International Oral History Association
IOHA NEWS
Newsletter of the International Oral History Association
(published twice a year)
Number 7, January 2001
Face to Face
ITALY
A LETTER from Alessandro Portelli
Dear friends -
The institution that houses all my life work in oral history and folk music (as well as that of many other researchers, activists, and artists) is about to disappear due to the bureaucratic inertia and cultural shortsightedness of our local government. If you would like to help us, please e mail me (a.portelli@agora.stm.it) with your name and institutions. Thank you! - Sandro Portelli.
The ëFranco Coggiolaí archive and library, established in Rome by the Circolo Gianni Bosio, has lost its space. This archive is the result of over thirty years of field work in oral history, folk music, popular culture, in Rome, in Central Italy, and in parts of the United States and other countries. It has been declared an ëarchive of relevant historic interestí by the regional authorities. It includes over 3,000 hours of recordings, as well as books, records, videotapes, and has served as the basis for important scholarly work, The ‘Franco Coggiola’ Archive is the source for all the oral history documents published in a recent collection sponsored by the local administration on the Resistance in Rome, as well as for the revival, study, and teaching of oral traditions and folk music. The Archive had to give up its historic space (a cellar in the neighborhood of San Lorenzo) because the dampness was destroying the tapes and books. The goodwill shown in countless meetings with city officials has not resulted in a concrete alternative. The Archive was recently forced to remove its collections from the temporary space offered by a cultural association (‘Ex Rialto Occupato’) because, during maintenance work, the power cables were cut off and six months of meetings and discussions with city officials and the electric company have not sufficed to have restored! A democratic society and its culture thrive on independent, accessible, highly qualified structures such as the ëFranco Coggiolaí archive and the Circolo Gianni Bosio. The civic spirit of those who keep them going, the knowledge preserved and made available, the activities (stages, seminars, music) that make it a living space, the resources offered to scholars make them especially important as a democratic cultural resource for the city of Rome and beyond.
We therefore invite all local institutions, as well as cultural and political organizations, to operate toward making this important resource once again available to citizens, cultural workers, artists, and scholars. In a spirit of public service, the Circolo makes the materials of the Archive available by arrangement. For information, and for the catalogue, email bosiocircolo@hotmail.cot.
ARGENTINA
THE HISTORICAL institute of the City of Buenos Aires (IHCBA)
The mission of the Historical Institute of the City of Buenos Aires (IHCBA), under the Secretariat of Culture, is to conduct research, serve as a consultative resource, and to house and preserve documentary collections. The motto, "History is Memory, History is the Present, History is the Future," guides the IHCBA's work of documenting,, interpreting, and preserving the city's historical past. At the same time, the Institute sponsors cultural work that actively engages community members in a collaborative effort to makes sense of the past, connect that past to the present, and commit to building a new future. The IHCBA was created during the return to democracy in Argentina in 1983. In1984, it initiated a Program in Oral History, reestablishing the social importance of historical research and using oral history methods in reconstructing the recent history of the city.
After long years of dictatorship and with the goal of rebuilding the social fabric of the city, restoring identity, and reinforcing a sense of belonging, the Institute carried out community research projects, based on a workshop approach, and created an oral archive. Since August, 2000, Professor Lidia Gonz·lez has assumed the directorship of the Institute, upon her predecessor's appointment as National Director of Museums, Arts, and National Patrimony.Now, both institutions (IHCBA and MuseumsÖ) plan to undertake joint projects. Both are working with the Oral History Program at the University of Buenos Aires to plan the 5th National Oral History Meeting, scheduled for mid-August, 2001.
Currently, the Institute is collaborating with the National Institute for Social Services on a project involving senior citizens and retirees.The National Institute for Social Services deals with health, recreation, and social action for seniors. Ninety clients are being interviewed around the theme of "work". At the same time, the Institute continues to conduct workshops in different cultural centers, connecting community historical research to the theme of "work." The theme of "work" was chosen because work reflects a particular way of relating to the world and to others that is dynamic and that changes with time and circumstances.Like all other components of identity, work is not free from conflict, and in the present relations and conditions of work are undergoing drastic changes. The relationship between women, gender, and work is an integral component of the research.In this initial stage, researchers are interviewing women who, through their professions, have made significant contributions.
