S S 1 0 O RA L H I S T O RY P R O J E C T W O R K S H O P

ORAL HISTORY

WHERE I AM STARTING FROM…

Why do we record “history”?

How is history most effectively recorded?

What form of historical record is of greater value:

WHERE WE ARE GOING…

What is oral history?

What is the value of oral history?

How do we integrate oral history as part of our work?

INDIGENOUS GOVERNANCE ORAL HISTORY PROJECTHOSTED BY UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

For Indigenous peoples oral histories are vital for reflecting our lived experiences, our responsibilities as individuals, and for re-establishing our governance roles within families, clans, and communities.

Unfortunately, Indigenous oral histories seldom make their way into the university classroom as a central part of the curricula. This project proposes to change that by conducting an oral history of the WCIP utilizing Indigenous undergraduate and graduate researchers and then making the oral histories available (with permission from the individuals and communities involved) in a graduate research seminar: Indigenous Governance 550: Self-Determination & Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Elders, youth and other community participants will be invited to speak and participate in this class.

http://web.uvic.ca/igov/index.php/oral-history-project

CANADIAN ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION

For centuries the communication of historical information was exclusively oral. With the advent of writing, however, people came to rely almost entirely on written documents for information about the past, but much that was communicated orally was lost. The advent of sound recording technology has once more enabled students of the past to collect and use information communicated by speech.

Oral history, therefore, refers to recorded interviews with individuals about the past, or first-person reminiscences. The primary form of the oral history document is the recorded human voice. This document, in turn, may be applied as informational source material or directly in sound or transcribed form.

Among those who create and use oral history are professional historians, family and local historians, journalists, broadcasters, archivists, educators, folklorists and sociologists. The Canadian Oral History Association recognizes these practitioners and other kinds of users and is open to those in allied fields who use sound recordings as cultural records.

http://www.canoha.ca/

DO HISTORY

Oral history is the systematic collection of living people's testimony about their own experiences. Oral history is not folklore, gossip, hearsay, or rumor. Oral historians attempt to verify their findings, analyze them, and place them in an accurate historical context. Oral historians are also concerned with storage of their findings for use by later scholars.

In oral history projects, an interviewee recalls an event for an interviewer who records the recollections and creates a historical record.

Oral history depends upon human memory and the spoken word. The means of collection can vary from taking notes by hand to elaborate electronic aural and video recordings.

The human life span puts boundaries on the subject matter that we collect with oral history. We can only go back one lifetime, so our limits move forward in time with each generation. This leads to the Oral Historian's Anxiety Syndrome, that panicky realization that irretrievable information is slipping away from us with every moment.

http://dohistory.org/on_your_own/toolkit/oralHistory.html#WHATIS

WHAT IS ORAL HISTORY?

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF ORAL HISTORY?

Historical Significance

HOW CAN WE INTEGRATE ORAL HISTORY?

As steps

As an orientation (ethos + ethics)

WHERE HAVE WE GOTTEN TO? Why do we record “history”?

How is history most effectively recorded?

What form of historical record is of greater value:

What is oral history?

What is the value of oral history?

How do we integrate oral history as part of our work?