are characterized by increased interest in cottages and weekend houses. This trend was caused by the spread of automobiles and by the shortening of the working week from 6 to 5 working days in1968, a time when self-realization in work was not possible. This was also a time when it was impossible to travel abroad because of Communist Party policy, - a period sometimes called 'normalization'.
After the Velvet revolution of 1989, the popularity of weekend houses declined for a short period. People once again had freedom of movement, of expression and to meet socially. The weekend house 'hobby' became very popular but had a different dimension than in previous years.
I am interested in why so many people wanted to own a weekend house. What was their first motivation? When I collected interviews with weekend householders I asked why they paid for an old house, how did they reconstruct it, and finally how did they spend their free time there? In answer to the first question they mentioned the need for contact with nature. Almost every weekend householder came from Prague or another big city. The air was bad there and many children suffered from allergies. Other responses mention the impossibility of going abroad, the unpopularity of mass recreation and the expense of hotel accommodation. An important idea is emerging, weekend housing was very fashionable in the 1970’s and1980’s because it completed the 'triangle of consumption' of that time: to own an apartment, a car, a cottage and a weekend house.
My work is concentrated on the difference between a cottage and a weekend house as well. The main difference between the conduct of these owners is their relationship to other people in the village. For weekend householders it is typical that they often meet people from the village because their houses are mostly in the villages. In contrast, the cottage owners had no such opportunity. Mistrust between farmers and weekend householders is also typical. Farmers mostly called them 'Prague people' even though not everybody came from Prague. Sometimes this attitude developed into hostility between the cities and their surroundings.
My research is focused on the weekend householder’s relationship to folk architecture too. These houseowners generally treated the old houses very well and conserved their original style. It is interesting to note that Czechoslovak law did not develop a term for weekend houses until 1976 despite their popularity. According to the law it was forbidden to own two apartments, however the Communist Party tolerated such activity. Perhaps a reason was that the communists were glad that people spent their time at cottages and weekend houses instead of demonstrating against the totalitarian regime.
This project is focused on the historical background of a specific phenomenon and what motivated people to the purchase these old buildings. The aim is to explain society’s reflection and experience of weekend housing. Many narrators own their houses for a minimum of 20 years, usually even for 40 years. Clearly it is an important part of their life stories. Their narratives don't just tell us about weekend housing. They also explain the social and economic situation of the owners and their relationship to the normalization regime of that time.
Petra Trypesovatrypesova@usd.cas.cz
www.coh.usd.cas.cz
FINLAND
ETHNOLOGICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES OF FINNISH FORESTRY PROFESSIONS.
Finnish forestry has changed radically since the Second World War. These changes are focused on in a new research project, 'Thousand Lifestories', funded by Metsämiesten säätiö. The project is based on interviews from a former project, 'Forestry Professions in a Changing Society - Oral History Project 1999 - 2002', where a thousand Finnish forestry professionals were interviewed. The primary object of the collection was the subjective experiences of forestry professionals. In the 'Thousand Lifestories' project researchers Katri Kaunisto, MA and Leena Paaskoski, MA, from the University of Helsinki, and Tiina Suopajärvi, MA, from the University of Oulu are analysing forestry professionals' life stories, in their Ph.D. theses by using anthropological and ethnological methods.
Tiina Suopajärvi is doing her Ph.D. thesis on Forestry officials' relationships to the forest. Her aim is to discuss informants' relationship to the forest: what was it like in their childhood, during their teenage years, did education change the relationship, what about their job, has it influenced them, or has the relationship stayed similar throughout the years? Her aim is to compare the relationship towards forests between women and men, but also to find out how women see their position in the field of forestry as well as how men in the forestry and other people see them. The other goal of the study is to discuss issues concerning nature conservation themes. Forest conflicts have continued to take place in a similar form and pattern for over thirty years in Finland. In these conflicts, the values of representatives of forestry and of nature conservationists seem to be in a contradiction with one another. In the forestry 'front', economic values are the strongest and in the other 'front' immaterial, mental and even mythical values which help to build up the collective identities tend to dominate. These conflicts still take place and it will be interesting to find out how forest professionals see nature conservation and conservationists.
