Word of MouthAutumn 2016 No. 70
The art of the interview Myra Ah Chee Oral History in Practice Lynn Arnold
Newsletter of the South Australian/n/ Northern Territory Association o of f Oral History Australia Inc.nc. CONTENTS
’ by June Edwards - : : - by David Sweet : by Annmarie Reid / - ’ by Liz Harfull ‘ ’ by Tonia Bradstreet by Linda Rive by Peter Donovan – ‘ ’ by Valery Walter Lebedew ‘’ : by Allison Murchie
e objectives of Oral History Australia Inc.: To promote the practice and methods of oral history; to educate in the use of oral history methods; to encourage discussion on all aspects of oral history; and to foster the preservation of oral history records in Australia.
Committee: June Edwards (President), Madeleine Regan (Secretary), Sally Stephenson (Treasurer), Christeen Schoepf (Membership Secretary), Alison McDougall (WOM Editor), Catherine Murphy (Handbooks), Tonia Bradstreet (State Library), Karen George, John Mannion, Peter Hackworth
Membership: 1 June 2016 to 31 May 2017. Individual $40; Institution $65; Household $55; Student/Unemployed/Pensioner $30
Editor: Alison McDougall Oral History Australia Inc (SA/NT Association) PO Box 3113, Unley, SA 5061 ISSN 0813-1392
Contributions to Word of Mouth should reach the Branch by 31 August 2016
! e views expressed in Word of Mouth are not necessarily those of Oral History Australia (SA/NT Association) Inc.
Layout & cover design by David Smids, Wildfi re Design, www.wildfi redesign.com.au
Cover: Dick Taylor, Robert and Maggie with camels at Titjikala (Maryvale Station), 1957 Image provided by Linda Rive with permission from Myra Ah Chee Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 1
President’s Report by June Edwards
! e AGM Oral History Australia (SA/NT) was held in August 2015 at the State Library of South Australia
! e new committee: President: June Edwards Treasurer: Sally Stephenson Secretary: Madeleine Regan Membership secretary: Christeen Schoepf. (Leeston McNab retired from this position and we wish her well with her new ventures)
Committee members: Tonia Bradstreet, Karen Mandy Paul and Louise Bird discussing the exhibition George, Peter Hackworth, Alison McDougall, Photograph Madeleine Regan John Mannion and Catherine Murphy Mandy Paul from History SA and Louise Bird OHA National Committee: David Sweet continues were kind hosts. Louise gave an excellent as National Secretary and Sue Anderson President so explanation of the themes of the exhibition and still a South Australian concern which is wonderful. the decision-making behind its curation. Louise is an historian who specialises in the history of Presentation: the built environment. She is a PhD candidate Liz Harfull, award winning journalist, author at UniSA and her thesis is a planning history and Churchill Fellow, gave a talk about the that examines the provision of open spaces in diff erent methods she has used to research, metropolitan Adelaide. Some of her past research interview her subjects and write her books. ! e projects have included the gardens of Elsie Cornish, presentation provided a great insight into the children’s playgrounds, the domestic architecture process of recording the history of a community of Russell Ellis and Soldiers Memorial Gardens. and place from the perspective of a journalist. It Oral history excerpts are used in the exhibition was informative, engaging and practical and well including those from Madeleine Regan’s received by those present. (see ‘! e art of the Italian market gardeners project. Louise also Interview - a journalist’s perspective’ on page 7) interviewed two market gardeners from Virginia and is keen for someone to capture the history Workshop of Vietnamese market gardeners in South Fifteen people attended the How to do oral history Australia. ! e exhibition is well worth a visit workshop in November from diverse backgrounds and it is always surprising how much fascinating such as Tea Tree Gully Library and Cirkidz. Karen information can be found in a small venue. ran a lively session and her updated workshop School groups have planted out plant boxes powerpoint was a great success. Also, we said a sad in the courtyard which is a lovely feature. ! e farewell to Silver Moon who ran her last digital exhibition has also involved talks at the Museum recorder workshop for the Association before she, and good publicity such as interviews on ABC Shirley, two dogs and one cat left to live in Tasmania. radio. It runs until Sunday 26 June 2016.
! e next workshop will be in History A guide to oral history: A resource for history Month on 13 May 2016 so please let groups in South Australia and the Northern friends and neighbours know about it. Territory ! e Guide had been fi nalised and has Visit to the Migration Museum exhibition been put on the SA/NT website. On 25 February a dozen of us visited the Migration Museum to view their exhibition, ! ank you to the OHA SA/NT committee Losing the plot: food gardening in South members for their contributions to the Guide. Australia, which was curated by Louise Bird. It will be a useful introduction to oral history. 2 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
Social media I have written an article in this edition of Word of Mouth asking for a volunteer to manage Postage costs for the Oral History Handbook will social media for the Association. (see ‘Moving now be in addition to the cost of the handbook into the modern world’ on this page) rather than being included in the price.
Nominations for SA History Award 2016 Word of Mouth: OHA SA/NT will be taking part in this process again. As postage costs are increasing the committee agreed that the Association needs to look at Word of Mouth indexing publishing future issues as a pdf on a members’ Allison Murchie has taken on the task of page of the website with a teaser for the general updating the index to the Word of Mouth public to encourage signing up for membership newsletters which is appreciated and should to receive the full issue. Members will gain be available by the end of the year. access via a member’s password. Hard copies will be posted to those without email. Planning for 2016/17: ! e OHA SA/NT committee held a planning Special thanks to Sally for preparing the papers for session in February. Sally Stephenson prepared this useful session. three papers on the current fi nancial status of the Association, future workshops and the recording equipment managed by the Association. Moving into the Recording equipment modern world ! e committee agreed to increase the cost of hiring the Fostex recorder to $35.00 per ! e OHA SA/NT committee has decided that the week and $100.00 per month for members; time has come to seriously engage with social media a student fee will be negotiable; and we will to benefi t the organisation and its members. be advertising the recorder more widely. A thoughtfully planned and knowledgeably Workshops implemented online social network would enable It was agreed to run the following program OHA SA/NT to: of workshops for 2016/2017: • Connect to people and build relationships far and 2016 wide Two ‘How to do oral workshops’, May and • Provide an ongoing context for knowledge November An advanced workshop with a focus on exchange that can be far more eff ective than paper oral history and multi-media (video, digital story- media telling, podcasts) • Attune everyone in the OHA SA/NT to each other’s needs 2017 • Share intellectual capital Two ‘How to do oral history’ workshops • Create an ongoing, shared social space for people Two advanced workshops: who are geographically dispersed • Running community oral history projects, • Create a community memory that facilitates including the use of photographs for oral history fi nding information when it is needed and a master class in the afternoon for participants • Enable on-line training to discuss their projects. • Attract and retain members by providing access • Use of video and oral history. to information that is only available within the Association Financial matters: ! e Committee agreed to increase some WHAT WE NEED is a member who is willing costs in order to raise income. to develop and manage an online social network for OHA SA/NT. If there is such a soul, please New costs for workshops: contact the Association via our website at contact@ ‘How to do oral history’ workshops will oralhistoryaustraliasant.org.au and the committee cost $75.00 and $50.00 for concession from will discuss how to progress this valuable project. the November workshop this year. Advanced workshops will cost $90.00 June Edwards Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 3
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Profi le: David Sweet More than a voice
Largs Police Academy. I later served as a police offi cer in Adelaide and country South Australia.
