News Archive

Oral history is what lifts records out of the ordinary and makes them exciting.

People's voices, recounting their own recollections and perspectives are like vivid embroidery on fine linen: a fascinating and delightful detail to enhance something that's already valuable.

Long-time friends, colleagues and UWA Historical Society members Christine Shervington, who works for two different UWA centres, and Susan Marie, Director UWA Extension, have sought to create 100 Voices , a hundred oral histories to celebrate the Centenary.

Christine, the inaugural UWA Archivist and Susan, an experienced librarian, are both interested in history and the people that make it.

"Oral history is very expensive," Christine said. "It costs between $1,000 and $1500 for a quality interview, recording and index.  Oral history interviewers are highly trained and do a lot of research before they interview their subjects."

The $3,000 Centenary grant supplements funding from every faculty for the project, with some donating for up to ten interviews. There are already 35 oral histories completed. When the 100 are finished, the project will be available on the UWA website.

"It is too expensive to totally transcribe 100 oral histories - they can be up to three hours long," Christine said. "But they will be indexed, with timed summaries and key words noted every three minutes or so to facilitate finding the area of interest among several hours of recording."

There will also be sound bites online and Christine and Susan are investigating the best way to do this.

Along with academics, staff involved with the Guild, the grounds, and other important aspects of University life will be interviewed.

"These are the voices that make up the history of the University," Christine said.

If you would like to help build this collection of voices, please contact Susan on 6488 2634.