Beginning in 1998, the Program has been gathering "testimonies" of residents of poor, marginal communities. The purpose is to incorporate these communities into the urban space, geographically and in the social imaginary, giving them a space to participate as neighbors in the city. The project's publications also try to break down public fear about these communities.Access to marginalized and generally "forgotten" communities implies slow and hard work but the testimonies are inescapable. Research has begun on the creation of the first psychopathology services in public hospitals. These date from the 1960s, and some of the first providers of these services have been interviewed.
This year, the Institute began offering Oral History methods classes to high school students in one of the oldest and most prestigious high schools in the country, the Buenos Aires National School, which is connected to the University of Buenos Aires. The goal is that through this methodology, students can begin reconstructing the modern history of the school, giving special emphasis, in accordance with their expressed interest, to the decades of the sixties and seventies. The Institute also gives individualized workshops and consultation sessions to students and historians who use oral history in their research. The Oral History Program in the Institute edits Voces Recobradas (Recovered Voices), an oral history journal, the first of its kind in the country.Eight issues have been published, on a quarterly basis, with a run of 2000 copies each.Issue 9 is in editorial process and is due to appear at the end of the year.
Oral history publications this year include the first volume in the series The Protagonists titled "De la Boca, un pueblo" ("From La Boca, One People"), which reconstructs the history of the community through the testimonies of its residents; and the second edition of Algunos Apuntes de Historia Oral (Notes on Oral History).
In December, the Program will be editing a book titled Monsignor JerÛnimo Podest·: The Revolution in the Church. The book is based on interviews with Monsignor Podest·, witness to and protagonist in the last decades of the century. The Oral History research team produced two issues of The Chief Chronicler of Buenos Aires, a publication of the Institute which showcases various research projects or features an historic date, a building, etc. The first issue, Stories that Make History: Work, came out of the research on the world of work; the second, a re-edition of Voices and Memories of the Twentieth Century, a product of the project titled "A Review of the Century By All."
The Program's video project produced an historical series on Buenos Aires neighborhoods: "La Boca," " Parque Patricios" and "Abasto," as part of the collection "Testimonios". In the series "Immigrants at the End of the Century," videos were made on the Ukranians, Bolivians, and Koreans. The Institute also produced "Voices and Memories of the Twentieth Century," a companion video to the research on the last century.
Lidia Gonzalez, Director of IHCBA and Merecedes Miguez, Coordinator of the Oral History Program of IHCBA
AUSTRIA
SIMPLE FAILURE or successful bullying? An Austrian Province and the Building of an Oral History Collection
This brief report is concerned with the building of an oral history collection for the Austrian Vorarlberger Landesarchiv (Vorarlberg Provincial Archives). It reflects work in progress. For a more detailed account see: Wolfgang Weber, 'Mass of Trash' or Veins of Gold'? An Investigative Report on the Relationship Between Oral History and Archives, Roderer Verlag, Regensburg 2000.
In 1994, the Dr-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek, a private research institute in Salzburg, invited the Vorarlberger Landesregierung (Vorarlberg Provincial Government) to collaborate on a research project about the history of the Austrian provinces (LÊnder) from 1945 to 1995. The government agreed and ordered its Archives Department (Landesarchiv) to take the necessary steps for realisation. This was due to the fact that there are no universities or other research institutions in the Vorarlberg Province. In theory the Archives is divided into two work units, the historical archive and the administrative archive. The administrative archive is responsible for all active and inactive governmental records after 1918. Consequently, it also serves as the records centre of the provincial government. The archive management nominated the person holding the only academic post in the administrative archive to become responsible for the Dr-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek research project. I will refer to him as the senior archivist throughout the course of this report. Research was established as a priority in the senior archivistís archival duties, and the senior archivist formed a working party in association with a history professor at Innsbruck University to run the prospective project on the history of the Vorarlberg province post 1945. The two project leaders installed a research team of 20 historians whose task was to compile a study on the history of the Vorarlberg Province from 1945 to 1995 according to the specification provided by Dr-Wilfried-Haslauer-Bibliothek.