Doing something diff erent always appealed to me. Adventure beckoned and from Renmark I joined the Royal Papuan and New Guinea Constabulary where I served as a commissioned offi cer in various roles. at was a challenging experience; a diff erent culture, beautiful yet violent. During those years in New Guinea I started to question my career choice. On returning to Adelaide in 1972, it was almost by accident I joined the Fire Brigade. For almost fourteen years I was a fi refi ghter and promoted to the rank of Station Offi cer. It was during this time that I started undergraduate study, gaining a degree in Mass Communications (UniSA) and also established the fi rst media liaison role for the fi re service. My third career beckoned. After a few years with the State Transport Authority as I am currently embarking on my fi fth career, that the manager of Public Relations, I was appointed of an oral history researcher. However, my interest Manager, Corporate Communications, for the in oral history started when I was very young. I was former ETSA in 1987. From 1985-1994 I also acted captivated by my maternal grandmother’s stories of as the State Media Liaison Offi cer for major visits, her life on the Far West Coast of South Australia. including those of Pope John-Paul II, e Prince Merce Denton, my grandmother, lived with my and Princess of Wales, Her Majesty the Queen, parents in Myrtle Bank following the sudden death other members of the British Royal Family and of her husband in 1933. Hearing the tales of rabbit Heads of State from Europe. In 1994, I moved, plagues, clearing the land with bullocks and loading with my family, to Perth where I worked in a bags of wheat and barley onto sailing clippers for senior executive role with AlintaGas, now know transporting to England were romantic tales for a as Alinta. Over some 30 years I also conducted young boy. However, they are now tinged with the my own photographic business covering sport, bitter-sweetness of nostalgia as none of these stories wedding, travel and business based photography. were recorded at the time. I would curl up on the bottom of her bed in the sleep-out, at the back of our After leaving AlintaGas in 2001, I specialised in home, and she would show me small photographs, mentoring emerging public relations practitioners ‘likenesses’ she called them, and tell me her stories. whom I had previously taught part-time at the Now, looking back on those days, no one in our Edith Cowan University in Perth. e part- family really cared about recording these stories. time teaching position morphed into a more ere was a family Bible where the births, deaths demanding role, and in 2002 higher education and marriages were recorded, but that was all. teaching became my fourth career. While teaching undergraduates I realised that my formal education ose special times with my 90 year old grandmother was lacking and that led to me gaining my Masters gave me a life-long passion for photography and in in Communication at ECU in 2005. Late in 2005, more recent times this has led to a growing interest family demands saw me return to Adelaide in oral history, linked to family photographic and I commenced teaching at the University collections. However, before leaving Unley High of South Australia in 2006, a role I still love. School in 1963, I was told by my father that I had to have a decent job. Being a photographer roughout my life I have enjoyed hearing was not considered a legitimate vocation. So in about other people’s lives, looking at their 1964, at the age of sixteen, I left home and spent photographs and the personal history of people the next three years as a police cadet at the Fort and families. Call me nosy or inquisitive, or just Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 5
Obituary Rev Dr Bill Edwards AM interested in people. I often lament that with old Bill Edwards, longstanding member of Oral History photographs we often don’t know their story. Australia, passed away on July 24, 2015, aged 86. ! ose thoughts and an informal chat over a cup of coff ee one morning with Associate Professor Born in 1929 in rural Victoria, Bill initially worked Peter Bishop put me on the path of my PhD. in country banks. He later gained a Diploma of ! eology from the University of Melbourne, followed Who would have thought, an almost high school by a Diploma in Education and a Bachelor of Arts. drop-out – I went surfi ng instead of doing some of my fi nal exams – would be reading for a PhD? Attending a performance of the Ernabella choir in Besides the challenge of this level of research, a Adelaide in 1954 saw the beginning of his lifelong cancer scare, my two elder sisters dying and my association with the Pitjantjatjara people, and the nineteen year old nephew drowning in Sydney choir which he conducted for more than 22 years. Harbour, the past fi ve years have opened up a He became superintendent of the Presbyterian new world of reading, research and interest – oral mission of Ernabella in the far northwest of South history. My sisters’ deaths brought home to me the Australia, a position he held until 1972. Bill not importance and value of capturing people’s stories. only learned their language, but was able to enter deeper discussions about life and to fi nd in their So with my PhD under examination, I am stories and ritual that there were answers to the embarking on my fi fth career, that of a researcher. profound questions of life. Wherever he worked, I have presented various papers on aspects of my including Mowanjum Mission in the Kimberley, research at conferences in most Australian states, W.A. and Fregon, S.A., he was a model of calm, a and overseas at Oxford and at the University of caring pastor to the young people, the parents and Vienna. Last year I commenced an oral history the community leaders. Bill further facilitated the project, Vida – a pastor’s wife, and it was the process of land rights for the Anangu people as the basis of a paper at the recent OHA national minute secretary of the Pitjantjatjara Council. conference in Perth and a further paper (in Adelaide) at the International Auto-biographical In 1981, Bill and his wife, Valerie, and their two sons, Association’s fi rst Australian conference. David and John, settled in Adelaide. He lectured at the South Australian College of Advanced Education Since I joined OHA (SA/NT) in 2008, I have enjoyed and then the University of South Australia, where the friendship and gained from participating in he pioneered the teaching of the Pitjantjatjara the various workshops I have attended. ! e 2013 language. In retirement he undertook a PhD in national conference here in Adelaide was an eye history (Moravian missionaries, and Presbyterian opener – I had not comprehended the breadth of missions) and continued as an adjunct lecturer. His oral history in Australia and internationally. ! en other notable contribution was as an interpreter when the call for the national secretary’s role to which he continued until early last year. be fi lled was circulated I gave it some thought and took it on. I am a Fellow of the Public Relations In 2009 he was awarded membership of the Institute of Australia and have been awarded the Order of Australia for his 50 years of service to Australian National Medal, the Police Overseas Aboriginal communities. Bill Edwards humbly Service Medal and the PNG Community Medal. touched the lives of many people and his ministry contributed signifi cantly to genuine reconciliation.
! is obituary has been compiled from ‘Link between two cultures’, Advertiser January 2 2016, and ‘Rev Dr Bill Edwards’, UCA Historical Society Newsletter, September 2015. 6 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
2015 OHA Conference: Perth by Annmarie Reid
As oral historians, we are all aware that 21st In the introduction to Oral History and Digital century technologies off er new tools for creating, Humanities: Voice, Access and Engagement, Doug managing and accessing large collections of digital Boyd and Mary Larson point out that although oral/aural and video interviews. Audio and video the digital revolution has impacted almost every fi les can be annotated, cross-referenced, indexed, facet of oral history practice, ‘an interview is still browsed, linked to other digital fi les such as maps a dialogue, created through the interaction of (at or photographs and accessed from anywhere least) two human beings, one with a story to tell, in the world with an internet connection. ey and one who wants to hear it’ (p.6). For me, this can be ‘mashed’ or ‘modifi ed’ by the person who was the “take-home lesson” of the conference. recorded the original fi le, or by someone thousands Digital technologies open up untold possibilities of miles away who has never met the person being to oral historians and will have an impact on interviewed or the interviewer. As Doug Boyd said every aspect of our practice, but the heart of our in his opening address to the conference, ‘We are work is still work that comes from the heart. in another moment’, one in which we have the ability to make the sound ‘the thing’. e 2015 OHA Dr Annmarie Reid is the Secretary of the History Conference in Perth focused on what it means to be Council of South Australia and a member of Oral oral historians in this moment, in the fi rst stage of a History Australia. After twenty years as a secondary digital revolution, in a time of unimaginable change. school History teacher and teacher-librarian, For me, one of Doug’s most pertinent questions Annmarie took up work in the tertiary sector where was, ‘Should we do amazing things just because we she has spent the last ten years working as a lecturer, can?’ I travelled home from Perth thinking about a tutor, a prac supervisor and a research associate that question and also asking, ‘What amazing while completing her MA and her PhD. Her doctoral things could we be doing but we aren’t yet?’ work was an oral history project that focused on the narratives of six post-war migrants and the ways in I found the conference to be stimulating, thought- which their stories and material culture linked them provoking and inspiring. Presenters from all over to England’s North East and Annmarie’s own story of Australia and from New Zealand addressed a migration. Now that the PhD is fi nished, Annmarie wide range of issues relating to the production, is rediscovering her passion for reading for pleasure, collection, dissemination and use of oral histories, watching re-runs of Who Do You ink You Are? with an emphasis on using technology in one or all and catching up on ten years of neglected housework. of these areas. Participants could follow their own personal interests and attend sessions that focused on equipment, software and technology, or listen to those where the presenters narrated examples of using technology to enhance oral history practice, drive social reform, change community perceptions or unite communities in times of social change or natural disaster. Personal highlights included hearing OHA SA/NT Digital about Auckland Council Libraries and their work with story-booths, where potential participants are Recorder for Hire invited to swap a story for a cup of soup or a sausage (see Glen Eden Stories http://goo.gl/Y5mTHC ). e Fostex Digital Recorder costs OHA members $35 per week, or $100 per month. Non- member I also enjoyed hearing about the work of e fees are $45/$125. A student fee is negotiable. Grove Library in Peppermint Grove (WA) where Hirers will be required to sign a form Facebook, Soundcloud and YouTube are being stating they will be fully responsible for the utilised to record and share oral histories and recorder while it is in their possession. digital stories. Of particular interest was the use of mobile applications to create heritage walks that For further details contact Catherine Manning combine interview material, photographs, maps and P: 8203 9888 (History SA: ask for information. e apps are available from the Apple Catherine Manning) Store or Google Play (see http://goo.gl/Yy9IHf). E: [email protected] Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 7
