UNews - oral history

Oral history lecture and workshop tap local authors and stories

caroline.zentner — Mon, 15 May 2017 20:14:45 +0000

Anyone lucky enough to have visited the Bow on Tong apothecary in Lethbridge’s Chinatown took a step back in time. Closed in 2013, the apothecary allowed visitors a look at dozens of drawers that once contained traditional remedies like ginseng or powdered horns or fungi.

Natalie Appleton

The Bow on Tong Co. was home to Albert Leong, whose father had operated the apothecary. Natalie Appleton, an award-winning author and former Lethbridge Herald reporter, was led to the Leong family’s story through her research for A Century in Ink, a commemorative book celebrating Alberta’s centennial in 2005. Her research and interview with Leong became the basis for her creative non-fiction work entitled Fourth Son of Fourth Wife, which was long-listed for the 2016 CBC Creative Non-Fiction Contest.

Southern Albertans can hear Appleton talk about Leong’s story, and several of her other short works, during a free public lecture titled Poetic Justice in Southern Alberta: An Evening with Award Winning Author Natalie Appleton, scheduled for Thursday, May 25 at 7 p.m. at the Galt Museum. The lecture is sponsored by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT) and the Galt Museum and Archives.

On Friday, May 26, Appleton will then team up with Dr. Jenna Bailey, a writer, historian, oral history consultant and post-doctoral fellow at COHT, for a workshop devoted to using oral histories to write creative non-fiction.

Dr. Jenna Bailey

Bailey is the author of Can Any Mother Help Me? The book tells the story of women who replied to a letter that was published in a 1935 edition of Nursery World magazine. The letter revealed a young mother’s frustration and loneliness and struck a chord with women all over Britain. Some of the women who replied to the letter began corresponding and a secret magazine — Cooperative Correspondence Club — was the eventual outcome. The women wrote about every aspect of their lives from childbirth to broken hearts and fading dreams.

Appleton and Bailey will discuss their writing and shed light on strategies that can be used in writing non-fiction texts. They’ll explore the various ways they’ve used oral history interviews to create stories that bring the past to life. Participants will learn practical tools they can apply in their own writing. A question-and-answer session will be moderated by Dr. Jay Gamble from the U of L’s Department of English.

“Given the increasing interest in oral history in Alberta, we are extremely pleased to offer these two unique opportunities to learn more about the craft,” says Bailey. “We invite everyone interested in finding out more about how oral history and creative non-fiction can help bring history to life to attend.”

The workshop goes from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Galt Museum. The workshop fee of $20 includes lunch. For more information, email coht@uleth.ca. To register for the workshop, phone the Galt Museum at 403-320-3954. Registration deadline is May 19.

Southern Alberta oral history project proves popular

caroline.zentner — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 21:46:39 +0000

When his recent oral history presentation on southern Alberta’s Japanese emigrants and their descendants drew a crowd three times larger than expected, Dr. Darren Aoki (BA ’90) knew he had a project that resonated with people.

Now a lecturer at Plymouth ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ in England, Aoki began his Mukashi Mukashi (Nikkei History in Southern Alberta – After the War): Stories of Global Significance research project in 2011 and has completed more than 30 interviews with local Nikkei, or Japanese emigrants and their descendants. Even though he was raised in Lethbridge — his grandparents started Nakagama’s — he didn’t become interested in local history until he’d spent a few years living in Japan.

After completing a BA in history at the U of L, Aoki took advantage of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Programme and his one-year adventure in the Land of the Rising Sun soon became five.

“It is a wonderful exchange and it can really change people’s lives, like it did mine,” he says. “I had so many opportunities to meet people. My roots are in Japan so it gave me a chance to think about a lot of things I had taken for granted as I was growing up.”

The experience led him to focus on Japan in his graduate education, completing a master’s at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of London and a doctorate in Japanese studies at Cambridge.

“At Cambridge, I became particularly interested in issues of identity, how the nation state was built and how the building of the nation state affects ideas of identity, both at a national level and how that’s distilled through to the individual level,” he says.

