Oral history:
- is the recording of memories of people’s unique life experiences. Often the only way to find out about the past is to ask someone who knows about it.
- creates a record or supplements existing ones. Through oral history the past comes alive. People can be much more interesting than documents.
- can be especially useful in recording the experiences of ordinary people whose voices have previously been ignored or silenced.
- preserves the past for now and for the future. The recording of oral history is a two-way process in which someone shares memories with an interviewer who has carefully planned an interview.
- preserves voices, accents and vocabularies of individuals interviewed.
How may it be used?
Oral history is used by a wide range of practitioner for a variety of purposes including:
- for the life histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other groups who may be poorly represented in written sources
- for family history
- for research purposes in tertiary education studies
- for inclusion in interactive websites
- in corporate and institutional histories
- in museums to enliven displays
- in publications to capture readers imaginations
- in radio, television and plays to promote authentic voices of the past
- to trace the history of a local community
- to encourage children to treat people as living history books, at the same time increasing understanding between generations.
Links
Go to the website of our national organisation Oral History Australia for information about the value of oral history and examples of its use.