memory. ! e book also included the fi rst piece I had e art of the Interview published as an author, written when I was twelve. - a journalist’s perspective Within days of my fi nal high school exam I was off ered a cadetship at e Border Watch , the by Liz Harfull local paper in Mount Gambier where I grew up. Apart from taking shorthand classes at night, the Interviewing skills are the most critical tools of the cadetship did not involve any formal training, but trade for a journalist, perhaps even ahead of the over the coming years I had the opportunity to ability to write. Sub-editors can refi ne the words, observe and be mentored by a host of experienced but what a journalist is able to draw from people editors and journalists, and learn by example. situated at the heart of an issue or a profi le piece, provides the raw material that can make or break One of the most skilled interviewers I came across a story and its ability to inform and enlighten. in those early years was Joan Tremelling. As the senior reporter on the paper, Joan covered the ! e same is very true in my life as an author. To political round. ! at meant interviewing premiers date I have written fi ve books, all works of non- and even prime ministers when they came to fi ction, that capture the everyday lives, histories town. Sometimes they would come to our offi ce. and traditions of people and communities We did not have a dedicated interview room, so in rural and regional Australia. One of those more often than not they perched on a chair at the books drew extensively on formal interviews end of Joan’s desk, less than a metre from mine. recorded for an oral history collection. All fi ve books were deeply informed by interviews Taking in the cramped space and the scruff y carried out in the journalistic tradition. secondhand furniture, our prestigious visitors may well have thought the obligatory interview Even though the approach is very diff erent, I am with a country newspaper would be a walk in the convinced that the two worlds could learn a great park; a straight forward opportunity to present the deal from each other, especially when the desired end latest spin on government policies and actions to result is to fi nd more engaging ways to tell history. a journalist grateful to be interviewing someone more important than the local mayor or the president of the Country Women’s Association.
I loved watching their faces as it dawned on them that they had severely underestimated the situation. Joan had a fi erce intellect and was very widely read and informed about current aff airs (and still is). In preparation for interviews, she would make sure she was up to speed on the broader issues and think carefully about questions that might draw out how they impacted on the local community. Responsible for writing as many as a dozen stories a day on 2014 Robe Oral History Workshop with Karen completely diff erent topics, there was not much time George (OHA SA/NT), history group volunteer Mary or resources for preparation but she did what she McInerney, Liz Harfull and Silver Moon (State could. ! at preparation and years of experience gave Library of South Australia). her the confi dence to challenge anyone who tried to Let me start by explaining a little more about make sweeping generalisation or fudge knowledge. my background. I do not hold any academic qualifi cations. I made up my mind to become a She never avoided hard questions, and she asked journalist when I was about eight years old, after them without fear or favour, whether it was meeting the late Kathleen Bermingham. An author Liberal Premier John Olsen, or his Victorian and historian who devoted much of her life to saving counterpart John Cain, the head of the Construction and recording the history of Robe, she was also a Forestry Mining and Energy Union or president freelance journalist in the 1920s, based in Sydney. of the local branch of the Farmers’ Federation. She discovered that I loved to write and provided Pinned by her sharp gaze over half-rimmed gentle encouragement. My fi rst published newspaper spectacles, they soon realised she was not going story was about a small book dedicated to her to give up until they answered the question. 8 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
But Joan was also trained in an era when protocol it is very rare for a journalist to fl ag in advance and manners mattered. She was unfailingly polite, the exact questions they are planning to ask. always treating her interviewees with respect For me and the kind of writing I do, establishing and she never pretended to know something empathy and a relationship of trust has always been she didn’t. She would openly admit when she critical. People will open up much more if they didn’t understand something and ask people get a sense that you have something in common. to explain in more detail, recognising that her I have found this to be particularly true when it subjects where usually there because they were comes to interviewing and writing about farmers. knowledgeable in their fi eld. Driving it all was her Many of them feel that city people have no idea innate curiosity about them as people and what what their lives are like or what farming involves, made them tick. What events had shaped their so I always begin by letting them know I grew up lives, and what insights had those experiences on a farm and have been writing about farming for given them that might inspire or inform others. years. Interviews will often be peppered with them asking me questions, or me volunteering anecdotes Watching Joan in action, and then talking to her about my own background and experiences, afterwards, was the beginning of me coming to which prompts their own memories and views. understand the fundamental principles that every journalist needs to know to do their job well. Many Because of this, my interviews are more like gentle of these skills are equally useful when I put on a conversations. Take for example, my approach to diff erent hat and sit down in front of someone to the two books I have written about rural women record a formal oral history interview. But some – Women of the Land and City Girl Country Girl. of the approaches I still use every day, as both a ! ese feature lengthy biographical writing about freelance journalist and an author, are contrary to the lives of the women and the interviews happened accepted practice in the world of the oral historian. over many hours, spread over several days. For me, the hardest part of doing a formal oral history interview is not turning it into a conversation and curtailing my usual words of encouragement that signal I am listening and want to know more.
Every journalist also knows that the best quotes come when you turn off the recorder. People visibly relax and new anecdotes pop into their heads, usually told as you are walking down the garden path to the car. So journalists learn very quickly they need to stay alert to the end. I quite often keep the recorder going until I’m in the car and driving away.
Most people freeze up or become very self conscious in front of a recorder, so while I always make sure they know it’s there and when I’m turning it on, I use a very small recorder and I sit it as far back from them as I can so it’s not a constant reminder. ! e beauty of interviews conducted over several hours or days is that people forget e Blue Ribbon Cookbook it’s there altogether and relax more, so what you capture is far more natural and ‘real’. For example, journalists rarely do preliminary interviews. Time does not allow it, but more Interviewing people who are not actively in the importantly, it risks losing the best quotes public eye has also taught me the power of taking and freshest responses which come from a them to a place where they are comfortable. ! is is spontaneity that can never be repeated. ! at’s an important concept to think about, particularly particularly true if it’s a more aggressive style when you are interviewing people who do not of interview to extract information the person usually give interviews. For show cooks, it’s in the may not necessarily be keen to share. So while kitchen while they are baking. For most farmers, it’s you might give them a skeletal outline of the key out in the paddock, sitting in a tractor or bouncing topics you want to cover so they come prepared, around in a ute with the kelpie on the back. Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 9
When I was researching Women of the Land, I asked because they are an expert or knowledgeable about each woman to take me to her favourite place on something, even if it’s just their own life, and her farm, or the spot that meant the most to her. this type of question can remind them of that. ! e interviews conducted at those places always revealed extraordinary insights – deep truths about I have also learnt from experience that it is best who they were, what motivated them to keep to leave the hard or sensitive questions until last, going and the signature moments in their lives. once you have established a rapport with your While my overall perception is that these were subject. And there is only really one way to do quiet moments, listening back to my recordings I that – listen, listen, listen. Actively listening to can hear birds singing, crickets chirruping, cattle what people are saying is the single most important bellowing and dogs barking. Radio journalists love golden rule of all. And it means ‘listening’ to their these sounds because they place the interview body language and tone of voice, not just the actual and help convey another aspect of the world they words. It also means being aware of your own are trying to capture. Pristine silence in a radio body language – leaning forward when they are documentary piece is not often considered a positive. talking to show you are interested and engaged, and keeping your eyes focussed on them as they speak. Give them your complete attention.
