The Bowen Island Museum and Archives will host a workshop on oral history by Willeen Keough, chair of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies at Simon Fraser University. Space is limited to 15 people, please register by phone (947-2655) or e-mail ([email protected]) to reserve a spot. Participation is by donation.
As a conversation about the past, oral history has existed as long as people have shared and interpreted their individual and group memories through the spoken word. Since the 1960s, it has become a primary means of gaining insight into the experiences of those who have been left out of written records because of gender, race, class, ethnicity, sexuality, and region. Some oral history interviews serve to heal and empower. Others may bring unfamiliar, disturbing shapes to pasts that we had thought were comfortably settled in our memories. But all good oral history interviews will be based on a fully engaged dialogue between interviewer and narrator.
Please join us on Sunday, January 27, from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Museum and Archives to discuss the art of creating oral history conversations. Please write a paragraph about your full name (e.g., its origins, how you felt about it growing up, nicknames).
We will talk about putting our narrators at ease and sharing authority between interviewer and narrator. We'll examine the connections between history, memory, and identity. We'll think carefully about ethical questions, such as how to respect our narrators' best interests as they share their experiences with us. We'll explore ideas about different ways to bring oral histories to life for other audiences. And we'll practice interviewing each other so that we can appreciate how it feels to be both interviewer and interviewee.
Some audio recorders will be available, but bring one along if you have one.
