OH NSW Conference Grant: Listening Geographies: the risks and possibilities of recording oral history in a ‘place’ - Port Kembla.

Congratulations to Jennifer Macey who was awarded one of our two conference award grants for presenters attending the Biennial Oral History Australia Conference in person. We warmly encourage you to read more below about Jennifer’s work in oral history and her personal experience of attending the conference.

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I am a journalist by trade and for the past 25 years I’ve been interviewing everyone from Presidents to pig farmers to kids to Nazi resistance fighters. Interviewing is my bricks and mortar, so the switch to Oral History should be a simple progression. Yet Oral History still feels to me like the Holy Grail of interviewing. It’s longer, it’s more detailed, it’s more intimate. If done right, an oral history can unearth some sparkly new piece of history. But am I doing it right?

So it was with great excitement and a great honour that I was granted a student scholarship from Oral History NSW to attend my first Oral History Australia Biennial Conference in November, 2024 in Naarm Melbourne to listen and learn from Australia’s finest.

My PhD project is an oral history podcast interviewing people living and working in Port Kembla. Yet I struggle with the tension between interviewing for facts, to plug narrative holes, to create imagery with the art of allowing someone to simply tell their life story. Alessandro Portelli’s keynote was surprisingly gentle yet profound and seemed to speak directly to my concerns. He challenged us to not to ask too many questions but “just (be) there to listen”.

It was almost impossible to choose from all of the enticing sessions so I sought out those panels discussing either podcasting or a ‘place’. First up: Rivers, Emotions and Environmental Change: Voices from the Murray Darling Basin. Margaret Cook outlined the tricks she uses to draw out reticent farmers (a packet of biscuits among others). Katie Holmes described how people discussed climate change “in the place where it was happening”.

Karen Twigg showcased the online StoryMaps making the interviews accessible to the community. My notebook filled up with ideas and possibilities for my own research. Emma-Jean Kelly, from Aotearoa New Zealand talked about how best to translate the Maori language in a culturally sensitive way for her podcast Te Rauparaha: Kei Wareware. Alexandra Pierce turned her vast oral history collection of women protesting against the Vietnam War into a podcast what a feat!
Daniel Bacchieri interviewed buskers from Melbourne’s Bourke St Mall about how they survived the COVID lockdowns. Louise Whelan interviewed AND took stunning photographic portraits of women working in Australia’s Space Industry.

As a baby academic doing interdisciplinary research in Geography, Podcasting and Oral History I tried to incorporate the idea of ‘place’ into the conference theme, Risks, Rewards & Possibilities of Oral History. I posed the question, “What are the risks and rewards of where we record the oral history interview?” What are the risks of recording inside the Port Kembla steelworks (it’s very loud!) Is it better to record inside a radio studio or in someone’s home? If people feel too comfortable are they more willing to divulge intimate details of their life at risk to their own privacy or trauma? There was a thoughtful back and forth in question time and then my first ever presentation was over.

I could finally relax and listen to the incredible Commissioners from the Yoorrook Justice Commission – talking about their important work collecting oral history testimonials about the effects of colonisation and dispossession on Victoria’s first peoples. I sat in awe.

At the final night dinner I looked around the room at the collection of oral historians, it was like having dinner in a library but with living, breathing books sitting at the table. Thank you to Oral History NSW for the bursary which enabled me to travel to Melbourne to attend the 2024 Oral History of Australia Biennial Conference, it has stretched me in ways unimaginable.

Have you joined the Oral History NSW Register of Oral History Practitioners?

A reminder that Oral History NSW offers a register of members available for different aspects of oral history work - this is a great way for people to find experienced practitioners and put your name out there!

If you are a current financial member of Oral History NSW (which also includes the ACT!) and have experience in conducting oral history projects and would like to be included on the register (interviewers, transcriptionists, whatever your area of expertise) please fill in the form today.

We advise those using the register that Oral History NSW does not endorse any particular practitioner and it is their responsibility to contact individuals directly to seek further information.