During an oral history interview this is not so diffi cult, because the recommended procedure is to strip away distractions before you get started and the person being interviewed should already have a sense they have your undivided attention. But the ubiquitous mobile phone means that many people are not good at this at all. ! ey have their eyes on the screen and take calls, instead of giving their attention to the person they are with at the time.
But perhaps the greatest diff erence of all in the Timboon dairy farmer Jan Raleigh. Her favourite spot world of journalism is that people never fi ll in on her farm is the top of a ridge, looking out across forms. No media outlet I have ever worked for the property and the paddocks where her cows graze. across almost 40 years of experience has ever Taking her there unlocked a discussion of how she expanded the farm and what her late father might required me to get signed consent from anyone to think of her eff orts if he was still alive. interview them, use the material or take a photo. If someone agrees to speak with you ‘on the record’ Silence of another kind, however, can be very it’s a given they are prepared for what they say powerful. One of the most useful tools you can apply to be used publicly. I always tell people when I in an interview is to not ask a follow-up question as am turning a recorder on and I will turn it off if soon as someone stops speaking. People don’t like they want to tell me something off the record. silence, and to avoid it they will keep talking which is often when they will reveal something unexpected. When I am writing detailed technical stories about With many farmers, the silence is also something farm management practices or capturing recipes, you should respect. More often than not they have I provide drafts to make sure the information is paused, not because they have fi nished saying what correct. I have also shown drafts to the people I they want to say, but because they are thinking write about at length in my books on the strict carefully about what they want to say next. ! ey understanding that it is a fact checking exercise only, are not uncomfortable with silence at all because not permission for them to dictate how to tell their most of them work alone and live with it every day. stories. Protecting my artistic integrity matters to me too and it’s my name that is appearing on the Just as Joan taught me, never pretend to know cover. Many people would be surprised to know something you don’t. It is a major trap for young that most authors don’t do this, even when they journalists. ! e person being interviewed can spot are writing a biography about a living person. it a mile off and they will either stop answering your questions or rightly worry that you will get In closing, while on the surface it may seem the details wrong when you put together the that oral historians, non-fi ction authors and story. It is okay to ask naive questions, and it journalists operate in very diff erent ways and helps the subject too. ! ey are being interviewed are guided by very diff erent codes, we are all 10 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 driven by the same underlying principle. We recognise the power of capturing people’s stories State Library of South in their own words and in their own voices. Australia Report Liz Harfull is an author, journalist, rural communicator and Churchill Fellow. Since walking by Tonia Bradstreet away from corporate life ten years ago, she has written three national best-sellers and devoted an OH 1057 – Wednesdays at One – ‘Books in increasing amount of time to pursuing her interests in my life’ – ! e Friends of the State Library history. Her fi rst book, ! e Blue Ribbon Cookbook , ! e Friends of the State Library is the oldest captured the traditions of South Australian library Friends group in Australia, with links to country shows and show cooks. Since then Liz has many other well established Friends of libraries written two national best-sellers, Women of the around the world. ! e group began in 1932 Land and ! e Australian Blue Ribbon Cookbook , during the Great Depression when there were as well as Almost an Island: the Story of Robe, a insuffi cient government funds available for the comprehensive living history of her favourite seaside Library’s ordinary book requirements. Initially, town. Her next book, City Girl Country Girl, is due the Friends came to the aid of the Library with out in April 2016.! is article is based on the talk funds for this purpose and since have supported Liz gave to the OHA (SA/NT) AGM in 2015. the acquisition of fi ne books, manuscripts and works of art to enhance the Library’s collections. All photos provided by Liz Harfull ! e activities held by the group and the Australiana publications they produce are the main source of their revenue. One such activity is ‘Wednesdays at One’ where prominent South Australians talk about books that have been signifi cant to them throughout their lives. ! e Friends began recording ‘How to do Oral these talks in 2014 and have made some of the recordings available via their website. ! e full list History’ Workshop of recorded talks can be found at OH 1057, but some of the more recent acquisitions include: ! is workshop introduces participants to the OH 1057/7 – Rose Alwyn practice and methods of doing an oral history Educator, Rose Alwyn, was appointed eighth Master interview and provides equipment training of St Mark’s College in 2008, the fi rst female head on the State Library of South Australia’s of the Adelaide University residential college. She Sound Devices 702 digital recorders. discusses the structures, topics and impacts upon her of three signifi cant books, read as an adult: Persepolis Date: Friday 13 May, 2016 (2003) by Marjane Satrapi; Saturday (2005) by Time: 10am – 3.00pm Ian McEwan; and Stones (1965) John Williams. Venue: Anne and Basil Hetzel Lecture ! eatre, OH 1057/8 – Simon Royal Institute Building, State Library of South Australia Simon Royal grew up on a grazing and horse- Cost: $70 per person per day or $40 for breeding property at Sanderston, where the Barossa concession/pension/student/OHA member Range meets the Murray Plains. He has worked in both radio and television for the ABC, in regional Bookings essential South Australia and Adelaide, and is familiar to Contact June Edwards OHA SA/NT by going viewers of Stateline and 7:30 SA. In his ‘Books in my to http://oralhistoryaustraliasant.org.au/ and life’ presentation, he discusses works about the death send an email via ‘Contact Us’ or by contacting of President Kennedy, Jackie Kennedy, Donna Tartt’s the State Library on (08) 8207 7260 ! e Goldfi nch and the classic, To kill a mockingbird. OH 1058/11 – Rod Shearing Rod Shearing is president of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia. An accountant and administrator, he grew up in Woodville, a member of a pioneering family who fi rst settled in Hindmarsh. He also worked in administration for the State Library and during his presentation, talks of an extensive range Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 11 of infl uential books on history, geography and Superintendent at Ernabella Mission from 1958 to biography, plus Richard Flanagan’s e narrow 1972. He played a signifi cant role in the training road to the deep north and William Dalrymple’s and mentoring of a number of Aboriginal church Return of a king: the battle for Afghanistan. leaders in the Pitjantjatjara region. He held a selection of ministry positions in Western Australia OH 1104 – Federation of Catholic School and South Australia between 1972 and 1980 when Parent Communities – Madeleine Regan he moved to Adelaide and was a signifi cant part In 1967, a group of parents from Catholic schools of the pioneering Aboriginal Studies programme in South Australia met to form a group to lobby at the University of South Australia. Once in the state government to provide funding grants to Adelaide he advocated for Aboriginal people in Catholic schools. At that time, SA was the only state the courts and in hospitals, providing translation that did not provide government aid to Catholic and interpretation services when needed. schools. ! e lobbying of this group was successful and from this beginning the Federation grew and OH 1111/1 is with Valerie Edwards, Bill’s wife, fl ourished. It continues to be an active voice for and is just the fi rst in what will be a longer project. parents and families with children in Catholic ! e intention is to interview people who knew schools, representing the views, thoughts and needs Bill, both in Adelaide and in the APY Lands. of all parents in state and national education forums. OH 1112 – Securing and enabling access to Madeleine Regan is undertaking interviews with knowledge for the future: archiving digital members, current and former offi ce-bearers architectural records – Chris Burns of the Federation, to record the motivation ! e University of South Australia’s Architecture for its creation, and subsequent history and Museum has embarked on a cross-disciplinary development. To date the recollections of project involving researchers from the architecture, three people, Nick Canny, Genevieve Dineen construction and information technology disciplines, and Jenny Damiani, have been recorded. and in collaboration with RMIT University Design Archives, Woods Bagot and ARM Architecture OH 1110/1-7 – Men of Norwood (Ashton Raggatt McDougall). ! e pilot project will Mike Coward published the book Men of Norwood: investigate the challenges associated with archiving the red and blue blooded in 1992, an account of the digital records by examining the surviving digital life of the Norwood Football Club since its creation archives related to two case study buildings. ! e in 1888. ! e work focuses on the people of the Ridgway apartment building, part of the East End Club including players, champions, members who Market residential development, was designed by served in the World Wars and coaches. ! e taped Adelaide-based Woods Bagot architects. Storey Hall, interviews that formed part of the research for the an award winning renovation and extension of a book were deposited with the Norwood Redlegs heritage building for RMIT University was designed Museum and have found their way into the J. D. by Melbourne-based ARM Architecture. Researcher Somerville Collection via the Chairman, Wynton Chris Burns interviewed Glen Collingwood, a Heading. ! e group comprises interviews with Neil Senior Associate of Woods Bagot, for the initial Balme, Wally Miller, Garry McIntosh, Michael Aish, recording. ! e intention is to interview another John Wynne, Michael Taylor and Philip Gallagher. two South Australian architects, and a further two Victorian architects. Recordings will not OH 1111 – Reverend Dr. Bill Edwards – be available for public access until the project is Dr Sue Anderson complete but the work will be of great interest to With funding from History SA, Sue Anderson is anyone interested in the nexus of archival practice, recording the life story of the Reverend Dr. Bill technology, and architecture. It is of particular Edwards who was Superintendent of the Ernabella relevance to the State Library, which holds the Mission from 1958 to 1972. Bill was ordained in archival record group for Woods Bagot (BRG 18). the Presbyterian Church in 1958, and served as 12 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
Myra Ah Chee by Linda Rive
When Myra Ah Chee fi rst came to see me in 2009 and asked me if I would help her record her memoirs, neither of us realised that we would still be recording it six years later. As this was spoken oral history, I recorded it on a digital sound recorder set to an uncompressed Waveform audio fi le format.
