Voices of Rwanda documents the testimony of survivors of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Oral histories are a very powerful tool in the protection of human rights.
December, 2008
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After the Forgetting
Marj; Image courtesy of transom.org
This is Marj. In a gorgeous and moving audio piece called After the Forgetting, produced by Erica Heilman, we listen to Marj’s son Greg and his husband Bob (who both work for the Vermont Folklife Center) talking to Marj about what she remembers and what she doesn’t. At one point Marj says she doesn’t know how old she is and when Greg tells her she replies:
I’m 91?! Holy Mackeral!
Sometimes people tell me they are afraid to be interviewed because they worry they won’t remember names and dates and maybe even whole chunks of time. The thing is, usually those details have a way of popping back into our minds when we have someone listening intently and drawing out fine points we don’t often have reason to explore. But the truth of the matter is, often we don’t even need those details to create a wonderful document of life and experience.
WWII Army Nurse
This is neat: a local paper in Michigan posted an oral history interview (transcript and audio) with Imojean Ketter who served overseas during WWII as an Army Nurse. What a great project for local papers.
I do know that the role of the woman has changed over the years. We are recognized as someone that can contribute. I think that now that we see a woman running for president and vice-president, not long ago that wouldn’t have happened so I’m sure that women in the military now have not only changed the military but have changed people’s ideas of what women can do.
Image courtesy of Spinal Column
Iraq War Veterans
I’m very much looking forward to reading this new book from the Palgrave Studies in Oral History series:
SOLDIERS AND CITIZENS: An Oral History of Operation Iraqi Freedom from the Battlefield to the Pentagon by Carl Mirra, a soldier in the U.S. Marine Corps during the first Gulf War, currently an Associate Professor of Education at Adelphi University. This book is an oral history of soldiers, policymakers, and family members effected by the ongoing Iraq War.
I’ve met many Iraq & Afghanistan War veterans who come here to see our exhibit In Our Own Words: Portraits of Brooklyn Vietnam Veterans or attend on of the discussions we’ve held in conjunction with the exhibition. And I know many Vietnam veterans who have taken it upon themselves to support the soldiers returning from Iraq/Afghanistan, giving these new veterans advice in how to readjust and cope with their experiences – advice Vietnam veterans did not receive upon their homecoming.
