Welcome to the West Australian branch of the Oral History Association of Australia.
What is the Oral History Association of Australia?
The Oral History Association (OHAA), a non-profit body, was formed in 1978.
The aims of the OHAA 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
State and national conferences include discussions about oral history projects and issues such as ethics, recording technology and copyright.
General Meetings
OHAA WA invite you to attend our general meetings which are held quarterly, in February, April, May and November. It is an opportunity for you to come along and meet other oral historians. The meeting will often feature invited speakers who present on different aspects of oral history practice.Our next meeting on 15 May 2012 will be a presentation on the OHRRG followed by a tour of the audio studios. See invitation here
For a report on our February 2012 meeting please click here.
OHAA WA History Project
A planning meeting in April discussed a plan to go forward with this important project. As it is essential that the planning committee be familiar with the archives so as to identify possible interviewees and to guide potential interviewers, a starting point is to gather any archives which have not previously been deposited with JS Battye Library. If you have any records relating to your time with OHAA WA we would appreciate you contacting us so we can arrange to collect them. We will ensure they are stored under one roof in a secure location that is easily accessible to the planning committee.
If you are interested in sharing your memories of your involvement in OHAA WA and/or joining our team, we look forward to hearing from you.
For further details are please click here
Establishing the OHAA by Beth Robertson
Oral History Records Rescue Group (OHRRG)
Progress Report from the State Library of WA
The Oral History Records Rescue Group (OHRRG) consists of representatives from Friends of Battye Library, the Oral History Association of Australia WA Branch, the Professional Historians Association and the Royal Western Australian Historical Society. OHRRG is managing a significant two year project, funded by a Lotterywest grant totalling $849,000.
The project is being cordinated by the State Library's Preservation and Maintenance team. The goal is to make available the most at-risk and in demand oral history interviews held in the Battye Library. At the end of the project, 7500 hours of interviews will be digitised.
Purpose-built sound studios are used to transfer analogue tape to digital format at preservation standards. Project Manager, Lee Blackford, informed us that as at December 2011, over 3,850 hours of cassette tapes, or 1,777 interviews, have been digitised.
A small example of the many rich and varied stories are:
The full life of the orphaned son of a wealthy Indian landowner who ran camel drays in Coolgardie. He describes life in the Swan Boys Orphanage and his life as a boxer, whaler and prospector.
A telegraph operator who worked in the Goldfields and the Pilbara before enlisting in World War II. He was a POW in Singapore and Burma. The interview is interesting for the interviewee's telegraphical way of speaking and his verbal examples of morse code.
A series of audio letters sent from an English migrant family residing in Western Australia to their parents back in England in the 1960s. They are a remarkable time capsule of the perceptions, hopes and efforts of just one ordinary family. That they exist at all is a testament to the care with which multiple generations of the family treated the correspondence.
The final stage of the project is presently being prepared with the selection of a further 2500 hours of interviews being undertaken by the OHRRG. One of the outcomes of the project is to make 200 voices accessible online during 2012.
Grant Scheme
The Western Australian Branch of the Oral History Association of Australia has an annual
grant pool of $2,000 available to members to assist with oral history projects or to assist with
their attendance at relevant conferences.
Applications will be considered on a quarterly basis when 25% of the annual budget will be
allocated. Application closing dates are as follows:
- 31 January
- 30 April
- 31 July
- 30 October
Application forms are available on our Activities page.
Details of latest successful grant recipient are available on our Activities page.
Branches of the Association
Western Australia |
Tasmania |
Queensland |
Victoria |
New South Wales |
South Australia |
ACT is incorporated into NSW Branch |
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