ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 44 | April 2000
Undertaking oral history
Oral history is the collection of stories that broaden our understanding of a culture at a certain time and place. The recorded memories of people who are eminent in their chosen field, who are creative or artistic or whose stories are rich in social relevance contribute to a detailed and nuanced picture of society. The Bringing Them Home Oral History Project is one particularly important undertaking for the National Library. It is a federally funded program to collect and preserve an inclusive range of stories from Indigenous Australians and others involved in the separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families and homelands.
From 21 to 22 February, Doreen Mellor, manager of the project, hosted a seminar in the National Library for 23 interviewers, including Gwenda Davey, who is a Regional Administrator. It was designed to give a national perspective on Bringing Them Home and to introduce Library staff to the interviewers with whom they would be working. The interviewers collecting the histories are a diverse group, coming from different cultures, generations, backgrounds and geographic areas. However, one of the strongest links immediately obvious was the common commitment to making the project truly representative of the people involved in the generations of separated children. After each person introduced themselves and gave a brief biography, many made a comment such as I was honoured and excited to be involved with this project. It was a positive start to two lively and debate-filled days.
Even though only interviewers and staff attended the seminar, support for the interviewees was a main concern throughout. The sensitivity of all the stories collected was a key issue covered in legal and counselling sessions. Some interviewers thought that the story-telling process was a positive cleansing of the spirit experience, while others were keen to share the names of professional, culturally specific counsellors who could help deal with the trauma provoked by re-living memories.
Listening sessions with excerpts from interviews were most popular. Hearing the slow, deliberate voices tell stories of coping with the issues of separation was very moving. Part of the beauty and uniqueness of oral history comes from experiencing tones that can never be expressed through any other medium. Emotions reflected in the voices kept us all enthralled. The most touching moment was a long, charged silence from a women trying to express to her foster mother her pain over the suppression of her memories of life prior to being taken away from her biological family. In future years, experiences such as these will be available to anyone with an interest in these important events in Australian history.
The title of this article was suggested by one of the interviewers, Barbara Erskine, who is a professional undertaker with counselling experience in grief and trauma, skills she said were helpful when interviewing the separated children, administrators, missionaries, police and family members affected by separations. Her profession was a timely reminder of the importance of collecting oral history before the story-tellers disappear.
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| 23 participants
from throughout Australia attended the Bringing Them Home Interviewer
Seminar held at the National Library from 21 to 22 March |
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: tford@nla.gov.au