We developed a conversational style, but it soon Dick Taylor, Robert and Maggie with camels at became apparent that Myra had a unique and Titjikala (Maryvale Station), 1957 important story to tell and so we decided to write a book. We were nomads, travelling from place to place. We never had a lengthy stay in any e work of transcribing the unedited sound on one place; with Dad working wherever he a digital transcription program took months. I could get a job, fencing, yard building, or well edited passages from one story and dropped them sinking. We travelled along the rivers and into others, mixing and condensing to fi nd the tributaries. All along the watercourses and right balance, to form a fl owing chronological in the hills and across plains, over boulders story. Tragically, a number of Myra’s close and stones, along the bases of ranges and family relatives died during the six years we were escarpments, and through the sand dune working together and I had to keep changing country, and we learnt that every place has its references to them into the past tense. own story. Our father wanted to show us all of our country, and to meet all the members We think life is going to go on forever, don’t we? of our extended family. We were bush kids under the stars. We traversed great distances, We chose to remove Myra’s Matutjara language travelling for days and weeks between places. from the text to make it easier to read, and As a child it seemed like an eternity. Not until because her voice recordings have now been I was able to look back over the years have edited and lodged with the Pitjantjatjara Council’s I been able to appreciate the distances and Cultural Heritage Unit’s digital archive, Ara the time. We absorbed the whole country. Irititja, along with the transcriptions, adding an extra multi-media dimension to her project. Myra delighted in the wayfaring life. She saw stars I completed the manuscript on Australia Day wheeling overhead at night, and the moon in all 2016 and Myra approved the fi nal draft. its phases. She experienced dust storms, heat and frost, but also the sensuous nature of bare Myra was born in 1932 in Oodnadatta into a large feet in soft sand, and a secure and comfortable family. ey lived in a shack that her father had camp at the end of the day, close to her father built on the edge of town. ey were Finke River and siblings. Sometimes it rained heavily. people, speaking Arrernte and Matutjara. Myra’s father, Dick Taylor, had travelled the desert country When a fl ash fl ood occurs, the river comes of the Northern Territory and South Australia on down with great force. It starts with a the back of a horse, droving cattle. He could run a foamy front, fi lled with twigs and branches. station and had experienced bushfi re and drought. Behind it there is a fearsome force, moving He had his own camel team, having been taught by fast, carrying big branches. We never the Afghans. After Myra’s mother passed away in camped in the creekbeds for this reason. 1940 he took the entire family of four adults and eight small children back to the Northern Territory, Myra did not like her Dad sinking wells, as she feared following the Finke River system, with his string of collapse. riding and pack camels. With no wife to care for the children, he no longer went long-distance droving; He’d be down the bottom digging by hand instead, he took his children to his workplace. with his shovel and pick, fi lling the bucket Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 13
and sending it to the surface. If the ground From bare feet and wearing boiled fl ourbag was too hard for a pick and shovel he used dresses, to being dressed up to the nines in dynamite. e explosives sent a great deal high heels, Myra had become sophisticated and of dust into the air, and so Dad would knock glamorous. While at the Duguids, Myra met Fred off then, and come back to the camp, and Ah Chee, a handsome man of Wangkangurru would spend the next hour or so relaxing and and Chinese heritage from the Charlotte Waters boiling the billy. I could relax too, then. area. # ey began keeping company and he would take her on exciting motorbike rides through We followed the progression of his fences the South Australian countryside. In 1954 Myra and we always had fresh new camps. It was and Fred were married and went to live in an beautiful seeing his fences lengthen; they idyllic little house in the Adelaide Hills. were as straight as a ruler. When we were out beyond the stations, Dad would hunt kangaroo. We lived off the land, and it was better than what you could get in the shops.
Life on the stations was hard work, and Dick Taylor did not want that for his children. He chose to send them to Colebrook Home to be educated.
‘I can’t have them sitting under a tree all their lives.’
In 1945 he took Myra and the two youngest boys to Colebrook Home in Eden Hills. It was scary for the bush kids with no shoes to be in the big smoke for the fi rst time, with traffi c, cars and white people.
We were nomadic bush kids, used to living out bush, brought up under the stars. We didn’t have four walls around us until our school days, and yet we still managed to phase ourselves into learning and going to school. Once we’d been placed there we just learnt. We picked up very quickly, absorbing everything. Fred and Myra Ah Chee on their wedding day, 13 April 1954 Myra was very happy and protected at Colebrook, under the care of Matron Ruby Hyde and Sister Fred was a qualifi ed electrician, and went to work in Delia Rutter. After she left school, Myra took the city or up to Maralinga. up the position of housekeeper and surgery receptionist to Dr Charles Duguid and his wife, Fred was exposed to radiation there, even with Phyllis, in Adelaide. She spent four very happy protective gear on. He got skin infections, and years working there, and was treated like family. On I’d ask questions, but it was all so hush-hush. their days off , the Colebrook girls would meet up. After Myra and Fred became parents to son Paul, Away we’d go, about fi ve or six of us, all they decided to return to the Northern Territory dressed up to the nines in our high heels. We to be closer to their own parents who were getting would get off the train at Eden Hills Station, elderly. Myra’s father had meanwhile happily and walk to Colebrook, about a quarter of remarried. a mile. We would have afternoon tea with Sisters Hyde and Rutter. When we came back, Dad was always yard building, digging, we’d get off at the railway station on North droving, carting and working. One day he Terrace, and then you’d hear all these high fi nally said, ‘I can’t do this any more. I can’t heels clack-clack-clacking down the street, go droving any more. I can’t dig another well. running for our trams! Dr Duguid used I don’t want to cut another post.’ He decided to say, ‘Why didn’t you walk?’ I’d say, ‘I’ve it was time to retire, and he and Maggie had walked all my life, now is the time to run!’ moved to Alice Springs. Central Australia was 14 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
in drought when we came back. e ground was sensitive to landscape and spaces which inform bare for three or four years and we couldn’t see her abstract paintings, while her Matutjara daylight for the dust storms, but it was good language expresses the culture and stories of the to be near Dad and Maggie again. Fred got a land. Myra is most passionate about vast open good job at the Alice Springs Power Station. gibber plains. Her paintings – acrylic on canvas He knew how to deliver electricity. He was at – feature the elements that make up life in the the Power Station day and night. e whole desert, stones, gibber, water, soils, clays, salt, town needed Fred to give them their power. microscopic life forms, plants, sunsets, starry skies and two ancestral women. It is no surprise that With Paul in primary school, Myra embarked Myra has titled her book, Stony Land Spirit. on a new career in linguistics. She joined the Interpreter Training program at the Institute for Art to me is about expressing myself and getting Aboriginal Development, and she worked on the the artist in me out. I am experimenting all Pitjantjatjara - Yankunytjatjara dictionary, looking the time with my artwork. My work details at Yankunytjatjara words and their defi nitions. everything that makes up our world, and I add magical elements from the dreamtime, everything I was brought up with.
