
Oral History Tasmania
(OHT) is a volunteer-run organisation dedicated to promoting the ethical practice of oral history to all those interested, from family and community historians to academics and people involved in the media.We encourage everyone to learn the best way of doing oral history and offer workshops and seminars along with equipment hire and scholarships to national conferences. OHT is a member of Oral History Australia.
Latest news
OHT annual Launceston seminar
Registrations are now open for the Oral History Tasmania (OHT) seminar to be held in Launceston on Saturday 13 September.
Precarious oral history collections
Calling all holders of oral history collections in Victoria. Are you confident that your collection will be safe in 10, 20…
Workshop registration now open
Registration for the Oral History Tasmania workshop to be held in Glenorchy on Saturday 24 May 2024 is now open. To…
And the winner is …
Victoria’s top oral history award goes to Alexandra Pierce for her podcast series ‘Women, Conscription, War’. Oral History Victoria warmly congratulates…
Upcoming events
August 2025
22augAll DayNew date! Graduate Oral History IntensiveOHV 4-day programTRAINING
Event Details
Four-day online course, 22-23 August and 5-6 September 2025, offered by Oral History Victoria.Taught by Carla Pascoe Leahy, Sarah Rood and Alistair Thomson. For trainer profiles, see the booking site
Event Details
Four-day online course, 22-23 August and 5-6 September 2025, offered by Oral History Victoria.
Taught by Carla Pascoe Leahy, Sarah Rood and Alistair Thomson. For trainer profiles, see the booking site here.
Are you a PhD, Masters or Honours student, or a post-doc, about to start a research project using oral history – and need training to get you on the right track? Perhaps you’ve already started a graduate oral history project and want advice and support? You may be a historian, or you work in another social science or humanities discipline that uses life story interviews. This four-day, online training course could be just what you need.
In August 2025, three of Australia’s leading oral historians, in partnership with Oral History Victoria, are teaching this popular oral history intensive course aimed at university research students. We will teach you how to plan an oral history project and apply for ethics approval. You’ll learn how to create excellent interviews and document the recordings for use in research. We’ll explore approaches to analysing interviews and interpreting memories. And we’ll consider how to write a thesis using oral history and to create other types of oral history productions.
You will be active participants in the teaching and learning: reading a selection of key texts, bringing examples and issues from you own research, workshopping issues with the group, conducting practice interviews, discussing interview extracts from each participant, and developing a peer support group of graduate oral history researchers from around Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
Each day school will be taught online via Zoom, from 9.30am-4pm Australian Eastern Standard time. The course will be limited to 18 participants.
Feedback from participants in this course in 2024:
“Many thanks for a terrific 4 days from the three of you from OHV … so valuable in redirecting and redrafting my research project. Initially I had doubts about the full value of a
4 day zoom meet with 14 or 17 post grads, but it exceeded all expectations.”
“It was terrific to have access to such skilled teachers/facilitators and to come together with other graduate students and to receive such a vast array of helpful resources.”
“I was very happy with the course – expert presenters who were very respectful of/responsive to the participants, great management with everything running on time, different formats to maintain interest, relevant/engaging activities especially listening to everyone’s interview extracts.”
“Al, Carla and Sarah, you made such a warm and welcoming environment! You were all engaging, and passionate and held space for everyone’s opinions and thoughts. Thank you!”
Course outline
Day 1 Friday 22 August – Planning Your Oral History Project & Seeking Ethics Approval
Day 2 Saturday 23 August – Creating & Documenting Oral History Interviews
(fortnight break while participants conduct practice interviews)
Day 3 Friday 5 September – Interpreting Oral Histories
Day 4 Saturday6 September – Making (Oral) Histories in Writing and other Media
Course fees:
$500 for Oral History Victoria and Oral History Australia members
$750 non-members
Closing date for registration – Friday 8 August.
We anticipate participants will draw on funds from their own or departmental graduate research budgets. For students without access to research funds, bursaries might be available from state and territory oral history associations.
OHV is offering up to four bursaries to assist with the cost of registering for this training for students unable to source support from their academic institution. For further details of the terms and conditions and the application form, please see the Graduate Training Programme Student Bursary Policy and Selection Criteria. Bursary Applications must be submitted by midnight on the 1st August, 2025.
Download the form here.
Registration via https://events.humanitix.com/ohv-training-graduate-oral-history-intensive
Contact: for further information and to discuss the course, please contact: Alistair.Thomson@monash.edu
Virtual Event Details
Join the live stream
Time
22 August 2025 All Day(GMT+10:00)
Organizer
September 2025
13sep10:00 am2:30 pm2025 OHT Launceston SeminarRegistrations Open
Event Details
The program for OHT’s annual seminar has been finalised. It will be held 10.00 am – 2.30 pm in the meeting room, Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston’s Inveresk on Saturday
Event Details
The program for OHT’s annual seminar has been finalised. It will be held 10.00 am – 2.30 pm in the meeting room, Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston’s Inveresk on Saturday 13 September.