Aoki focused his research on gender, sexuality, ethnicity and race in relation to the Allied occupation of Japan in the seven years following the Second World War and the ensuing decades. He was particularly interested in individual experience and how people talk about themselves in relation to racism and discrimination. He wondered if the experience of individuals in Japan was also reflected in Japanese communities abroad.

“That’s when my own heritage kicked in and I thought there may be some interesting questions to ask if I go back to the community I was raised in,” says Aoki.

He wanted to know how Japanese Canadians, who were forced to move to internment camps in the interior of the country during the war, carried on after losing their homes and possessions. About 12,000 moved into internment camps set up in ghost towns and several thousand made their way farther east.

“Another three to four thousand are then moved out to the Prairie provinces, especially Alberta, under agreement between the RCMP and the Sugar Beet Association, for example. That’s why you get this influx of people into Alberta, adding to an already existing small, but important, Japanese community in Raymond and Hardieville,” he says.

Most research on the topic has concentrated on Canada as a whole or in cities, such as Vancouver and Toronto, with large Japanese communities. He says the southern Alberta Japanese community is distinctive because of its rural base and its Japanese-Canadian cultural infrastructure.

“When I first started the project in 2011, it was going to be an oral history project to try to rescue memories,” he says. “A lot of that wartime incarceration history is now well-known so my focus was much more the post-war period. What happens after the war? How do people, if they’ve been through that experience, rebuild their lives? The second thing is to really focus on the so-called second generation, the Nisei, because a lot of those people born in the ‘20s all the way up to just before the war aren’t going to be around much longer.”

People he’s interviewed have told him they carried on their lives by finding ways to compartmentalize their thoughts. They took advantage of educational opportunities that opened up after the Second World War. They also found ways to deal with hurt and humiliation. While they may have tried to bury their feelings, Aoki says it still funnels through the way people think, talk and interact, often using both good-natured and biting humour.

Many commented on how they worked hard and sacrificed so their children could succeed as Canadians but one of the poignant consequences was loss of ‘Japaneseness’ through intermarriage. Many of these couples, especially since the 1990s, give their children Japanese names and make a concerted effort to explore Japan and its culture.

“In that sense, the Nisei haven’t given up that Japaneseness; they’ve given that to the future generations,” Aoki says. “The biggest thing about assimilation is that the non-Japanese part of society has actually assimilated into the Japaneseness as well. If they’re marrying, they might come into contact with Japanese food, and practice sports like Mr. Kinjo’s karate or Mr. Senda’s judo.”

For Aoki, oral history is a powerful way to bridge the broader study of history with individual experience. Scholars can study documents in archives and those materials will always stay the same, but oral history allows the past to be distilled through the present.

“One of the reasons oral history has such an application beyond just the study of history is that there can be therapeutic elements to thinking about it, thinking about it again, telling it and putting your past into an order as you articulate it,” he says. “Oral historians have a huge responsibility because these people have given you their time; they’re inviting you into their memories and stories and some of them could be painful. Although we can’t help them, the process might be useful to that person.”

He’d encourage anyone interested in oral history to take part in this summer’s workshops being offered through the U of L’s Centre for Oral History and Tradition and the Galt Museum.

“These workshops will give you a good set of skills. It creates, more than the skills, an awareness of what oral history can open up, what you can hope to find, but also how to best cultivate those opportunities while also implanting that sense of responsibility,” says Aoki.

U of L’s Centre for Oral History and Tradition to offer public workshops

caroline.zentner — Tue, 03 May 2016 17:11:13 +0000

Oral history projects help bring the past to life through the voices of people who lived at the time. Members of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge’s Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT), in partnership with the Galt Museum and Archives, a

Dr. Jenna Bailey

re offering their expertise as oral historians to help southern Albertans make their projects a reality.

“There’s definitely more and more interest in oral history in Alberta these days,” says Dr. Jenna Bailey, COHT senior research fellow. “People realize it’s a wonderful way to collect local history and many museums and community organizations are doing oral history projects.”