The development of forestry is connected with the general progress of modernisation in Finnish society. These changes can also be seen at a local level in rural areas and in individual choices. Katri Kaunisto's Ph.D. thesis 'Forestry professionals in changing forestry' deals with changes in manual forest work. This research is focused on forestry workers and the machine entrepreneurs' experiences of changes in forestry. The modernisation of forestry work started when chain saws became common in the 1950s and when, in the 1960s, horses were replaced by tractors. The first harvesters were developed in the 1970s and those became general during the 1980s. Nowadays about 95 per cent of forestry work is carried out with machinery. However the modernisation of forestry work was not only a development of machines, it was also the progress of education, rationalisation and urbanisation. Rationalisation and mechanisation of forest work increase unemployment in the countryside and migration to urban areas. Recently also environmental questions have changed the nature of forestry work and the way forests are managed. How these changes also affected the lifestyles and values of forest workers is the main question in the Kaunisto's research.
About 220 interviews concerning the work and life of university qualified foresters is the main material of Leena Paaskoski's Ph.D. thesis 'In the Degree Forester's Profession, Ethnological research into changes in the degree foresters' professional culture'. University educated foresters have been trained in Finland since the 1860's, and from 1908 at university. At first all the vacancies for university educated foresters were in the service of Forest Government, but during the 20th century their working opportunities have significantly expanded, even outside the traditional areas of forestry on the borders of Finland. Nowadays they work as managers, researchers and specialists in forestry companies, organizations and research institutes, in the areas of economy, media and information technology. The work of these professional foresters has faced a huge change during the 20th century, but how has it affected the profession itself?
Leena Paaskoski's main focus is on professional culture and identity in university educated foresters. This is formed while studying and working in the profession. What are the elements of their culture and identity and how and why they have changed during the time? Their professional culture can be sketched for example by studying the reasons for choosing a profession, university studies, the nature of work, families, social status, forester spirit (foresters' feeling of togetherness), relationship to other forestry professionals and professional traditions. The time dimension stretches between the 19th century to 1990's but most of attention is paid to oral history material concerning the years after the Second World War as a means to understanding these professional foresters' own experiences and views.
Hanna SnellmanFor more information contact: hanna.snellman@helsinki.fi
USA
THE LONG CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT: THE AMERICAN SOUTH SINCE THE 1960S
The Southern Oral History Program, located at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has launched a major new research initiative to document the 'long civil rights movement', the critical decades that followed what has come to be seen as the classic southern phase of the US civil rights movement. That phase, extending from 1955 to 1968, has been richly, and rightfully, memorialized in an outpouring of books, museum exhibits, historical sites, and films. These commemorative efforts, however, tend to treat the freedom movement as if it ended in the mid-1960s with the defeat of legal segregation (the movement's substantive culmination) and Martin Luther King's assassination (the movement's tragic and symbolic end).
Yet it is at precisely this point that the American South embarked on decades of change rivaling in scope and impact the transformation that took place during the tumultuous 1960s. In these years, the American South established the terms of desegregation and contended with the meaning of racial equality and economic justice. Equally important, the scope of 'the movement' grew, as civil rights struggles spawned other social justice movements, even as powerful political and structural forces forestalled more far-reaching change. The result--and the conditions that prevail in the US today--are rife with the contradictory outcomes of this history: de jure integration alongside persistent de facto segregation; economic and political advancement for some previously disenfranchised groups but significant inequality for others; and regional economic growth combined with high rates of poverty and environmental degradation. On these and other measures of societal well being, the fault lines are not only of race but also of class and gender.
The history of this most recent American South lies within the living memory of several generations of southerners, yet we have not captured their reflections on these sweeping changes, nor have we subjected them to the historical scrutiny they deserve. These memories persist nevertheless, affecting the way we live in the present and shaping the choices we make about the future. This lack of understanding of our recent past impoverishes public discourse, undermines civic engagement and investment in public institutions, and truncates our ability to devise remedies for the inequalities that surround us. By documenting the long civil rights movement, we seek to recover a hidden history of the most challenging elements of the civil rights movement, trace the movement's ongoing legacy, and account for the forces that have undermined the dream of a just and inclusive American South.