OH NSW Conference Grant: Capturing Spiritual and Cultural Heritage - The Nan Tien Temple's 30th Anniversary Oral History Project

Congratulations to Venerable Jue Fang who was awarded one of our two conference award grants for presenters attending the Biennial Oral History Australia Conference in person. We warmly encourage you to read more below about this oral history project and the personal experience of attending the conference.

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Venerable Jue Fang introducing the Nan Tien Temple oral history project at the OHA conference.

Capturing Spiritual and Cultural Heritage: The Nan Tien Temple's 30th Anniversary Oral History Project
By Venerable Jue Fang

Receiving the 2024 Oral History NSW Conference Grant was an honour and a privilege that allowed me to attend the Oral History Australia Biennial Conference in Melbourne this November. The conference theme, The Power of Oral History—Risks, Rewards and Possibilities, provided a powerful lens through which I could reflect on the journey of preserving Nan Tien Temple's legacy through our 30th Anniversary Oral History Project.

Nan Tien Temple, also known as the "Paradise of the South," emerged from our founder Venerable Master Hsing Yun's vow: "May peace and happiness pervade all worlds." Over the past 30 years, it has grown from a barren hill into a sanctuary of spirituality, education, and cultural exchange. As the project manager for this oral history initiative, I felt a profound sense of responsibility to capture and preserve the lived experiences of those who contributed to this transformation.

Interview with David Campbell, former Lord Mayor of Wollongong.

Presenting our project at the conference was an opportunity to share how we embarked on this journey. With no prior experience, we started from scratch, attending training sessions, consulting experts, and collaborating closely with the State Library of NSW. Establishing digital archives became a central focus, ensuring that interviews and historical documents would be preserved and accessible for future generations.

One of the most moving parts of our project has been conducting interviews with those who lived this history. Hearing their stories- filled with emotion, sincerity, and wisdom - has been transformative. For example, David Campbell, the former Lord Mayor of Wollongong, spoke about the temple's founding as a bold "gamble" that ultimately enriched the community and temple alike. His heartfelt reflections encapsulated the essence of oral history: preserving not just facts but the human connections and emotions that bring history to life.

The conference was also a chance to learn from others in the field. I was particularly inspired by the panel discussion, Oral History in Our National and State and Territory Libraries, which highlighted the challenges and responsibilities of archiving oral histories on a national scale. The session resonated deeply, affirming that our work at Nan Tien Temple aligns with broader efforts to conserve and share community narratives.

As a monastic and an insider of the temple community, this experience has deepened my belief in the transformative power of oral history. It is more than a method of preservation; it is a bridge connecting generations, fostering understanding, and celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.
I hope that more communities will join in this meaningful endeavour, capturing their own stories to create a tapestry of voices that will inspire and inform the future.

I return from this conference with gratitude and renewed resolve to continue our project. Thevoices we preserve today are the seeds of tomorrow's wisdom, ensuring that our shared heritage remains a source of hope and connection for generations to come.

Official celebrations to mark Nan Tien Temple 30th anniversary, 22 September 2024.

2024 Annual General Meeting - Oral History NSW Inc

Thank you to everyone who attended our AGM recently in October.
It was a welcome opportunity to review Oral History NSW’s activities in the past year as well as look ahead to our future plans for 2025.

At the AGM we announced the winners of our two conference grants for presenters
attending the Biennial Oral History Australia Conference in person:  

• Jennifer Macey: Jennifer is a Phd candidate at the university of Wollongong and her presentation is titled “Listening Geographies–the risks and possibilities of recording oral history in a ‘place” looking at podcasting as a potential methodology for oral history

• Venerable Jue Fang: Nan Tien Temple's 30th Anniversary Oral History Project – the project looks to preserve the spiritual, cultural, and historical legacy of one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest Buddhist temples Nan Tien located in Wollongong.

We look forward to hearing more from our award recipients in 2025 about their experiences attending and presenting at the conference!

The following were elected at the AGM on 30 October 2024:

• President — Maria Savvidis

• Vice-President — Scott McKinnon

• Treasurer — Alexandra Mountain

• Secretary — Laura Anderson

• Public Officer — Eureka Henrich

• Committee Member — Kathy Kallos

• Committee Member — Emma Ramsay

• Committee Member — Margaret Leask

The committee would also like to sincerely thank outgoing long term committee member and former Treasurer Andrew Host for his passion, enthusiasm and support of Oral History NSW and its members over many years.