“Oral histories are found in many archives and the Galt Archives is no exception. They are valuable historical sources as much as letters, diaries and official documents,” says Andrew Chernevych, the Galt Museum’s archivist. “Oral histories help preserve experiences of people who don’t commit their memories to writing; this is perhaps the only way to capture some unique aspects of history.”

Andrew Chernevych

Oral history projects often involve collaboration amongst the generations. As people in a community get older, younger generations may realize that much local history resides in people’s memories, especially in rural areas. Oral history projects provide a way for that knowledge to be preserved.

“In an era of so much electronic communication and ever-changing technology, we must consciously record and preserve aspects of our history,” says Dr. Heidi MacDonald, history professor and director of COHT. “Oral histories, preserved in archives, will be a wonderful source for future generations of family and professional historians.”

Oral history is an intimate way of capturing the history of a place as well as the diverse histories of individual lives. Engaging stories are the result and those who offer up their own history often enjoy the opportunity to share their lives as part of a wider history.

Dr. Heidi MacDonald

“For organizations or individuals who recognize the importance of the history of an area but don’t necessarily have a huge budget or team, oral history interviews are an accessible way to capture history,” says Bailey.

Workshop participants will learn how to plan an oral history project from the ground up, including what kind of recording device to use, what questions to ask and obtaining consent.

The COHT and the Galt Museum & Archives are delivering the workshops with several co-partners — the Crowsnest Community Library, the Crowsnest Museum & Archives, Stavely and District Museum, Claresholm & District Museum, and the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat — who are hosting the individual sessions. Beginner workshops are scheduled for May 27 at the Galt Museum, June 10 at the Crowsnest Community Library, June 11 at the Stavely & District Museum and September 23 at the Esplanade Arts & Heritage Centre in Medicine Hat. An intermediate workshop is scheduled for October 21 at the Galt Museum & Archives.

The keynote speaker for the workshops is Kimberly Lyall, project manager for the Governor General’s Award-winning Coyote Flats Oral History Project. She’ll share her experiences and offer tips for carrying out an oral history project. Other workshop presenters are trained oral historians.

The cost is $70 plus GST for adults and $25 plus GST for seniors and students. To register for the May 27 workshop, call 403-320-3954 or 1-866-320-3898, ext. 0 by May 20. For the June 10 workshop in the Crowsnest Pass, call 403-563-5434 by June 3. For the June 11 workshop in Stavely, call 403-549-0189 or send an email to jmbmab@gmail.com by June 4. For the Sept. 23 workshop in Medicine Hat, call 403-502-8777 by Sept. 16. The deadline for registration for the intermediate workshop at the Galt is Oct. 14.

Oral histories to highlight farming stories of southern Alberta

caroline.zentner — Wed, 09 Mar 2016 17:12:55 +0000

Hearing stories about life on the farm in southern Alberta never gets old for Shelby Forster. The second-year history student is in the midst of an applied study with the Galt Museum to collect oral histories from people who are or have been involved in farm life, and she’s especially interested in anecdotes that relate to irrigation techniques.

Forster has already conducted eight interviews and has another seven lined up to complete the project. She asks interviewees about their earliest memories of being on the farm, what it was like to live and work on a farm, and what they see for the future of farming.

“Some people are really pessimistic and say the family farm is gone forever and others say the family farm is strong and is only going to get stronger,” says Forster.

Her project has already captured media attention; Forster was recently on Daybreak Alberta and Alberta@noon. After the Alberta@noon interview aired, Forster received so many calls from people wanting to participate that her interview roster was quickly filled. An archived podcast is available on the CBC website. Click on the Alberta@noon icon, scroll down to the podcast for Feb. 16 and once you have downloaded the podcast, move the timer to 10:30 to listen to her interview.

When completed, the oral history interviews will become part of the Galt’s archives.

50 Voices research project gathering steam

caroline.zentner — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 18:26:13 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, as central as it is to the fabric of southern Alberta, means something different to each person who has walked its hallways.