In order to capture the complexity of the post-1960s American South, our project examines three distinct but overlapping dimensions of the long civil rights movement. The trajectory of the struggle for racial justice will be one dimension of the project. We will pick up the story where many current histories and popular understanding leave off, namely with the passage of landmark anti-discrimination legislation: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Often seen as the culmination of civil rights agitation in the US, these laws can also be taken as the starting point for a history of implementation, contestation, and transformation in the struggle for racial equality and justice, one that stretches into our own time. Since the 1960s, ordinary black and white southerners have set out, willingly and unwillingly, to build integrated institutions; in effect, to build a new society on the ruins of the old. We seek to document this transformation and to probe the subjective experience of integration--its achievements and limitations, the benefits that have accrued and the price that has been paid, and the legacy of what might have been.
A second dimension of the project takes off from civil rights activist Bernice Johnson Reagon's evocative description of the civil rights movement as the 'borning struggle.' It provided inspiration, tactics, and personnel for many of the social justice movements that followed, among them the struggle for inclusion, equality and justice of other racial and ethnic groups; the Black Power movement; labor organizing and union democracy campaigns; the women's movement; and significant elements of the anti-war movement, environmentalism, and the counterculture. We seek to document the generative role of the civil rights movement in launching and shaping movements whose major manifestations lie not in the 1960s but in the 1970s, 1980s, and beyond. We will trace continuities and connections, but we will also account for the fissures that have limited the development of a unified progressive agenda.
The third dimension of the project concerns the forces of reaction and resistance that arose in response to these social justice movements and that often constituted social movements in their own right. A full history of the long civil rights movement and the post-1960s American South cannot be told without accounting for the forces that shaped and ultimately blunted the promise of racial, sexual, and economic equality. In this component of the project, we will probe the roots and mechanisms of resistance, drawing attention both to their institutional manifestations and their expression in daily life.
This is the dense web of action and reaction we seek to sort through, so as to trace how the American South travelled from the movement of the 1960s to the present. We also seek to document how much and in what ways the region has changed in the wake of the 1960s. We are interested in hearing from potential contributors, as we envision a broadly collaborative, interdisciplinary, and multifaceted study of the post-1960s American South. In particular, we welcome input from projects beyond the US that are similarly documenting the history of freedom struggles. To learn more, contact the Southern Oral History Program at info@sohp.org. Southern Oral History Program, UNC-Chapel Hill
For more information contact:
Joe Mosnier, Associate Director, SOHP
email: mosnier@unc.edu
tel:(919) 962-5931
Archive Stories
BRAZIL
In 1808, with the transfer of the Portuguese court to Rio de Janeiro, the first two medical schools were established in Brazil, in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. The Anatomic, Surgical and Medical School of Rio de Janeiro was reorganized in 1832 and besides medical training also offered training in Pharmacy and Obstetrics. Expanding its activities, the School occupied many buildings until 1918 when the central administration and the basic sciences laboratories were installed at Praia Vermelha in a building especially built for this purpose. In this unit, the Library, including books published in the XVI century, and the Archive with administration documents, were finally adequately organized. The archives contain books of student registry and graduation ceremonies, as well as documents that register all aspects of academic life including letters sent and received by the Deans and other teachers. In the early 1920s, the Medical School was integrated with the new University of Rio de Janeiro. In 1974, the Basic Sciences Institutes were transferred to the new University Campus and the building of the Medical School was demolished. The new premises had no adequate place to harbour either the Library or the Archives. Both remained in precarious conditions for more than twenty years. Three years ago, the Central Library of the Center for Health Sciences finally received a grant that has made it possible to start the restoration of the old Medical School Library. But the administrative documents still remain stored in an inadequate place, in approximately 800 boxes and more than 100 books of registry, not organized or adequately identified, inaccessible to researchers.