Myra is now almost 84 years old and is about to have her homemade book printed. Her son Paul is happily married to Donna, and they have three beautiful children, all university educated. Her remaining siblings are in their 70s and 90s and are still going strong.
ough we live in this modern society now, we haven’t lost our Aboriginal knowledge of our land, culture or our languages. We’ve straddled the old life and the new, and we are stronger than ever. I’ve lived in the best of both worlds. e future is in my grandchildren’s hands now.
Linda Rive and Myra Ah Chee have known each other Myra Ah Chee and her son, Paul, 2013 for thirty years, since Linda studied Pitjantjatjara at the Institute for Aboriginal Development in Alice I decided to become a full time interpreter, Springs where Myra was teaching. Linda is now and worked at Alice Springs Hospital doing a fl uent speaker and interpreter of the language medical interpreting with the doctors and and currently administrates the Pitjantjatjara nurses in the wards and around the hospital. Council’s Cultural Heritage Unit’s digital archive Ara Irititja (www.irititja.com), recording and By the mid-1980s Fred was not well. His translating oral histories. Linda has been recording immune system was broken down and there her own family history for many years and is were a lot of things wrong with him. He currently researching the life of her grandmother. worked right up to his death in November 1987. He died too young, and didn’t get the Photographs supplied by Linda Rive and chance to fi nish his oral history that he was used with Myra Ah Chee’s permission. working on. Bad things have happened to the men who worked at Maralinga. I had thirty- ! e book will not be commercially available, three years of happy marriage with Fred. but copies will be available to view via OHA SA/ NT and the State Library of South Australia. Myra retired not long after losing Fred, and turned again to the arts. She remains deeply Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 15
e pursuit of oral history has given us some Oral History wonderful experiences. One of my more interesting times was to spend a week with the in Practice maintenance gang working on the Stryzlecki Track when charged with writing the Track’s by Peter Donovan story. I spent each day in the water truck to gather another perspective on the work. Donovan & Associates has used oral history in all our history projects which come within the scope of living memory. We consider the oral history to be a vital source in itself in association with documentary and photographic sources. We also believe it to be important in a project at diff erent levels. In the fi rst instance, it is a valuable means of gathering information and guidance concerning key issues, people and likely sources, and it serves to provide context for the documentary information. We also use the interviews as a means of publicising a project and involving people in it.
Peter Donovan
We off er clients the option of a formal oral history program as part of any broader history project. We have taken to borrowing equipment from the State We have used all types of recorders since registering Library in these instances, and having transcriptions our business name on 16 December 1980. We made, with the condition that the transcriptions are began with very simple cassette tape recorders but, placed in the State Library of South Australia (SLSA). as soon as possible, acquired a Sony TCM-5000EV Our history of National Pharmacies proceeded broadcast-quality machine. We teamed this with a in this manner. Similarly, we conducted several Sony foot-operated transcription machine and were hours of formal interviews with Dr Brian Sando, able to handle all issues in-house. is provided with transcriptions being lodged with the State great service until tape cassettes were superseded by Library, though the project was primarily designed digital recordings. We currently use a small digital to provide the recordings for Dr Sando’s family. recorder which creates MP3 fi les for our general type of work. We fi nd this ideal: it is easy to use, it is D&A Oral History Projects sensitive, it is inconspicuous, and is relatively friendly ere have been instances when our discussions as far as interviewees are concerned. Moreover, with clients have determined that the clients’ needs after the interview the recorder simply plugs into were best met with a formal oral history only. the computer to enable the fi le to be copied. Generally the object of these projects has been to collect information while key people are available History Projects, generally. that might be used in a publication at some later e main purpose of the interviews for our date. ese have been formal interviews with history projects is to gather information that tapes and transcriptions delivered to the clients. we are able to use. We do not transcribe the interviews but off er the interviews to clients – Key oral history projects in this manner initially the cassette tapes, more recently the have been undertaken for the Australian MP3 fi les – at the conclusion of each project. Submarine Corporation, the South Australian Defence of the America’s Cup, Lindsay Point Almonds Pty Ltd, e Australian Medical 16 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
Association, Collison & Co, Patent Attorneys to conduct the interview and the other to manage and Giles & Giles, Chartered Accountants. the sound and be alert for planes about to pass overhead. Some interviews were conducted within the Yatala Labour Prison with those then still within the system but who had been at Adelaide Gaol.
National and State Library Oral History Projects. We have also been fortunate to be members of panels associated with the SLSA and the National Library of Australia (NLA) to conduct interviews in accordance with particular programs managed by these libraries. ! e programs have included South Australia’s Honoured Women Our oral history of the Australian Submarine (SLSA) and the Eminent Australians Oral History Corporation included all of the key players involved Project, the Jim Bain oral history project of major in establishing the company, and took the story fi nancial managers and institutions and the Old to the launch of the fi rst submarine. ! e result Parliament House oral history project (all NLA). was a collection of vinyl folders – one for each interviewee – each containing the cassette tapes, the ! ese programs have provided us with the transcription and photographs of the interviewee. opportunity to meet a broad range of signifi cant Australians throughout the country. ! ese have A lasting feature of our oral history of Lindsay been ‘whole of life’ projects and have normally Point Almonds is the crucial role played in the involved up to fi ve hours of interviews spread over industry by bees and the fact that they need to be two days: the timing enabling issues discussed earlier made ready before being moved to the orchard. to be elaborated upon and omissions rectifi ed. It has been a privilege to meet these people and Other agency Oral History Projects to try to highlight key features of their lives. In other instances Donovan & Associates has been approached by agencies to undertake formal oral We have been fortunate to be trained in the use of history project on their behalf. ! ese have included the libraries’ latest equipment for these projects an oral history of the Adelaide Gaol, conducted for and to have available the resources of the personnel the South Australian Department of Environment associated with the oral history collections. On (see Word of Mouth Autumn 2007 Issue 52:5-9), one occasion while in Brisbane, I had need to interviews with Mitsubishi Motors workers prior seek mechanical advice from the personnel at to the factory’s closure, conducted for the History the National Library in Canberra: the issue was Trust of South Australia, interviews with people soon rectifi ed and the interview proceeded. associated with maintaining the Birdsville Track, conducted for the South Australian Department It is not practical to list all those whom we have of Transport, the Australian Generations oral interviewed, most of whom are not household history project, conducted for Monash University names. However, a tiny and diverse sample of and the Australian National Library, and the formal interviews includes Janet Holmes à interviews for the Don Dunstan Foundation. Court, Professor Tanya Monro, Dr Barbara Hardy, Maurice Newman, Sir Eric Neal, John Letts, Mike ! e oral history project concerning the Adelaide Turtur, Dr David Kemp, Len King, Nick Bolkus, Gaol was conducted soon after the gaol’s closure Jeff Mincham, Andrew Steiner, Max Fatchen, and and was particularly memorable. We conducted Dr Basil Hetzel. In all instances we continue to be interviews – with a broad range of those directly amazed at the manner in which interviewees have associated with the gaol – in various parts of the trusted us and often spoken about deeply personal complex rather than conducting them in a room. and emotional experiences: this was particularly ! e locations depended on the interviewees’ the case with the Australian Generations project. experiences within the gaol, and the visual stimuli gave the interviews great immediacy and raised Peter Donovan was named the History issues that might otherwise have been forgotten. It Council of South Australia’s Historian of the was a particularly vivid experience to revisit the cell Year in 2015. His nomination can be found in which one prisoner had been held and to have him in Word of Mouth Spring 2015 No. 69. explain his means of coping with incarceration. In these instances there were two of us involved, one Photo and cartoons supplied by Peter Donovan Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 17