What better way to commemorate the U of L’s 50th anniversary than by giving those who have been part of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s journey the chance to tell their stories? That’s the idea behind the 50 Voices research project by the Centre for Oral History and Tradition (COHT), led by Dr. Chris Hosgood, a historian and co-chair of the 50^th anniversary steering committee, Professor Emeritus Dr. Jim Tagg, Mike Perry, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ archivist, Dr. Heidi MacDonald, a history professor, and Tracy McNab, project manager.

“There’s not one story of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge,” says MacDonald, COHT director. “The great thing about oral history is that people interpret their own experience. The goal here is diversity.”

“The objective is to attain a richness and multiplicity of voices,” says McNab (BASc ’81, MA ’09). “We’re looking for voices from all populations, including students, professors, staff, community members, and alumni. We want to include everyone, from the movers and shakers to the ones we should know about but don’t. We want to get a flavour of what the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ has been like these last 50 years.”

Tagg has already captured some of that flavour in the interviews recorded for the First Generation Oral History Project. Those interviews focused on the formative years at the U of L and include such gems as the story of how Dr. Dennis Connolly, a longtime mathematics professor, joined the ranks of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ.

Connolly found himself stranded in Lethbridge in April 1967 when a blizzard shut down travel across southern Alberta. He knew nothing of Lethbridge then; it was merely a stopover on his way from Yellowstone National Park to Banff.

“I’ve never seen so much snow in my life. It was five feet of snow within a day or two. They were feeding cattle with helicopters,” he says.

Being stuck in a motel, Connolly found a copy of the Lethbridge Herald and read an article about the new ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ opening in a couple of months. With nothing else to do, Connolly made his way to the college campus to have a look.

“I put in an application,” he says, adding he thought he’d work for a year or two before doing a doctoral degree. “I thought it would be a new start and I’d be a professor all of a sudden.”

Excerpts from some of the First Generation recordings will be used in the 50 Voices project, complemented by additional interviews with other voices, like that of Sheila Matson, a U of L employee since 1968. She started in the registrar’s office when the U of L was still in its infancy.

“It was a really cool time. We were in little trailers over on the south side just at the corner where you turn to go the Enmax Centre,” she says. “I’m a people person and the thing I’ve loved about the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ is interacting with faculty and staff and students.”

Matson has been an administrator in almost every department on campus, from anthropology to student awards, and she’s watched the U of L become the dynamic place it is today. She didn’t hesitate to participate in the 50 Voices project.

“I was absolutely stunned, first of all, to even be asked. It’s a remarkable undertaking, especially for the 50 Voices to represent the diversity of this place,” says Matson. “I feel thrilled and very proud to be asked to contribute.”

To ensure a breadth of voices is included, the 50 Voices final project will feature equal numbers of interviews with men and women, represent all of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s constituency groups and cover the entire U of L timeline.

“We want a variety of stories from all walks, so the process is extremely difficult. We have literally tens of thousands of people from whom to choose. It’s been a tough job for us,” says MacDonald.

“It’s a considered effort and a lot of work has gone into looking at the people who have been brought forward. We’ve had suggestions from all over and we are still accepting suggestions,” says McNab.

Since 50 Voices is a research project, approval from the Human Subject Research Committee was sought and granted. Students are involved in the project through Applied Studies placements. In addition to selecting excerpts from the First Generation interviews, they will participate in interviewing new subjects. The end result will be a webpage with a photo of each participant, a short biography and a link to an audio excerpt from their interview. The interview excerpts will be less than five minutes long, but the full interviews will be available through ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ Archives.

“Through these interviews we’re also building sources and preserving materials for future scholars,” says MacDonald. “Oral history, more than other kinds of history, is democratic and grassroots, bottom up. It shows that history is completely dependent on one’s perspective. We don’t believe in a single narrative. We think 50 Voices will, to some extent, give 50 histories.”

Suggestions are welcome and can be submitted by email to tracy.mcnab@uleth.ca.

UNews - oral history

Oral history lecture and workshop tap local authors and stories

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