In its almost two hundred years, the Medical School Archives constitute a body of documents essential to the understanding of the teaching and practice of medicine in Brazil. In order to make these documents again accessible, our laboratory has proposed a project and, in April 2002, received a grant from Jose Bonifácio Foundation. We are now at work, cleaning, identifying and restoring the documents. The oldest one identified so far, is a book for the registration of new students dated from 1813. As the work went on it became ever more evident that the archives needed to be complemented with a section drawing on oral history. This became particularly evident when it became clear not only that documents, especially from the nineteenth century were lost due to inadequate storage, but that relevant events of the twentieth century, particularly referring to the period of twenty years of military governments since 1964, seem scarcely documented. In this period, at least two large reforms of the Medical School curriculum occurred. The students' organizations were closed down and students were arrested for political reasons. School documentation of these events is fragmented, but many of the participants are still able to be interviewed. We decided to expand our original project to include the oral history of medical teaching in Rio de Janeiro in the second half of the twentieth century, including oral history in the Archives of Medical Teaching in Rio de Janeiro.
We are now discussing and planning the interviews which will start with students and teachers from the 1960s, as well as training students who will participate in all stages of the research project. Our first interviews are scheduled for January 2004.
Project coordinator: Diana Maul de Carvalho (dianamaul@hotmail.com)
Researchers: Luiz Fernando Rangel Tura (ltura@centroin.com.br), Jorge Luiz Prata de Souza (Visiting Professor)
Students on research training: Rafael Mello Galliez, Carlos César David de Carvalho (National Council for Research (CNPq) grant.
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Medical School and Public Health Institute (NESC), History and Health Laboratory.
RWANDA
GACACA: RWANDA’S ARCHIVING OF THE 1994 GENOCIDE.
The Centre for Popular Memory’s director Dr Sean Field and AV Archivist Renate Meyer were recently invited to Rwanda, to assist in planning and creating an archive of the audiovisual recordings of people’s testimonies of the 1994 genocide in that country.
The trip to Rwanda is an experience that neither of us will easily forget. Little prepared us for the post-genocide legacies we saw in May 2003, and it remains an experience that was ‘unforgettable’. We were guests of the Aegis trust, which runs genocide prevention initiatives and is working in collaboration with the Rwandan justice department. Drawing from the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings, amongst others, Rwanda has developed an innovative approach to achieving justice and memorializing the genocide.
In 1994, it is estimated that over 800,000 people in Rwanda were murdered in 100 days, by police and army, but perpetrators also included hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens. We visited the sites not only of genocide mass killings but also attended gacaca courts (literally translated gacaca means ‘on the grass’). These voluntary courts blend traditional and modern forms of legal procedure to achieve reconciliation and justice. Ultimately there will be 9000 of these courts in various districts of Rwanda to try perpetrators.
These courts are being filmed as part of an audiovisual archiving project to ensure the lessons of the genocide are not forgotten. It is estimated the courts will be in action for the next three years and the plan is to film as much of the process as possible. Our main contribution was to help them plan how to film and archive it, within their budget. This process of long term archiving needs and best practices is essential as the AV material forms an invaluable part of the country’s memory.
Back in South Africa the CPM is training a number of interns to conduct trauma and memory oral histories of South Africa. These projects will contribute to our growing audiovisual archive that now includes over 1300 hours of audio in 5 languages and 300 hours of video. We are also in the process of building a digital repository, which will provide online users with access to all available material through streaming audio, transcripts and translations. For more information about the Centre for Popular Memory visit our website: www.popularmemory.org.
Renate Meyer
Audio Visual Archivist
Centre for Popular Memory
www.popularmemory.org
Renate Meyer (left) and Dr Sean Field (right) with school children at the Gitmara genocide site in Rwanda.genocide site in Rwanda.
From Mouth to Page
Books
Bruno De Wever & Pieter François, Gestemd verleden. Mondelinge geschiedenis als praktijk [Voice of the past. Oral history as a practice], Brussels, Vlaams Centrum voor Volkscultuur [Flemish Centre for the Study of Popular Culture], 2003, 72 p.