ACCREDITED ORAL HISTORY TRAINING WINTER SCHOOL IN Course Costs: $395 (No GST) BROOME 14 – 16 TH JUNE 2016 Includes enrolment fees, resources, participant handbook, and assessment. Enjoy a unique Broome experience at the Goolarri Media Enterprises (GME) oral history winter school. Testimonies from 2015 Winter School Participents Oral History Australia National Training Convenor A 25 year old Singaporean PhD student and OHAA WA remote committee member, Elaine travelled from Sydney to attend the course: Rabbitt, has developed the oral history training is was an extremely comprehensive and informative package, drawn from the wealth of oral history course, well worth the expense and travel. All the teaching materials that are available in Australia and issues we dealt with were important and stimulated overseas. lively debate and conversation facilitated well by the experienced Dr Elaine Rabbitt: that of ethics, e winter school comprises three consecutive of technology, of interview etiquette and so on. workshops with assessments to be completed. GME’s e assessments were also practical and useful, professional sound recordist, Arthur Hunter, will be particularly drafting invitation letters/consent available to give participants advice on the recording forms and also a mock interview which made me devices and how to use them. realise I had underestimated how complex the oral history interview exchange was. Although I Practical tasks to be completed to gain the had a strong grasp of oral history in theory, I came qualifi cation include: away much better equipped to do it in practice. • Completion of assessment workbook containing Fiona Bowring-Greer from Canberra said: I had activities, including answering questions re ethical a wonderful week in Broome with the course and practice. the people of the course as the highlight! Just the • Learn how to write a letter of invitation and antidote/pre-retirement preparation I needed. informed consent to suit your project. • Use professional recording equipment. Recognition of prior learning • Complete an interview. If you have completed other oral history • Keep a refl ective journal to evaluate the interview courses, workshops or interviews you can apply context. for ‘recognition of prior learning’ (RPL). RPL is a way of using your existing skills, knowledge Certifi cation and experience to gain your formal qualifi cation. ose who complete the three workshops, an You will be required to meet the performance interview and their assessment workbooks will be criteria for the unit of competency Record and awarded their certifi cate issued by the Goolarri Document Community History AHCILM404A. Media Enterprises (GME) Registered Training Organisation No.51278. Qualifi cations required to teach Having your knowledge and expertise recognised To teach the accredited oral history course, professionally and gaining the certifi cation is a trainers must hold the following qualifi cations: stepping stone for further learning and possible • ANCILM404A Record and Document Community employment opportunities to teach the accredited History course. • A current Certifi cate IV in Training and Assessment and then work with a Registered Who should attend? Training Organisation (RTO) authorised to issue ose wanting to gain an accredited oral history the oral history certifi cate. qualifi cation: community members, historians, A Diploma of Teaching or Bachelor of Education history teachers, museum and interpretive centre provides you with the skills to teach adults but staff , librarians, students, Academics, organisations does not give you the correct credentials to teach, and individuals working to document signifi cant train and assess within Australia’s Vocational sites, aged-care workers, health workers, ranger and Education and Training (VET) sector. land management groups, language centres and any organisations or communities working to preserve For further details and advice how to proceed contact languages and cultures. Elaine Rabbitt [email protected] 18 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
utensils. Other display boxes bear witness ‘RUSSIANS IN to a variety of aspects of Russian life, culture SOUTH AUSTRALIA’ and contributions to Australian society. At the entrance to the gallery is the special AT THE MIGRATION exhibition banner created and embroidered by Natalia Joukowski, as well as collages of countless MUSEUM photographs of four generations of Russian migrants. e exhibition was well received by all viewers March 19 2016 was a conspicuous date for the and is now open to the public until June 2016. Adelaide Russian community. It was the launch It should be of special interest to school groups of the exhibition ‘Russians in South Australia’. for a unique insight into Multicultural Australia.
Historically, there were three main ‘waves’ ALL ARE CORDIALLY INVITED of ethnic Russian refugees and migrants that reached Australian shores. Valery Walter LEBEDEW, OAM • 1948 – 1952: Displaced Persons (DPs) mostly Hon. President from Germany, who were displaced from their Russian Ethnic Representative Council of SA homeland during the Second World War and who did not wish to return to the tyrannical Soviet e Council received a Lizzie Russell Oral Union regime. History Grant and will be undertaking an • 1954 – 1964: Ethnic Russians from China who oral history with a signifi cant member of were expelled from that country by its Communist their community later this year – Ed. rulers. • 1991 to present: Economic migrants who were admitted to Australia as specialists in various trades and professions after the collapse of the Lizzie Russell Oral Soviet Union. All these waves in their diff erent ways made a History Grant substantial contribution to the fabric of Multicultural Australia. Scheme 2016
On the appointed date, a group of South Australian is grant scheme aims to foster small oral history government VIPs, as well as leaders of the Russian initiatives in South Australia. Oral History Australia community gathered for the offi cial opening. South Australia/Northern Territory wishes to Among the VIPs were the Hon. Michael Atkinson, support, assist and help develop oral history projects MP, Speaker of the South Australian Parliament in this State. e grant scheme is funded by sales of and Steven Marshall, MP, both long time friends the Oral History Handbook by Beth M. Robertson. and supporters of the Russian community. After the speeches, refreshments were served and the We hope that the scheme fi lls a gap left by the offi cial party was invited to inspect the exhibits. is closure of many federal and state funding options was followed by presentations with the Adelaide and helps revive an important means of recording Balalaika Orchestra and the ‘Kalinka’ Dancers. South Australia’s history. We encourage all prospective oral historians to join our Association e exhibition itself endeavours to present some so that we can help fulfi l these objectives. of the activities, achievements and contributions to Australian society of ethnic Russians, ranging Further information and an application form may from science to sport and from religious rites be found at http://oralhistoryaustraliasant.org.au to theatre. On the walls are annotated posters depicting diff erent aspects of Russian community Please submit by 30 June, 2016. If emailing life and achievements, such as working with youth, submissions please send to the SA/NT Association’s religion, theatre, sport, personalities and others. email address contact@oralhistoryaustraliasant. org.au attention June Edwards. Two mannequins dressed in colourful male and female national costumes grace one of the glass display cabinets, together with the famous, uniquely Russian samovar and other household Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016 - 19
my mind was always doing things, but I ‘Extended’ Last Words: was not focused. I found the curriculum far too restrictive because so many things e Reverend Dr Lynn Arnold interested me.