During the course of the research it became clear that the written tradition of the 50 years under study was very fragmentary. The project leaders decided in 1996 to initiate an oral history programme. The general theme was to be the province's history in the 20th century with special consideration shown to the second half of the century. The general goal was to fill the gaps in the written heritage and to collect qualitative knowledge about the province's past. Because of this wide range of aims, biographical interviews conducted according to the technique developed by the German sociologist F Sch¸tze were seen to be the most promising method. Sch¸tze aims to produce narratives grouped around the interviewee's biography rather than around so-called big historical events. Consequently, they result in a more general historical account based on an individual life story. This was the kind of information that was felt to be needed for the Haslauer-Bibliothek project and to supplement the Vorarlberg Archives holdings. Investigation into legal and technical expertise showed that costs for technical equipment were reasonable. Legally, special considerations would have to be made to protect the intervieweesí anonymity. Recruitment of interviewees was to be done through newspaper advertisements. A pilot advertisement in the province's biggest newspaper in January 1996 saw 45 responses. This initial recruitment and information gathered was to act as a recruiting ground for a pilot archival oral history programme.
After the encouraging result of this initial phase the prospective oral history programme was taken into the stage of analysis. For a better understanding of the analysis phase it is necessary to comment on the institutional reality of the Vorarlberg Archives. The Vorarlberg Archives was founded in 1898 as the records repository of the provincial government. ‘The careful storage of governmental documents’ is still its central raison díÍtre. In addition, it was established to document and research into local history. In my opinion, these tasks could justify an engagement in local oral history, even though the absence of any modern archives management tools at the Vorarlberg Archives such as a corporate plan, a business plan, a mission statement, an acquirement policy, a records management programme, an appraisal policy, a preservation policy, a future plan etc. complicates such justification. Academically, the reliability of oral history for local history is undoubted.
According to British experiences of similar projects, the minimum number of staff for an oral history programme is two interviewers, one transcriber and one technician. The total number of Vorarlberg Archives staff in 1996 was ten. Seven of them were related to the historical archive and had no free work capacity. The same was true for the three employees constituting the administrative archive. The senior archivist was the only staff member who held the necessary qualifications to run an oral history project, for example, degrees in contemporary history and qualitative research methods. The analysis did not show satisfying results in personnel and time terms, but was more encouraging in institutional and money matters. For political reasons, the provincial government was very interested in running an oral history interviewing programme due to the positive response the advertisement in the local newspapers provoked. This was also the case for Vorarlberg Archives’ management. The programme was seen to have the capacity to boost its profile in public and supplement its 20th century holdings. The government’s Education and Science Department was willing to spend some money on a prospective project, but only temporarily and the amount was limited.
It soon became clear that prospective funding would only be enough for one interviewer and one transcriber on a free-lance basis. The Vorarlberg Archives agreed to consider the costs for equipment in its annual budget. It also declared its willingness to release its senior archivist from his work duties for the time necessary to conduct the interviews on the condition that he would take charge of the prospective oral history collection. Such responsibility included the design of an archival management concept for oral records, its implementation and the compilation of a publication based on the pilot interviews. Once the personnel question was solved in this fairly satisfactory way, the chronology and content of the pilot project could be designed by the senior archivist. In total, 18 work-months for the external interviewer/researcher and 6 for the transcriber were funded. The expected outcome was multi-layered: The Science Department as the sponsoring body wanted to see a publishable academic manuscript based on oral history interviews, the Archives the establishment of an oral history collection and the contributors to the local history project of the Haslauer-Bibliothek precious new sources about the political and social history of the province between 1945 and 1995.