The last decade’s oral history evolved into a multifaceted field. The object as well as the method and the uses of oral history require a whole spectrum of skills. This manual opens up the most important international literature, brings the field itself into focus and contains a treasury of hints as well as an overview of the different ways of (re)presenting oral history. Useful is the bibliography containing the most relevant literature and the most important web links about oral history. The target group of this manual is various: cultural heritage associations, archives, (historical) museums, exhibition builders, cultural (field)workers, cultural brokers, etc. ‘Voice of the past. Oral history as a practice’ is a useful instrument for everybody who wants to put oral history in practice. The publication is in Dutch.
Order now B. De Wever & Pieter François, Gestemd verleden. Mondelinge geschiedenis als praktijk [Voice of the past. Oral history as a practice], Brussels, Vlaams Centrum voor Volkscultuur [Flemish Centre for Popular Culture], 2003, 72 p., ill., ISBN 90-77094-10-5, €8,00 (excl. shipping), see www.vcv.be.
Journals
ORAL HISTORY - Vol 31, no 2, 2003
ARTICLES:
| . | Analysing the analysed: transference and counter-transference in the oral history encounter, Michael Roper |
| . | Hardship, help and happiness in oral history narratives of women's lives in Ireland, 1921-1961, Catriona Clear |
| . | Support not scorn: the theory and practice of maternity almoners in the 1960s and 1970s, Rona Ferguson |
| . | 'I live on my memories': the return British migrant and the possession of the past, Alistair Thomson |
| . | Stories of love, pain and courage: AIDS orphans and memory boxes, Philippe Denis and Nokhaya Makiwane |
PUBLIC HISTORY
| . | Unseen stories: video history in museums, Steve Humphries. |
FUNDING
| . | Young Roots and oral history, Rob Perks. |
REVIEWS:
| . | Caribbean Families in Britain and the Trans-Atlantic world, Harry Goulbourne and Mary Chamberlain; Seeking the Enemy, Lorraine Sitzia and Arthur Thickett, Women, Class and Education, Jane Thompson, Not quite sisters: women with learning difficulties living in convent homes, Mary Stuart; The roots ov environmental consciousness; popular tradition and personal experience, Steve Hussey and Paul Thompson; The Oral History Manual, Barbara W Sommer and Mary Kay Quinlan; Writing your Life Story, Michael Oke; Onion Johnnies, Ian MacDougall; Lethal Work: a history of the asbestos tragedy in Scotland, Ronald Johnson and Arthur McIvor; Voices of Leith dockers, personal recollections of working lives, Ian MacDougall; Living with oil, BBC Radio 4; The Museum of Liverpool Life. |
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All the articles are abstracted on the Oral History Society website: http://www.oralhistory.org.uk |
|
HISTORIA, ANTROPOLOGÍA Y FUENTES ORALES - N. 30 (2003)
Memoria Rerum
| . | The Book of Memory. Mary J. Carruthers |
| . | Remembrance in history. Mercedes Vilanova |
| . | The components of a witness account according to Paul Ricœur. Josefina Cuesta |
| . | Interview with Paul Ricœur. Jean Blain |
| . | Introduction to «Plural memories». José Antonio G. Alcantud |
| . | What words say (and frequently gets lost). Jean-Pierre Albert |
| . | The memory of oral tradition accounts, a creative remembrance. Marlène Albert Llorca |
| . | Genealogical memory and political representation in Lozère. Yves Pourcher |
| . | Memories of concentration camps amongst gypsies of the Pau region. Jean Luc Poueyto |
| . | Oral sources: an instrument to understand the past or the lived experience? Jean-Louis Ormières |
| . | Flag(s), fatherland(s), national anthem(s). Emotional and comparative itinerary through Spanish and French national symbols in the pre- and pan-european context. José Antonio G. Alcantud |
| . | Biography as critical methodology. Kathy Davis |
Put it in Writing
WORDS AND SILENCES
WORDS AND SILENCES / PALABRAS Y SILENCIOS was sent to all IOHA members by regular mail last October. We, the editors, apologize for the delay. Unfortunately there were a number of knots to untie on the way. However, you have probably received your copy and have been favorably impressed by both form and contents. I think you will agree that the wait was worthwhile. This issue contains several short pieces discussing the experience of politics in oral history in Latin America, Europe and Africa. It also includes three longer articles on the same subject by Alexander von Plato, Dora Schwarzstein and Jose Carlos Sebe Bom Meihy, as well as interesting reports on the work being done in Spain on the Comisiones Obreras oral history collections. Enjoy your reading!