10.00 Doors open
10.30 Helene Boyer, Swampie stories from the ‘Venice end’ of Launceston
A retired teacher and now artist, Helene has lived in Inveresk for 25 years. For the past three years she has been gathering ‘Swampie stories’ from past and current Inveresk community members to be published this year in her book On the Swamp, a history of one of Launceston’s earliest villages. She will share the experiences and insights gained in interviewing community members and documenting their stories, including those of families who have lived in the same house for generations, descendants of early settlers from Scotland and mid-twentieth century European migrants.
11.30 Jean Elder and Rhonda Hamilton,
Exploring Tasmanian gardens, landscapes and the people involved
Jean Elder is a retired social worker and social researcher based in Hobart. Rhonda Hamilton has worked in cultural institutions in Tasmania for many years managing collections and presenting exhibitions. Together they have conducted 17 oral history interviews for the Tasmanian component of the Australian Garden History Society’s National Oral History Collection.
In this presentation they will explore the key themes that have emerged from the oral history interviews, sharing insights gained along the way – always informative, occasionally humorous and sometimes surprising.
12.30 Lunch
1.30 Jennifer Jerome, Community Archives at the State Library
Did you know that the State Library and Archives of Tasmania collects family papers, photographs, oral histories and records of community groups? In this session, archivist Jennifer Jerome will introduce the ‘Community Archives’ collection, explaining how you can contribute. She’ll also guide us through a range of treasures in the collection, explaining how to uncover records related to places, people, and events.
2.30 Close
Cost (includes lunch): Oral History Tasmania members: $30
Students, pensioners: $30
All others: $35
Click here to Register
Note: Registrations close on Thursday 11 September.
Enquiries: president@oralhistorytas.org.au
Lana: 0435 861 927
Time
13 September 2025 10:00 am - 2:30 pm(GMT+10:00)
Location
Queen Victoria Museum
Inveresk
Organizer
16sepAll Day19IOHA Conference 2025Re-Thinking Oral History
Event Details
The 23rd International Oral History Association (IOHA) Conference is scheduled for Kraków, Poland from 16-19 September 2025.The theme of the conference is Re-Thinking Oral History.Biennial conferences of the International Oral
Event Details
The 23rd International Oral History Association (IOHA) Conference is scheduled for Kraków, Poland from 16-19 September 2025.
The theme of the conference is Re-Thinking Oral History.
Biennial conferences of the International Oral History Association (IOHA) allow for reviewing the global conditions and problems of oral history, regardless of the actual conference theme. This time, however, the organizers of the 23rd IOHA Conference call on oral historians worldwide to consciously rethink the idea and practice of their discipline.
Oral history today faces both old and new challenges with long-lasting and unpredictable consequences: the crisis of liberal democracy, growing tensions in international politics, climate change with its devastating outcomes on human life, increasing inequalities, wars, and mass migrations. All of the foregoing not only affect the conditions in which oral history is made, but also compels us to rethink its very aim. For Central and Eastern Europe, the full-scale Russian aggression in Ukraine beginning in February 2022 and its consequences are an especially painful reminder of that. Though oral history was, and still is a part of history, it has always been conscious of the responsibility (oral) history has for the current society. Aware of that mission, we encourage the global oral history community to return to the core questions of our practice: what kind of histories should we tell and pass on to the current and future generation
Find out more about the conference at: https://ioha2025.conference.pl/.
See the Call for Papers – https://ioha2025.conference.pl/en/call-for-papers. The deadline for proposal submissions was 31 August 2024.
Time
16 September 2025 - 19 September 2025 (All Day)(GMT+02:00)
Location
Kraków
October 2025
15octAll Day18OHA (United States)Exploring Our American Stories
Event Details
The annual meeting of the Oral History Association will be held from 15-18 October 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.The year 2025 marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence
Event Details
The annual meeting of the Oral History Association will be held from 15-18 October 2025 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The year 2025 marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence was signed. For this year’s Annual Meeting, the Oral History Association will convene people around the question: What is America?
Participants will reflect on the ways in which American identity is documented, framed, and perceived by its citizens and the world.
Just as Americans have proven their resilience and capacity for change, oral history, as a field, has been undergoing a paradigm shift towards radical inclusivity. The Annual Meeting serves as a gathering space to amplify practitioners finding new possibilities, generating new approaches, reassessing best practices, and recalling and refurbishing the fundamentally democratic impulse of oral history practice.
Find out more about the conference including the program, workshops, tours and registration:
Time
15 October 2025 - 18 October 2025 (All Day)(GMT-04:00)
Location
Crowne Plaza
Organizer
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