These various expectations demanded a two-fold design, academic and archival. In this project oral history should be understood as an intentional academic discipline. The collected oral histories would establish a separate management group in the Vorarlberg Archives, arranged by provenance of individual projects. The Archive’s role would be that of an active sources creator. It might also serve as a documentation and service centre. The method to gather oral data would be the biographical interview for the reasons mentioned above. Auto/biographical narratives facilitate both academic and archival appraisal. The Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt developed an archival concept for such data. According to the Berlin concept, the main access point is the transcribed interview. Transcription is phonetic, guidelines for this full score transcription were released. Administrative and intellectual control is based on a three-fold documentation. The big advantage of this three-fold documentation is that it actually reflects the work which is carried out during research activities with the biographical method. As the Vorarlberg project had the task of producing an academic study and an oral history collection it seemed logical to follow the Berliner Geschichtswerkstatt model.
In July 1996 the research proposal was submitted to the Science Department. The project was divided into four phases. Phase 1 was planned for 1997. It was intended to carry out the life history interviews with a representative figure of 23 of the people who responded to the advertisement in the local newspaper. In addition, all interviews were to be transcribed. All of the six funded transcribing months and one out of 18 interviewing months would be consumed. In phase 2, scheduled for 1998/99, the rest of 17 work months for the external interviewer would be used. In collaboration with the senior archivist the external interviewer who at the same time was a qualified researcher should evaluate the interviews academically and produce a printable manuscript. Because the needs for research are similar to the needs of archival processing, the third phase of the project could start in parallel and end in 2000. Phase 3 should be concerned with the design of an archival concept and its implementation. Finally, phase 4 in 2001 would be dedicated to evaluation and promotional activities like publication of the printed manuscript and the presentation of the implemented Vorarlberg oral history collection at national and international conferences. In autumn 1996, the proposal was approved and the release of the senior archivist for project purposes guaranteed verbally.
In January 1997 the project moved into the implementation stage. All 23 interviews were carried out. Approximately, 1, 200 hours of oral records were produced. The project was promoted in public in this phase. This was achieved by small features about the Vorarlberg project on local radio and in local newspapers as well as with academic articles. In parallel, the senior archivist drew up the essential forms for archival appraisal and worked on an acquisition and appraisal policy as well as an accession register for oral records. This proved to be unexpectedly difficult and labour-intensive due to the ‘institutional realities’ I mentioned in the analysis stage. The complete absence of any archival, personnel and records management control instruments made it necessary to design all these activities from scratch. The promises made about the senior archivists release from daily archival business were proven to be wrong during the implementation phase in 1999. The research proposal only contained general statements about the senior archivist's involvement, but no concrete figures in work hours, for example. This enabled all involved to appear to be interested in a completion of the oral history programme, but left unchallenged the unacceptable work load of the senior archivist. The impression grew that to the Archives the implementation of an oral history collection became secondary. So did the compilation of an oral history study of the province - for various reasons.
Nevertheless, the entire Vorarlberg project is about to enter the stage of evaluation currently. This phase is characterised by reviewing and abstracting the contents of interviews and an overall evaluation of a project. This appears to be an ideal moment to perform an interim stock-taking. So far all goals were achieved in accordance with the research proposal's chronology. Now the Vorarlberg Archives must decide if it wants to sabotage a successful programme due to insufficient personnel and business management or if it wants to win prestige by completing the project and all of its proposed goals. Luckily, the academic part was outsourced to a free-lance researcher and in the worst case this person will be able to finish the research without archival support. The completion of the archival part of the project is much more uncertain. If the negligence in archives management policies continues, the prospective Vorarlberg oral history collection is in serious danger of being delayed or worse, never completed. In that case, the archival appraisal of the interviews must still be completed, but oral records should be deposited in an alternative archive for future use. In my opinion, it would be irresponsible not to make these oral records accessible at a professional institution.