You can read the President’s Report here.

Vale to OHNSW Life Members Ros, Tim & Louise.

With the recent loss of Tim Bowden, we take this time to reflect and celebrate the extraordinary lives and careers of three of our Life Members Ros Bowden (1940-2023), Tim Bowden (1937-2024), and Louise Douglas (1952-2024). With very special thanks to Janis Wilton for sharing her heartfelt words and memories below.

Ros, Tim and Louise were the first OHAA members in NSW to be honoured as Life Members:
Louise in 1999, and Tim and Ros jointly in 2001.

Their careers were impressive, creative and wide ranging. Ros and Tim as ABC journalists, radio broadcasters, oral historians, authors and activists. Louise as an early oral history researcher and advocate, and later as curator and manager at the Powerhouse Museum and the National Museum of Australia, and as an advocate for locally based museums.

All three were committed to enhancing and supporting community engagement with voices, memories and the many ways in which the past can be interpreted and presented. Books, radio broadcasts, exhibitions, collections. All three were early and active members of the Oral History Association of Australia, and all three practised the core oral history values of ensuring that voices previously silenced could be heard and would be kept for posterity, and that oral history skills and insights should be shared.

Louise Douglas was a founding member of OHAA NSW in 1979, and editor and co-editor of early issues of the Journal. At the same time she was the anchor for the 1938 volume of the bicentennial history that innovatively placed oral history interviews as the core of the perspectives offered about that year; chair of the management committee for the NSW Bicentennial Oral History Project; and co-author of two oral history handbooks.
Her lasting oral history legacies are also evident in the Bicentennial oral history collections
housed in the National Library of Australia and the State Library of NSW.

• Australia 1938 Oral History Project

• NSW Bicentennial Oral History Collection SLNSW and NLA
  

Ros Bowden was also a foundation member of OHAA NSW. Trained as a nurse, she turned to journalism in the 1970s. She conducted interviews and created programs and books for the ABC, especially for Radio National’s Social History Unit. She was particularly concerned to record, present and preserve the voices, memories and experiences of women.
The Australian Women’s Register provides an overview of some of her work: https://www.womenaustralia.info/entries/bowden-rosalind-ros/
Both the State Library of NSW and the National Library of Australia hold her papers and oral history recordings.

                Ros and Tim Bowden

In 2022 husband and fellow journalist Tim published his account of her life. The book’s title, Ros Bowden: Trailblazer is evocative of Ros’s achievements.

Tim Bowden joined Ros as an early member of OHAA. His wide ranging and long-term commitment to journalism has created a rich and diverse catalogue of broadcasts, publications and collections. Significantly, underpinning all his work, was his commitment to ensuring that those often sidelined in mainstream histories were given space and recognition. This is well captured in the tenacity with which he continued to lobby the Australian War Memorial to accept the Neil Davis collection in the 1980s, and with which he deposited his oral history interviews and research materials in cultural institutions. The Australian War Memorial, for example, holds over 120 oral history interviews conducted by Tim across a number of different projects.

This brief listing of the achievements of Louise, Ros and Tim indicates their significance in the oral history world and beyond, hopefully captures a sense of the values that guided their work, and perhaps hints at their personalities and generosity.

On a personal level, I have grateful and wry smile invoking memories that include Louise providing me with paid work to catalogue some of the 1938 material at a time when I was in need of a paid job; Ros and Tim at an OHAA Conference on Magnetic Island sharing their skills and experience with Tim mischievously adding asides and jokes; and Tim sending me (in an outdated audio recording format) a BBC interview with ‘The Last Last Maker’ that he said would provide my students with plenty of examples of how not to interview! I used that recording for many years.

Thank you to three outstanding Oral History NSW life members for your support, generosity and deeply appreciated trailblazing work for oral history in Australia. Our access to diverse voices and experiences from the past is greatly enriched by what you have done over many decades.

Vale Louise, Ros and Tim.

Janis Wilton
5 September 2024

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.