By Sherrie-Lee Evans, OHT scholarship winner
The opening plenary session with the keynote address by Alessandro Portelli was a highlight of the conference. Portelli has been a leading practitioner of oral history whose career dates back to 1972 when he founded the Circolo Gianni Bosio, an activist collective dedicated to studying folklore, oral history and people’s culture.
Portelli ’s comments and reflections on the practice of oral history which resonated with me included:
- Memory is a relationship between two moments in time.
- The difference between testimony or factual reporting of an event versus the meaning of the event for the person – what are the traces left in people’s souls?
- Respect the silences if they don’t want to talk; silences can be more eloquent.
- The importance of listening to voices which normally go unheard.
- What you have in common makes the interview possible; the difference between you makes it interesting.
- History is always a reconstruction of events, a recreation of the past.
One of the conference presentations I found most relevant for my research came from Ron Adams in the Interpreting Oral Storytelling session. Ron’s talk, ‘The poetics of oral history: recalling the past, rehearsing the future’,discussed the idea of history as memory, dependent on re-telling and speaking to the present. Ron identified some key principles in his approach to oral history interviewing including:
- ‘Discovering the past’ – how it is transformed into history;
- This transformation happens in the present;
- There is a need to focus on the occasion or circumstances [the context] in which a story was told or a document written.
This approach should lead to the interviewer asking some important questions, including:
- In what ways is the narrator talking about themselves?
- Who are they talking to?
- What are the implicit messages or purpose of the story (values, meaning and action)?
He suggested that an interviewer is responsible not only for recording stories but identifying the underlying power structures and what impact recording the stories does to those structures.
The presentation of my own research proposal on ‘Australian Cultural Resource Management in Antarctica: The Case of Mawson’s Huts’ was well received and generated some more detailed discussion, with a number of participants approaching me afterwards to say they would be interested in hearing about my results. The conference ranged across two days with both plenary and parallel sessions including sessions which focussed on the practical aspects of oral history interviewing: approaches and issues, making audio-visual oral histories, podcasting, interpreting oral storytelling, interview relationships and making oral history books, exhibitions and performances. There were also sessions which focussed on specific themes and oral history projects including: environmental history, business history, refugee and migrant oral history, indigenous testimony and truth telling, women’s history and oral histories of protest, activism and rights. Sometimes it was very difficult to choose between sessions that were being delivered at the same time!
I also attended two training workshops. The first workshop, ‘Where’s my paddle? Managing Issues when recording oral history’, was presented by Dr Nicolette Snowden and Dr Miranda Francis. The workshop prompted interviewers to reflect on what prompts the ‘flood of fear’ in an interview – the fight, flight or freeze reaction. We were encouraged to be self-aware in identifying the triggers which might prompt these reactions in us as the reactions are often a sign that ‘your best thinking is going off-line’. The presenters also talked about the importance of identifying potential issues before they arise, having a support network or ‘buddy’ that you could discuss issues with, and creating your own network of other researchers. The value of having a backup recording was discussed as well as considering if you need a script to introduce your research to the interviewee.
The second workshop, ‘Interpreting Memories’ presented by Al Thomson, reminded us that as interviewers in a sense we create our sources by interpreting the memories/lives of others. It is important to understand how people have learnt to tell stories, including their own; and how the meanings behind the stories may have changed for the narrator over time. There was an emphasis in the workshop on ‘deep listening’ – what is said and what is not said and well as how it is said (tone, pitch, emphasis and emotion, choice of vocabulary). It is also important to look for transition points within an interview – the point at which the narrator has an epiphany or realisation about something (an event they experienced for example) while they are talking to you. Abilities or skills for the interviewer, which were emphasised as important included:
- Immersion
- Imagination
- Rigour (documentation, data organisation, categorisation, display)
- Reflexivity
The presenters recommended writing notes as the interview progresses and asking, as a last question, for the interviewee to reflect on their experience of being interviewed and if there is anything they would like to add.
This workshop was very helpful in assisting me to understand how my approach to oral history – as a way of testing a hypothesis by checking data – is different from ‘whole of life’ interviews based on grounded theory which are more interested in understanding the historical experience and how it shapes people’s lives.
The closing plenary was a presentation by the Yoorrook Justice Commissioners Sue-Anne Hunter, Travis Lovett and Anthony North KC about their current work in truth-telling in Victoria.
The conference dinner was accompanied by a wonderful sung and spoken presentation the Sharing Stories Through Song concert presented by Naarm/Melbourne’s iconic multicultural music organisation the boîte and featuring ARIA award winning folkloric singer Kavisha Mazzella and acclaimed writer and spoken word performer Arnold Zable. This linking of oral history interviewing with performance of oral history was a very fitting way of concluding what was a very stimulating experience.
I would like to express my appreciation for the support I received from Oral History Tasmania by way of a scholarship which allowed me to attend the conference and associated workshops.