2024 OHNSW Committee planning day

The Oral History NSW commitee recently met to discuss events and priorities for the 2024 year.
This was a particularly special meeting for us as it was our first in-person meeting with all committee members present, something we haven’t been able to do since the COVID pandemic!
We were beyond thrilled to be together in the same room finally, and discuss how we can support our members in NSW and the ACT, and encourage further dialogue and expertise in the field of oral history.

We always want to know what interesting and diverse projects our members are working on, and want to help you share this information across our network. Please share your updates or any links to projects with us, you can contact the editor of our regular e-newsletter Network News, and visit us on social media.

Our Grants and Awards have just opened for 2024: we will be supporting two members to attend and present at this years Oral History Australia Conference in Melbourne, as well as our annual Community History Award and our biennial Regional Engagement Award.
Applications close on 30 August 2024 and you can find out more about each one here.

Any events will also be posted on our website, social media and advertised in Network News.

On behalf of the commitee, we are looking forward to meeting with you in person and online soon.

Maria Savvidis, President
Oral History NSW

History Council of NSW Annual Awards & Prizes

On the 5th of December the HCNSW Annual History Awards were announced and presented at the Hyde Park Anzac Memorial Auditorium in Sydney.
The awards across a broad range of fields total $5,500 in prize money and support and acknowledge contributions towards historical practice and theory and celebrate history in all its diverse forms.

You can read more about the winners and prize presentations here

Oral History NSW would also like to congratulate Treasurer and Network News editor Dr Alexandra Mountain on receiving a special commendation at the awards for her work with the Society of Australian Genealogists on the digital history project, Ironclad Sisterhood: Convict Women in Australia.

More information on this project can be found here

2023 Annual General Meeting - Oral History NSW Inc

Thank you to everyone who attended our AGM recently in October.
It was wonderful to see everyone online and review our organisation’s work in the past year as well as look ahead to our future plans for 2024.

At the AGM we announced the winner of our annual Community History Award, and heard from member Graham Shirley who presented on the Australian Media Oral History Group.

• Margaret Gray was the successful recipient of the 2023 Community History Award for The Silent Generation and will be presenting more about this project at a later date online for Oral History NSW.

The following were elected at the AGM on 28 October 2023:

• President — Maria Savvidis

• Vice-President — Scott McKinnon

• Treasurer — Alexandra Mountain

• Secretary — Laura Anderson

• Public Officer — Eureka Henrich

• Committee Member — Andrew Host

• Committee Member — Kathy Kallos

• Committee Member — Emma Ramsay

• Committee Member — Margaret Leask

We would also like to sincerely thank outgoing committee member and former President Shirleene Robinson for her unwavering passion and commitment to Oral History NSW over the years.

You can read the President’s Report here.

Course: Recording and Documenting Community History

In this blog post OHNSW Committee member Emma Ramsay writes about attending the recent CMTO course presented by Dr Elaine Rabbitt.

Dr Elaine Rabbitt (left) and Emma Ramsay (right).

Oral History provides invaluable evidence about the past, and it provides invaluable evidence about the significance and meaning of the past in the present life of the narrator and their society.
Taken from the ‘Statement of Value’, care of Oral History Australia

A group of media workers from the community radio and podcasting sector met on Gadigal lands of the Eora people (Sydney), across two days in April 2023 to participate in an accredited course presented by the Community Media Training Organisation (CMTO) and the Community Broadcasting Foundation (CBF).

Participants were fortunate to learn practical skills and theory in ‘Recording and Documenting Community History’ from esteemed social historian Dr. Elaine Rabbitt; a CMTO trainer, and the author of this culturally important nationally accredited training module (AHCILM404).

Day one began with an introduction to best practice, followed by a discussion and review of cultural protocols to implement when conducting oral histories. Day two involved interactive activities with a focus on listening, engagement, recording and administrative essentials in creating oral histories.

To learn from a range of Dr Rabbitt’s rich and complex experiences in the field was fascinating, insightful and encouraging to the learning group, who were able to bring their own professional experiences to the energising discussion. Her facilitation pulled focus to detailed cultural subjects of importance, guiding concepts and fun ways to engage with creating oral histories.

The course expanded our previously held understanding of oral history. It gave us pathways of how to integrate oral history practice, alongside our existing cultural audio practices and was a great way to network with practitioners from different fields, sharing an emerging passion for oral history.
It marks an exciting time in the sector with a range of opportunities across cultural sectors to profile the rich legacy and exciting futures for oral histories in Australia.

Elaine Rabbitt has a PhD in Oral History. She is the Training Manager at Goolarri Media Enterprises and President of the Broome Historical Society & Museum. She has collected oral histories for local, state and national cultural institutions and is a Committee Member of Oral History WA.

Emma Ramsay is a committee member of OHNSW, and broadcast and archive worker with experience in the community media sector and media archives.

