Fast Forward: Oral History in a Time of Change
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Fast Forward: Oral History in a Time Of Change Oral History Australia (formerly the Oral History Association of Australia) Journal No. 37, 2015 Oral History Australia (formerly Oral History The Editor of the Journal welcomes offers of material Association of Australia) Journal for possible publication in the 2016 issue, No. 38. See No. 37, 2015 Call for Papers at the end of this Journal, or the Oral History Australia website, www.oralhistoryaustralia. The Journal of Oral History Australia is published org.au. Suitable items include papers for peer-review, annually. Its content refects the diversity and vitality un-refereed articles (such as project and conference of oral history practice in Australia, and includes reports) and book reviews. contributions from overseas. Enquiries: Dr Sue Anderson The views expressed by contributors do not necessarily [email protected] refect the views of the Editor, the Editorial Board or the publisher of the Journal of Oral History Australia. Editor: Dr Sue Anderson David Unaipon College of Indigenous Education and Research University of South Australia GPO Box 2471 Adelaide SA 5001 [email protected] Editorial Board: Dr Ariella van Luyn, Chair [email protected] Beth M Robertson, Bill Bunbury, Dr Sue Anderson Reviews Editor: Dr Jayne Persian [email protected] Cover and content design and typesetting: LeighSet Design 18 Hill Street, Plympton Park SA 5039 Phone: 08-82974375 [email protected] ISSN: 0158 7366 Copyright of articles is held by individual authors. Apart from fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted by the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced by any process without permission of the author/s. Please address any correspondence concerning copyright to the Editor. i Editor’s notes While we endeavour to distribute the Journal at our burgeoning world of verbatim theatre and Margaret Biennial conference, due to unforeseen circumstances Dawson brings a local ANZAC centenary project to this was not possible this year and as a result it has life. been published two months after the event. However, I think that it is worth the wait, as we have been able to The contributions to this edition attest to the diverse accept late submissions, resulting in another rich and ways that oral history can contribute to social eclectic edition. inclusivity and real life representation. I look forward to further contributions in this regard. We are fortunate to have two international contributions from authors who have undertaken new work with Sue Anderson signifcant oral history collections. Randa Kaldas provides the paper she presented at a plenary session of the 2013 International Oral History Association conference in Barcelona on the oral history programme at the Economic and Business History Research Center at the American University in Cairo. Sindiso Bhebhe discusses the oral history programme at the National Archives of Zimbabwe and its progression from a collection of the stories of the colonists to include elite Zimbabwean fgureheads and fnally a more inclusive cross-section of the various minority communities. I look forward to them both providing further articles on the evolution of their programmes in light of oral history scholarship. Our Australian contributions provide many different topics and perspectives. Wendy Madsen explores the resilience of a Queensland community following two devastating food events in 2011, while Judy Hughes addresses the benefts of video oral history in a rapidly developing technological era. Sharee Cordes builds on this by sharing her experiences of recording oral histories on her iPad. Bob Reece contrasts this with the story of his conversion from ‘historian’ to ‘oral historian’ in his quest to shed light on the history of Aboriginal/colonist relations in the early 1800s. Brenda Gifford offers a brief history of Indigenous music and its impact on political issues and the younger generations. In contrast, David Sweet provides a window into the life of a pastor’s wife and the role photographs played in releasing her memories. Cate Pattison’s engaging insight into a local community also contrasts with Elena Volkova’s moving discussion of the role of narrative-based theatre, oral history and digital storytelling in building resilience in defence force veterans. Margaret Ridley introduces the ii Contents Articles My Experiments with Oral History on the iPad Sharee M A Cordes 3 Village Gossip - Stories of Napoleon Street and the evolving community role of local shopping Cate Pattison 7 Wrong Side of the Road Oral History Project: National Film and Sound Archive Indigenous Connections Team Brenda Gifford 11 Diffcult Homecoming: the use of narrative methods in the study of the Australian Defence Force veterans’ cohort. Elena Volkova 15 Busselton oral