In conclusion, the history of the Vorarlberg oral history project shows that careful planning based upon international experience and guidelines may not be sufficient for success. Additional considerations have to be given to human emotions and structural factors. Support by superiors remains at the level of theory if it is not documented word by word in a work-contract. No matter how well and how professionally a programme is designed, it is defenceless against organisational imperfection and human arrogance.
Wolfgang Weber
Wolfgang.Weber@vlr.gv.at
ENGLAND
SURVIVORS Add New Voices to Dark Chapter in Medical History
If you were removed from society, force-fed drugs, locked up without trial for committing no crime; where would you be? In a war zone or under a dictatorship perhaps? The answer is startling: England, at least up until very recently. A groundbreaking collection of video interviews that gives voice to the silent survivors of Britain's now defunct psychiatric institutions, the 'Testimony Archive' will be launched by The British Library in partnership with Mental Health Media on November 28th. Over the past two years fifty people were recorded by trained interviewers, themselves also former mental health service users.
Mental Health Media is a charity that works to promote a more realistic and positive image of mental illness and the people whom it affects. It provides training and media skills for sufferers so that they can participate and be heard in the public arena. The 'Testimony Archive' will change attitudes to ensure that those with mental illnesses are never again stigmatised to the degree that they will be treated as less than human and be denied a voice and say in the running of their lives.
Government policy has shifted from institutionalisation towards community based care and many of the old hospitals have now disappeared. To ensure that this disturbing period in mental health care is not forgotten, former patients were invited to talk about their often-harrowing stories for preservation in The British Library's National Sound Archive, which is one of the world's largest oral history collections.
The resulting 'Testimony Archive' is a chilling document of what can happen when a portion of society is stigmatised and separated from mainstream life. The Archive will provide an invaluable resource for medical practitioners, detailing from the point of view of the patients, the impact of the buildings, people and practices that controlled their lives. First erected in Victorian times to look after the 'welfare' of those deemed to be a danger to themselves or society, psychiatric institutions were homes to many thousands of people labelled with arcane medical diagnoses such as 'mental defective' and 'imbecile'. Of those interviewed many were diagnosed as mentally ill for behaviour that would be viewed differently by today's standards: Teenage rebellion, pregnancy outside of wedlock, illegitimacy, were anathema to the strict societal codes of the day and invited harsh retribution. Rob Perks, Curator of Oral History at the Library commented: 'This unique series of interviews will be an important addition to the National Sound Archive's oral history collection. The interviews provide some remarkable insights into the way in which, within living memory, our society has responded to mental health. What has startled us most was the brutality and credenzas of some of the so-called treatments.'
For further information contact Dan Beety at The British Library Press Office,020 74127110, or email daniel.beety@bl.uk and Mental Health Media at info@mhmedia.com, tel +20 77008171.
Rob Perks
From Page to Mouth
GREECE
RESISTANCE FIGHTERS Oral History Archive
‘On 15 October 2000, a team of scholars signed contracts commissioning a research project. The agencies financing the programme are the Department of Political Science and History of the Panteion University, the Institute for regional Development of the Panteion University, and the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Fighters' Oral History Archive.
’The programme is entitled: “Compilation of an Archive on the Anti-Dictatorship Struggle 1967-1974”, it will be completed in 20 months (by 15.6.2002). Within the framework of this programme. I am responsible for the compilation of the Resistance Fighters' Oral History Archive. The Oral Archive programme is directed at and will include the 900 members of the Association, which was founded a little after the fall of the Dictatorship. Its purpose is the preservation and the protection of the historical memory relating to the abolition of democratic liberties by the dictators' regime and the highlighting of the battles fought by the Greek people for the restoration of democracy and the extension of its freedoms.
‘Efforts will be made to collect systematically, to file in archives, and preserve material of any type having to do with the activities of the members, such as: documents, printed matter, photographs, oral testimonies, and videos, for future use by historical research into this critical period for Greece, as well as to make a complete record of organizations, their aims, members, and action.