Recording narrated memories - Oral History in Troubling Times: Opportunities & Challenges.

Louise Whelan is a photographer and oral historian, and a recipient of the 2022 Oral History NSW Conference Grant awarded to two presenters attending the Biennial Oral History Australia Conference in person. Louise writes about her project, and presenting and attending the conference held in Launceston.

There was a certain irony of delivering a presentation on the experiences and challenges of recording the extreme and historically durational droughts in Australia at the oral history conference October 2022. Tension and uncertainty were felt, as rains fell in Launceston, rising waters levels encroached on land, and flood mitigation processes implemented at the river’s edge. This was more than a nod to the challenges related to our changing environment.

Drought conditions in Broken Hill NSW 2019. Photograph by Louise Whelan. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales.

My talk was based on oral histories and photographs I produced about the NSW Drought, acquired by the State Library of NSW. The interviewees ranged from a 5th generation pastoralist, mental health nurses, cotton farmers, a wool classer, volunteers from the Country Women’s Association and many more. Also in the collection are interviews with Aboriginal elders about climate change, drought and the Murray Darling River system. This documentation was as much about water management as it was about the drought.

The combination of the two disciplines - oral history and social documentary photography during prolonged drought was to some extent traumatic. I was listening and looking with a narrow intention - the ear telling the eye where to look and vice versus. The listening gathered momentum during this real time drought disaster. I witnessed and recoded stories of death, loss of hope, financial hardship, generosity as well as migration of both people and wildlife.

Far from a stand-alone oral history project, I presented as an oral historian, photographer and artist. The work combined images, orality, and the arts as a way of processing environmental trauma.

Artwork created by Louise Whelan as a way of processing environmental trauma. Natural dye fabric with embroidery stitching.

My trepidation of an image-heavy presentation with artistic expression reflection turned to relief after the Keynote presentation by Mark Cave. Mark reflected on the historic New Orleans collection In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina by combining photographs and oral history edits, the images giving a deeper meaning to oral history, a sense of the visual scene during the disaster.

Mark presented on the idea that while the experiences of recording oral histories during disaster is central for cultural memory deposits for our nations, recording during or not long after a crisis presents challenges for both the interviewee and interviewer. I could completely relate to Mark’s ideas that healing of communities can happen when reflecting on the shared experience. As an oral historian, listening, not contextualising, experiences of recorded memory is key to oral history practise. During disaster the listening also becomes an act of generosity.

Mark’s presentation prompted reflective thoughts for me. Unlike fire, floods, or hurricanes, during a drought there were no sirens, no State Emergency Services or urgent responses. The First responders were the Country Women’s Association, mental heath nurses, and to some extent me, the oral historian, listening, bearing witness and validating the crisis by way of the interview and photographic documentation. My reaction to their stories and disclosure is important.

From inception to presentation this work came full circle.
Changes and challenges associated with environmental disasters have been preserved in pre-literate cultures long before the settled colonies and cultural institutions. My first dive into the research for this work was reading Peter Nunn’s The Edge of Memory. Peter looked at oral history stories and myths that have scientifically verifiable facts of historical climate events. He cites the story of the Narungga people (Australia), stories that have remained extant for at least 9330 years. Stories that continue to be told not just as myths but as ways of communicating knowledge for survival across generations.

Uncle Bruce Shillingworth. Muruwari and Budjiti man, artist and Water for the Rivers creator of Yaama Ngunna Baaka. The dry riverbed at Walgett NSW 2019. Photograph by Louise Whelan.

During my on-the-ground-research I met with Aboriginal Elder and water activist and advocate Uncle Bruce Shillingsworth. I was invited by Bruce to take part in the Water for the Rivers Corroboree. A convoy of people from around the state, we camped on the Darling River in Walgett, Bourke, Brewarrina, Menindee  and Wilcannia. Through dreamtime stories passed down orally for tens of thousands of years, I listened to Elders and learned about the river systems and drought stories affecting First Nations people. The corroborees were performed as a way of singing the water back into the rivers. It rained.

Whilst camping in Walgett I met with Gamilaraay man Allan Tighe, who discovered megafauna bones during the drought in the dry riverbed of the Darling River. This internationally significant find included a giant goanna lizard 7 metres long weighing 1000 kg that became extinct 50,000 years ago. During his oral history interview Allan reflected on the fact that the discovery of these megafauna match-up with the Dreamtime stories of his country.

Hearing Dreamtime stories on the Murray Darling River. Water for the Rivers trip. Brewarrina NSW 2019.
Photograph by Louise Whelan.

Not only in English: Oral histories with Cantonese (or other non-native English) speakers in Australia

Long Yin Ko was a recipient of the 2022 Oral History NSW Conference Grant awarded to two presenters attending the Biennial Oral History Australia Conference in person. She reflects on her oral history work and presenting and attending the Conference held in Launceston.