history group (inc): ANZAC centenary project Margaret Dawson 20 Vida – a pastor’s wife David Sweet 26 How I became an oral historian without even knowing it Bob Reece 32 Based on a True Story Margaret Ridley 39 Egyptian Business History: A glimpse into the Economic and Business History Research Center’s Contribution Randa Kaldas 43 Description of the Oral History Programme at the National Archives of Zimbabwe Sindiso Bhebhe 49 1 Papers (refereed) Using the past to strengthen the present: intersections between oral history and community resilience Wendy Madsen 56 Taking the leap: including video in audio oral histories Judy Hughes 63 Reviews and Book Notes 72 Conference/Project Reports Spotlights from XVIII International Congress on Oral History ‘Power and Democracy: The Many Voices of Oral History,’ July 9 - 12, 2014, Barcelona Randa Kaldas 80 The Hazel de Berg Award for Excellence in Oral History 2015 awarded to Jill Cassidy 83 Notes on Contributors 84 OHA 2013/2014 Financial Report 86 Membership information 87 Call for Papers 88 2 My Experiments with Oral History on the iPad Sharee M A Cordes Abstract I remember when my husband frst told me about a new device Apple was releasing called the ‘iPad.’ He said it was like a laptop that was small enough to ft in your bag and that you controlled with your fnger. ‘Ridiculous,’ I told him. ‘That will never take off!’ I will readily admit now that I was wrong with that call. Since its release in 2010, Apple has sold over 250 million iPads1 and for me personally, this is now my most used and most essential piece of electronic equipment. The iPad is now the tool that I use for all of my oral history audio recordings, and in this paper I will discuss the considerations, discoveries, and limitations of this device.2 I will also discuss the particular apps that I have found useful, but please be aware that technology and apps are changing so quickly these days, it is important for users to do their own research and experimentation to fnd the current app that most suits their needs. I have no affliation with any of the products or apps mentioned. Of course there are many other tablets and smart phones on the market now, and it may be possible to apply the information in this paper to each of them, ipad recording set up with microphone and camera connector plug. but I can only speak about my own experience which By author. is with the iPad. I encourage you to experiment. The recommended sound quality required for an oral history is generally agreed to be 24 bit at 48 kHz resolution3, so the frst consideration when looking for Sound quality a recording app is to ensure that frstly, the user is able to control the quality of the recording, and secondly Perhaps the most important aspect of any oral history that it is capable of recording at this level. I was able project is the recording stage. We all want reliability, to achieve these levels on the iPad; this is discussed ease of recording and of course, great sound quality. when I examine recording apps later in this paper. Prior to using my iPad, I had been struggling with an old Zoom H4 recorder, which I was fnding confusing; the tiny screen and scrolling menus made it diffcult to follow. When I offered my fancy digital recorder Equipment to my daughter to use for a recording project, she Another requirement to achieve excellent sound turned it down, saying she would just use her phone quality is a good quality microphone. There are many instead. This started me wondering; was it possible microphones on the market today that are designed for that a mobile phone or my iPad could hope to achieve use with iPhones and iPads and this was a necessary the sound quality needed for a professional oral history purchase before I could proceed. The one that I chose interview? was the Rode smartLav+, a lapel microphone that 3 retails for about $80 and connects to the iPad through To do this requires the use of the ‘camera connector the headphone socket. kit’, and also may require a USB interface device to convert the microphone’s analogue sounds to digital When I frst started with this project, I was using only inputs and also to convert the plug to a USB plug. this one lapel microphone. I was fairly happy with This will depend on the type of microphone you are the sound quality for the interviewee who had the using. My experiments with this method, using the microphone clipped on, although in some situations I SmartLav and the Blue Snowball microphone, have did notice a very low background static noise. I also been disappointing. While I can get both microphones found that my voice was very quiet, except for the time to work, they are quite temperamental, dropping in when I was interviewing a gentleman who was a little and out at random, and losing volume, so would not hard of hearing – then it was perfect! The key was to be suitable for making oral history recordings.