‘The compilation of the Resistance Fighters Oral History Archive will be completed at this stage according to the method which has been selected, in four steps:
1. Questionnaire on identity, to include the 900 members of the Association.
2. A special thematic questionnaire, focusing on their ideological and political identity, to be completed by a smaller number of members. These will be selected on qualitative criteria, to be determined in order to identify the sample of 30 with whom, at this stage:
3. Life narratives will be recorded on magnetic tape and video.
In parallel with this stage of research:
4. The compilation of the individual files of the 30 persons will begin.
‘These will include the material on their life and action which they have in their possession, suchas: documents, printed matter, photographs, correspondence, etc. This material will be supplemented with data acquired from other sources, such as: courts, prison and public services archives, press records, etc.
‘Mercedes Vilanova's book, Las Mayorias Invisibles, incorporated in the series “History: Oral Testimonies”, (supervised by me) appeared in early October. There will be a presentation of this publication in early February 2001, when the author is in Greece.’
Aleka Boutzouvi, Historian
Athens University, Department of History=20
SPAIN
MIGRATION to Catalunya Oral History Project
In response to a call for projects by the journal Historia, AntropologÌa y Fuentes Orales and IOHA members Pilar Gomez and Luis Ubeda, a group of high school teachers and students have initiated an oral history project on migration to Catalunya, The objectives of this project are didactic, pedagogical and civic. The project aims to deepen students' understanding of the importance of migration in Catalunyaís contemporary history, including the significant non-European immigration to the region in recent years. It also encourages students to reflect on their grandparents' and parents' contributions in building modern Catalunya.
Catalunya, a region with its own language and culture, has significant industrial zones which have attracted large and longstanding migrations from other regions of Spain. In fact 50 per cent of Catalunya's current population is comprised by immigrants from the rest of Spain. More recently, the region has experienced an influx of immigrants of non-European origins. New immigrants are establishing themselves in marginal areas, in villages and cities, where previous waves of migration have settled.
Over the course of two school years, fifteen teachers and their students will conduct oral history interviews.These interviews will be archived in the respective schools. Each study will develop its own focus, depending on the sociological context, the level of the students and resources. The project is limited to the region of Catalunya and the majority of the participating schools are located in working class areas.
The results of this project will be presented at the June 2002 IOHA meeting in South Africa. The results of the project will be published, along with supporting materials about the respective schools.
Pilar Gomez, a history teacher and a member of the IOHA Council, oversees the project. She welcomes information regarding other similar projects in any region of the world. She may be reached via email: pgomez1@pie.xtec.es
USA
VETERANS Oral History Project
With the support of 235 plus co-sponsors, the House of Representatives easily passed legislation on October 4, 2000 directing the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to establish a program to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of American war veterans.
Introduced by Representative Ron Kind (D-WI), the Veterans Oral History Project Act (H.R. 5212) creates a new federally sponsored and funded program to coordinate at a national level the collection of personal histories of war veterans and to encourage local efforts to preserve their memories. The legislation authorizes the Director of the Folklife Center to enter into agreements and partnerships with other "government and private entities and may otherwise consult with interested persons" in carrying out the provisions of the act.
A total of $250,000 for FY 2001 is authorized to be appropriated. A companion bill (S. 3135) has been introduced in the Senate by Senator Max Cleland (D-GA); it mirrors the House passed bill. The legislation is expected to be enacted this Congress.
Reported in
NCC WASHINGTON UPDATE, Vol. 6, #35, October 12, 2000 by Bruce Craig <rbcraig3@juno.com> of the National Coordinating Committee for the Promotion of History
From Mouth to Page
MINUTES of the International Oral History Association Council Meeting, 17 June, 2000 Istanbul, Turkey
Present: Marieta de Moraes Ferreira, Anne Ritchie, Janis Wilton, Mercedes Vilanova, Nukhet Sirman, Joanna Bornat, Verena Alberti, Almut Leh, Rina Benmayor, Tayba Sharif, Pilar Gomez, Philippe Denis, Anna Green.