If you are a member of IOHA and have not received the journal, please send me an email (gnecoechea.deh@inah.gob.mx) to make sure we have your correct address.
The journal’s next issue will deal with the use of oral tradition and history as legal evidence and with reflections on frustrating or frustrated interviews. We will not face as many obstacles for the coming issue, so the Journal will be out in June 2004 as long as you send in your contributions. Please consult the IOHA web page for details.
Gerardo Necoechea, co-editor
CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: THE ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIA (OHAA), From All Quarters, OHAA Journal 2004, No. 26.
From All Quarters welcomes reports on oral history projects, or articles on theoretical, ethical and methodological issues reflecting the 2003 conference themes of diversity in practice and purposes are sought for the 2004 issue. Of particular interest are issues concerning authority in oral records, such as the role of interviewers and rights of interviewees, the approach of the interviewer as author of interviewee's biography, and appropriation of voice in the authoring and interpretation of presentations of interview material. Project reports which offer reflections on theoretical, ethical and practice issues are also encouraged.
The Journal is issued annually, and takes its title from the OHAA national biannual conferences. Many papers presented at "From All Quarters", the OHAA conference in Perth, September 2003, were published in the OHAA Journal 2003, and others not yet published will be included in the 2004 issue. Offers of papers not presented at the conference about issues and projects which authors wish to share with the oral history community in Australia are welcome. Photographs and other illustrations or images are encouraged.
Deadline for receipt of copy is 31 March 2004. Please apply to the editor for a copy of the Brief Style Guide. Editor: Mr Francis Good, PO Box 462, DARWIN NT, 0801 AUSTRALIA
E-mail: francis.good@nt.gov.au
Tel.:+61-8-8924-7651 (Bus.) +61-8-8927-4747 (After hours)+61-408-837-735 (Mob.) Fax: +61-8-8924-7660
Copies of the OHAA Journal 2003, and some copies from previous years can be obtained from: Rosemary Block, President, OHAA, State Library of NSW, Macquarie Street, SYDNEY, NSW 2000, Australia, email: rblock@ilanet.slnsw.gov.au.
IOHA Newsletter Guidelines and Deadlines:
Copy is preferred as Microsoft Word attachment. Footnotes included in items should be included only in parentheses and not formatted.
Images and illustrations should be scanned at 72 dpi, compressed to under 100k and sent in jpg format.
Send via e-mail to both co-editors:
Joanna Bornat: j.bornat@open.ac.uk
Rina Benmayor: Rina_Benmayor@csumb.edu
Maximum Length:
· Future conferences, meetings, and other announcements - 250 words
· Conference reports - 500 words
· Archive News - 500 words
· New Projects - 1000 words
Deadlines:
· October 15 - posted to website in January.
· April 15 - posted to website in June
IOHA Membership Details
The International Oral History Association (IOHA) was formally constituted in June 1996 at the IXth International Oral History Conference in Goteborg, Sweden. The Association provides a forum for oral historians around the world, in order to foster international communication and cooperation and a better understanding of the nature and value of oral history. Benefits of membership include:
Membership is open to any individual or institution supporting the aims and objectives of the Association. The Association is governed by a Council elected at the General Meeting of the biennial international oral history conference. The President of the Association is Janis Wilton from Australia and current Council members come from Brazil, England, Germany, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the United States.
For membership forms, go to Membership on the IOHA website. For enquiries e-mail the Association's treasurer, Almut Leh (almut.leh@fernuni-hagen.de).
Fees for two-year membership (July 2002 - June 2004)
· Individuals: 46 Euros
· Institutions: 92 Euros
· Students: 23 Euros