When I moved to Australia three years ago, it never occurred to me that I would be practising oral histories in Cantonese. Growing up in Hong Kong, I received anthropological training, and interviews in my native tongue were the bread and butter of my education; however, when I moved to an English-speaking country, I felt like I had forsaken all my advantages. Day after day, I began to wonder how those before me adapted to a new life here in Australia. My own skills in interviewing and attempts to find answers inspired a collaborative project. Unlike previous projects conducted in English, this oral history project would be in Cantonese.

Attending my first-ever conference! Photo courtesy Christopher Cheng.

Now, three years of recording oral histories have led to another privilege: attending my first-ever conference. The biennial conference, ‘Oral History in Troubling Times: Opportunities & Challenges’ in Launceston. This was a chance to rub shoulders with ‘giants’ in our field, whom I have long admired.

After our presentation, Ellen Forsyth notified us (Christopher and I) that she was one of the authors cited in our paper. Her important research ‘What if I speak Another Language’ (2021), with Oriana Acevedo, encouraged members of Australia’s culturally and linguistically diverse communities to work with libraries to expand their collections, and so she was glad that Christopher Cheng and I were doing just that by working closely with the State Library of New South Wales.

Kate Bagnall and Sophie Couchman, being familiar with the Chinese language, encouraged us to think about how we, as interviewers, are shaped by our own background as Cantonese-speaking Chinese Australians. In hindsight, I think interviews could only take place because they were done in Cantonese. In other words, oral histories in community languages allow non-English speakers (whose English may not be their first or best language) an opportunity to have their stories told. Beyond that, even though I was often the same generation as the narrator’s children, I could relate to my narrators on a level that their kids couldn’t. My narrators commented that it was easier to talk to me since their kids were often less articulate in their mother tongue. Also, I was able to better understand our culture and history and, more importantly, what it was like to be a newcomer in Australia.

Personally, doing oral histories have immensely helped me to adjust to life in Australia. Positive feedback from fellow conference participants has also greatly encouraged us to continue. We hope that more Cantonese or other non-English sound recordings will be made allowing future generations of non-English speakers to benefit from the wisdom and experience of those who have come before us.

In fact, as Christopher and I were getting ready to leave our dinner table after the presentation, we were surprised to run into a fellow conference attendee. Having heard our session, we were told how she is now more motivated than ever to begin a project with migrants from a country where she had spent time abroad. Certainly, it was very satisfying to hear that oral history projects in languages other than English were being considered just hours after our presentation. This was not something we could have anticipated when we first submitted our conference abstract.

2022 Annual General Meeting - Oral History NSW Inc

Thank you to everyone who attended our AGM recently in October.
It was great to see everyone online and review our organisation’s work in the past year and look ahead to our future plans - hopefully with more in person events in 2023.

At the AGM we also heard from two of our Oral History NSW grant and award winners about their winning projects:

• Sandra Pires spoke about Yesterday Stories as winner of the 2022 Community History Award

• Francesca Beddie from The Bundanoon History Group (BHG) discussed their project about the 2019/20 bushfires as the winner of the 2020 Oral History NSW Regional Engagement Grant.
  

The following were elected at the AGM on 29 October 2022:

• President — Maria Savvidis

• Vice-President — Scott McKinnon

• Treasurer — Andrew Host

• Secretary — Laura Anderson

• Public Officer — Alexandra Mountain

• Committee Member — Shirleene Robinson

• Committee Member — Eureka Henrich

• Committee Member — Emma Ramsay

• Committee Member — Margaret Leask

You can read the President’s Report here.

Studies in Oral History Journal: new issue out now!

The latest issue of the Studies in Oral History Journal was officially launched at the OHA conference in Launceston in October and is now available online via open access.

Special Issue no.44 looks at Migrant Voices: Community Collaboration and Telling Migration Histories and is guest edited by two Oral History NSW committee members: Alexandra Dellios and Maria Savvidis.

You can view or download the entire issue online for free by visiting the Oral History Australia website or clicking on the title page below.

Voiceprint now online

Voiceprint was the name of the print newsletter for Oral History NSW. It was released quarterly between 1994 and 1999, then biannually. In the modern Internet era, Voiceprint became redundant and ceased production in 2015 when Network News - which had already been in production for many years - took over.

Many thanks to Sandra Blamey who arranged for the printed editions of Voiceprint to be scanned, they can now be viewed on our web site:

https://www.oralhistorynsw.org.au/voiceprint

We have all but one edition of Voiceprint (number 45 - October 2011) which is missing.
If you have a copy of Voiceprint number 45 please get in touch with us so that our collection can be complete!

Congratulations : Dr Shirleene Robinson AM

Oral History NSW warmly congratulates our brilliant colleague, committee member and past president Dr Shirleene Robinson on being appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) earlier this month.

Shirleene received the Queen’s Birthday honour for significant service to the LGBTIQ community, to marriage equality, and to history.

You can find out more about Shirleene’s work, research and advocacy here