Attending for the discussion concerning the next conference: Sean Field and Jonathan Grossman.
Agenda
The items to be placed on the agenda for discussion and resolution were agreed.
Election of officers
Treasurer and membership secretary for IOHA: Almut Leh
Secretary for IOHA Council: Anna Green
Conference Programme Committee: Mercedes Vilanova (Chair), Philippe Denis, Tayba Sharif, Nukhet Sirman, Janis Wilton and Verena Alberti.
Janis Wilton reported that the Istanbul Programme Committee, in consultation with the Turkish Committee, will present a final report including recommendations for future conferences.
Constitution and By-law Committee: Anne Ritchie and Joanna Bornat.
The committee will review the IOHA constitution, and draft by-laws to clarify procedures.
Web Site
Rina Benmayor will prepare a concept and design for the IOHA web site, and explore the options concerning its future location.
Publications
It was drawn to the Councilís attention that Almut Leh, as the IOHA Treasurer, must be consulted before the expenditure of any money.
i. The Newsletter
Rina Benmayor and Joanna Bornat agreed to prepare and edit the IOHA Newsletter, which will be translated by Mercedes Vilanova in Barcelona. There will be two Newsletters per year, dates to be determined. It was agreed that, if possible, the Newsletter will be put on-line in future.
ii. Words and Silences
The Spanish issue of Words and Silences for 2000 will be available after the Istanbul conference.
The next issue of Words and Silences is due out in April 2001. Discussion took place concerning production costs and the frequency of publication, and it was suggested that IOHA consider one bilingual issue per year.
Marieta de Moraes Ferreira will ask Dora Schwartzstein if she is willing to assist with the production of Words and Silences.
Affiliated membership to IOHA
It was agreed that there be one fee for all national oral history associations electing to take up affiliated membership to IOHA. The fee was set at US$90 for a two-year membership.
Marieta de Moraes Ferreira will send out a letter to national associations explaining the terms and cost of affiliated membership.
Email list of conference participants
There was discussion concerning the request for an email list of all conference participants. Some Council members expressed concern that this might conflict with privacy legislation. It was suggested that all conference participants be contacted via email to ask permission. Nukhet Sirman agreed to see if this was possible.
IOHA Conference, 2002
Jonathan Grossman and Sean Field joined the meeting. Following discussion it was agreed that a process of consultation in South Africa regarding the next conference will be undertaken, and Philippe Denis will communicate the decision to the IOHA Council within three months.
The meeting was closed at 11.15 p.m.
Anna Green
XII CONFERENCE PREPARATIONS. Report from South Africa
As requested by the IOHA Assembly in Istanbul, a wide consultation took place in South Africa in July and August. Regional meetings were held in Cape Town (6 participants), East London (15 participants) and Pietermaritzburg (12 participants). In addition a number of people have been contacted by phone and by mail.
This led to a national consultation which took place in Pretoria, in the conference room of the National Archives of South Africa, on 25 August, 2000. Twenty-six people from all over the country were present.
Our recommendations are as follows:
1.Venue
Only proposal came from the University of Natal. The meeting unanimously supports this proposal.
The University of Natal has two campuses: Durban and Pietermaritzburg. We recommend Pietermaritzburg for the following reasons: (i) the hosting organisation, the Oral History Project of the School of Theology, is based in Pietermaritzburg; (ii) historical significance of the city (oldest colonial town in Natal; site of Gandhi's arrest in 1983; close to the site of Mandela's arrest in1962; memories of the war between Inkatha and UDF/ANC in the late 1980s and early 1990s; (iii) medium size city (half a million people) with easier access to hotels and conference venues; (iv) Durban is heavily booked during the peak season.
