Preliminary Programme

This paper is part of the ‘Nikkei Memory Capture Project,’ a community-based oral history project that examines the cultural and social history of Japanese Canadians during the postwar period in southern Alberta, Canada. In this paper I examine sport, in particular the annual Japanese Canadian curling bonspiel, as an expression of resiliency and renewal following the Second World War. Drawing on oral histories with members of the Japanese Canadian community in southern Alberta and inspired by the work of Unanganx scholar Eve Tuck (2009), I argue that the cultural practice of sport can provide a deeper understanding of the complexity and value of the lived lives of Nikkei in southern Alberta. Since the early 1950s, the curling bonspiel has been an annual winter tradition in many Japanese Canadian families in Alberta. Many of our collaborators spoke passionately about their involvement and their family’s involvement in curling and shared anecdotes and stories that have been passed down from generation to generation. This sporting event, established in the early postwar period but enduring, gives us a glimpse into the ways in which the Japanese Canadian community in Lethbridge overcame adversity and moved towards transformation and growth. I argue that it is through narratives of sport, as a strategy that enabled Canadian Nikkei to challenge social exclusion in rural communities and shape their sense of place, that we can complicate discourses of Japanese-Canadian lives, not to overlook the damage but to move beyond the defining moment of the internment, to shift the dominant narrative to include stories of strength, hope, desire, agency, and resiliency. (Show less)

In 2012 intersex activists protested against genital surgeries at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich. They demanded a reappraisal of past treatments of children with differences of sex development (DSD). The activists’ demonstration resulted in a big research project, which is financed by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The project investigates the treatment of intersex children at the Children’s Hospital in Zurich between 1945 and 1970. An important objective of the study is to integrate the voice of those affected by the treatments. To achieve this goal, Oral History was designated to be the appropriate method of examination. Its reputation to give a voice to the voiceless, to make their stories audible and their viewpoint visible apparently qualifies Oral History to be the suitable method of choice for historical reappraisal projects.
In my paper, I will critically examine the role of Oral History in historical reappraisal projects focusing on the above mentioned DSD study. My argumentation is led by the following questions: What are the expectations of the intersex activists? And what kind of hopes are connected to claims of restitution and (legal) justice? From a methodological viewpoint the following questions are central: What is expected from an Oral History investigation considering that the initial study designers have not been trained in this method? And what are the challenges for Oral Historians – in this case me – by implementing this method into the study design? Is Oral History indeed the method of choice? As an Oral historian I will argue that Oral History in fact is a suitable method for historical reappraisal projects, but not in the sense the social activists and study designers might have expected it to be. Hence, I plead for a combination of Oral History with participative research methods to meet the expectations of the activists as well as to guarantee the quality standard of an – narratological sensitised – Oral History study today. My paper will therefore contribute to the debate on the methodological challenges of Oral History projects, especially with regard to ethical reflections that arise around the tensions of being the speaker for the voiceless while letting them speak for themselves. (Show less)

Since the end of 1980ies in Estonia life story and oral history research has been much intertwined, the current paper will seek to analyze the newest tendencies in it. Due to its national ambitions, the public practice of oral history in Estonia has favoured distanced methods, such as popular life-writing campaigns (see Kõresaar & Jõesalu 2016). In other words most of gathering since 1989 has been based on the correspondence method, and as a rule the gathering campaigns have been connected with the research and archival institutions like Estonian Cultural History Archives or Estonian National Museum. Beside that oral history method is used in the frame of research projects or local initiatives. However, in 2013 a youth NGO started to collect video interviews using oral history methods and distributing recorded material since March 2016 in the oral history portal (https://www.kogumelugu.ee/en/). There are two new aspects in their methodological approach in Estonian context: doing oral history interviews and creating a public history digital project.
Currently the project “Kogu Me Lugu/Collect our Story” hosts over 250 stories. In their oral history portal different types of stories are represent, namely full-length interviews and short edited video clips for mainly class-room use. The aim of the project is to develop educational materials, to enable research and to raise public awareness about Estonian history during Soviet and Nazi occupations.
I will show in this paper which are the editing and selecting principles of the interviews, and in which context interviews are re-used (e.g. museum exhibitions and memorials). My aim is to show what are the methods and aims of using of oral history outside academia at the example of this project. I have followed the activities of the NGO since 2016, and interviewed people involved. I want to show the path line of this oral history portal project, which started as a small youth NGO, in 2013, but after the merge with Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, is more connected also with public memory politics, being connected also transnationally. I would like to turn attention also to relevant and marginal topics in this digital oral history portal.

Kõresaar, Ene; Jõesalu, Kirsti (2016). Post-Soviet memories and ‘memory shifts’ in Estonia. Oral History, 47, 47?58. (Show less)