by Allison Murchie My parents had bought for my sister and me the full set of the Encyclopaedia Americana, which is I am currently undertaking a whole of life interview some 30 volumes, and ! e World of Science, which with Lynn Arnold AO FAICD, BA, B.Ed, PhD. He is is a twelve volume series, when we lived in Canada. a very high achiever who is a complex and talented I, when we lived in New Zealand, would devour man, yet he is very humble and down to earth. – I’d just sit recreationally and look through this encyclopaedia. I remember one time, my parents Lynn is a husband, a father of fi ve, a doting calling me into the lounge room and it turned out grandfather, an ex-Premier of South Australia; a they’d had a bit of a bet and I didn’t know this. ! ey linguist who is fl uent in Spanish, a pacifi st, a leader showed me something in one of the volumes of the of the Vietnam War Moratorium movement, encyclopaedia, and it was about soap making and a devout Christian, a Minister at St Peter’s they said, ‘Have you seen this article?’ Well, they Cathedral, a teacher, leader of World Vision in seemed so excited by this, that they thought they Australia and South-East Asia Pacifi c, spokesman were telling me something, so I didn’t feel I could for prison reform, frequent guest speaker, Chair say, yes I had (which I had), so I said, ‘No, that’s of the Don Dunstan Foundation, prolifi c reader, interesting.’ ! en it turned out it was a bet: my father walks up Mount Lofty regularly, walked the had said I would have seen it and my mother said I Kokoda Trail, a world traveller who has visited wouldn’t. But in fact I had seen it. ! e point is this, 49 countries, mud run competitor, does maths that my mind would fl y all over the place, which was puzzles as a hobby, a humanitarian, businessman, not good for being a student. radio presenter and friend. And much more! His belief system formed early. Lynn was born in South Africa then moved with I was very concerned about social justice issues his family to Canada and later to New Zealand … even as a teenager I regarded myself as a before settling in South Australia. He studied at communist and I thought that this was the Adelaide Boys’ High then Adelaide University and way: equal sharing of things was the way to later became a high school teacher in the northern go and why couldn’t everyone else see this? suburbs before moving into politics. He served the South Australian Parliament for fi fteen years before He was interested in religion and researched the taking over as Premier when John Bannon resigned. Religious Society of Friends, the Quakers and e family then moved to Spain for two years where decided to join them. he undertook further study and worked part-time ! ey were pacifi sts; they were active engagers in as a management consultant. On returning to social justice; they were believers, but they were Australia he accepted several senior leadership roles also of this world – and that spoke to me perfectly. in World Vision for Australia, South East Asia Pacifi c 1965 was also the year that we started seeing on the and internationally for fi fteen years. is required six o’clock news, news reports of the growing war in extensive travelling, including overseeing the relief Vietnam. work of his organisation after the tsunami in 2004. When talking about his substantial role in organising After this stimulating but exhausting period he protests against the Vietnam War he commented, returned to South Australia and was appointed I learned a huge amount about public speaking, CEO of Anglicare where he worked for four years. about crowd management, about how crowd In recent years he has followed his calling to psychology works. ! at was the day of the ’60s where become a priest at St Peter’s Cathedral where he they had Straight and Crooked ! inking, which has created a unique role of ‘Faith in the Public actually was the start of the science of how crowds Square’ as a part-time position, thus allowing think. ! e fall-out in 1972 – at that stage I’m still him to continue with his many other roles. His only 23 and so I’d had a wonderful experience – to large family is still his priority, with regular be able to go through all of that, and I don’t regret trips to Melbourne and around Australia. any of it, even though some of the decisions I might From a young age his mind was active and enquiring. have done a bit diff erently at diff erent times – it gave me a profi le and I was able to deal with the media I was an active student in the sense that reasonably well. 20 - Word of Mouth, Autumn 2016
the other direction the pigeon with its head fl opped Lynn Arnold, late 1960s over the side of the bowl, and then the broth around Courtesy Lynn Arnold it that they served. e only meal I could not fi nish was in Xi’an at a formal dinner, where they served a During our interview meal that had a slab of turtle fat on one’s plate and I there were many couldn’t fi nish that – that was a bit much. laughs and funny anecdotes. One that … my earliest memory of Don Dunstan had been gave me a chuckle was when I was a teenager and seeing a press report when Lynn and his about him in Norwood sitting on the side of a curb wife met the Queen talking to somebody who was a bit down and out. It and Prince Philip. impressed me that here was this man of the people Well, they are at who was with the people. a reception at the Festival Centre and I think Lynn remembered this experience well Elaine and I get invited along with a big cast of and carried out many acts of kindness himself. others. ere were nibbles being distributed – there were sandwiches, asparagus in white bread, and so " e press are not usually kind to politicians but the on – enough to keep the wolf from the door hunger- Advertiser’s Nigel Hopkins wrote in September 1992: wise. Donald Dunstan [the Governor] told us at ‘At the age of 44 and as Minister for Everything the next executive council meeting how sorry he Important for the Future of South Australia – felt for them. I said, ‘Yes, it must be terrible having Industry, trade, technology, agriculture and fi sheries, to shake all these hands and meet all these people not to forget ethnic aff airs – he has earned an – it must be incessant.’ He said, ‘No, it wasn’t just enviable reputation. A man of exceptional integrity, that. ey never get to eat.’ He said they got back was one description. A genuine and honest politician to Government House where they were staying and was another, despite the apparent contradiction they’d had nothing to eat, and they were hungry. this might pose for some politicians. He has a Government House, for some reason, had let the staff quick grasp of issues, he handles meetings well, go that night so there was no staff available to make has a great thirst for knowledge, a very practical anything. Beryl and Donald Dunstan went down to person, hard-working, likeable, does his homework the kitchens to make sandwiches for the Queen and … and so his admirers go on.’ I totally agree. the Duke! At the recent State Funeral of John Bannon, Lynn On one of his many overseas trips as read a prayer that perhaps sums up his own view of a Minister he visited Turkey. life. On the way back from Şanliurfa to Diyabakir there was a very, very picturesque scene of some e night heralds the dawn, young goatherds goat-herding these goats across Let us look expectantly to a new day, an amazingly picturesque background. It was so new joys, beautiful that I said, ‘Stop the car – I want to take new possibilities. a photograph.’ Now, we were part of a three-car convoy – the car in front was security, the car behind His generosity in giving me so much time to was security, and there was our car in the middle. I conduct this interview in his very busy life is much get out to photograph, and the car in front and the appreciated and has given me some insight into what car behind don’t know what’s going on. ey think makes him tick. As an oral historian it has been a there’s an incident, so they dash out with their guns sheer delight and privilege to work with Lynn Arnold. pointed. ese poor boys who were goat-herding suddenly have guns pointed at them and they run Allison Murchie has recorded a vast number of in terror off into the hillside. I’ve never felt more oral histories, many of which can be found in the ashamed of myself because I did not intend that to State Library’s J.D. Somerville Collection. As a happen – to give them traumatic experience. consequence of this, and her long standing support of OHA, she was made a life member of OHA in During his travels he also attended many functions 2015 (see Word of Mouth Spring 2015 No. 69). as guest of honour and faced some diffi cult meals. In China, … so you had a turtle on one side with his head fl opping over the side of the bowl, and then facing in Oral History Australia Inc South Australian/Northern Territory Association
Oral History Australia Inc is a non-profi t body whose members practice and promote oral history. e aims of Oral History Australia [OHA] are:
• to promote the practice and methods of oral history • to educate in the use of oral history methods • to encourage discussions on all aspects of oral history • to foster the preservation of oral history records
e South Australian Association of OHA came to life just seven months after the national body was founded in Perth in July 1978.
Services provided by the volunteer committee of Oral History Australia to members of the SA/NT Association include:
• Word of Mouth Branch newsletter which is published twice a year and includes articles about work being done in South Australia • Annual Journal of Oral History Australia which contains papers given at the biennial conference or other papers considered of particular topical interest • Hire of Fostex digital recording equipment at a membership discount • Various publications including the Oral History Handbook by Beth Robertson which have a membership discount • Biennial conference of OHA which has a membership discount • Regular oral history training workshops. ese full day workshops introduce participants to the practice and methods of oral history and provide equipment training on the Fostex digital recorders • Advanced oral history workshops covering a range of issues including ethics, memory and technological advances in the use of oral histories • Access to the annual OHA SA/NT Association grant scheme of $500 to help foster small oral history initiatives in South Australia and a free workshop • Access to the branch website: www.oralhistoryaustraliasant.org.au • Participation in events which often coincide with the AGM and Christmas eg tours of the Migration Museum and the State Library of South Australia focusing on the audio visual aspects of these organisations; a New Year get together over afternoon tea; talk by Peter Kolomitsev at the State Library on digital technology and equipment; seminars during the Family History Fair and History Week; and exhibitions during History Week