Pietermaritzburg is situated 70 kilometres from Durban. There are six daily flights both ways between Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg.
2.Dates
Preferred dates: Monday 24 to Thursday 27 June 2002.
It is noted that the Grahamstown Arts Festival usually takes place during the first week of July.
3.Organising committee
Philippe Denis, School of Theology, University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg (convenor)
Sean Field, Western Cape Oral History Project, University of Cape Town,
Martha Mothlabane, Free State Archives, Bloemfontein
Sibusiso Ngcoya, Provincial Archives, Ulundi
Otsile Ntsoane, Department of Arts, Culture and Social Services, North West Province
Sibongile Simelane, Witwaterstand University Historical Papers, Johannesburg.
Julie Wells, Department of History, Rhodes University, Grahamstown
4.Theme and subthemes
We unanimously recommend the following theme: "The power of oral archives: memory, healing and development."
We all agree that in oral history the process of recording oral testimonies is as important that the final results of the research in terms of academic knowledge.
Subthemes:
- the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
- oral history and land claims
- preservation and dissemination of oral archives
- oral history and digitisation
5.Language
English and Spanish will be the two official languages. However, Zulu and Sotho will be also used in the publicity, on the site of the conference and on some official occasions.
6.Involvement of local oral history projects and grassroots organisations
From various quarters came the suggestion that there should be a few satellite conferences before and after the main conference in various parts of the country so as to facilitate interaction between local oral history practitioners and international visitors.
7.Finance
Realistic conference fees will be charged. However, in order to allow the participation of colleagues from Africa (and possibly other developing countries), we shall try to offer bursaries.
The following bodies and institutions should be approached:
- Unesco, Paris
- National Research Foundation, Pretoria
- Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Pretoria,
- Saudi Arabia Oral History Project
- Spanish and Latin American embassies (for translation costs)
- local companies.
8.Entertainment
The provincial department of arts and culture is prepared to organise cultural events on the occasion of the conference.
9.South African Oral History Association
The local organising committee will act as the interim committee of the still-to-be-founded South African Oral History Association. The new association will hopefully be launched at the conference.
Your editors
We’re signing off our first newsletter now. We hope you like the new format. We’ve enjoyed putting it together but of course if it’s any good at all that’s because you’ve been sending us news of the projects, publications and conferences you’re involved in. So do keep sending us news for the next and subsequent newsletters. See below for copy deadlines.
Items should be not more than 1-1500 words long and in electronic format where possible. You can send electronic copy to either of us. Images and illustrations should be scanned and submitted electronically or sent as hard copy to Joanna. Our addresses and emails are:
Joanna Bornat
School of Health and Social Welfare, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AAemail: j.bornat@open.ac.uktel: (1908) 65 4270fax: (1908) 654214Rina Benmayoremail Rina_Benmayor@monterey.edutel: (831) 582-3798fax: (831) 582-3780Spring issue: copy assembled in October and November ready for Spanish translation by 1 December. On website by end of January.
Autumn issue: copy assembled in March and April ready for Spanish translation by 1 May. On website by end of June.
International Oral History Association. Invitation to become a member.
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:
- concessionary rates for the biennial international oral history conferences
- copies of Words and Silences, the annual, bilingual (English and Spanish) Bulletin of the IOHA (containing oral history reports, an index of oral history journals from around the world, special items and commentaries on oral history issues)
- access to the IOHA home page on the world wide web
- voting rights at the Association's General Meetings and Council elections
- active participation in the international community of oral historians.
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 held at the biennial international oral history conference. The President of the Association is Marieta de Moraes Ferreira from Brazil and current Council members come from Australia, Brazil, England, Germany, New Zealand, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Turkey and the United States.
For membership enquiries e-mail the Association's secretary and treasurer, Almut Leh (almut.leh@fernuni-hagen.de).
Fees for two-year membership (July 2000 - June 2002)
Individuals:90DM / 46 *
Institutions:180DM / 92 *
Students:45DM / 23 *
