Sister Lubei shares why she's recording her mother's stories and experiences of being Palauan. After a recent visit to the islands, Lubei witnessed the loss of language and culture among her young cousins and many youths in Palau. She realized that the conversations she's been recording with her mother might benefit those outside of her immediate family and help with language and culture revitalization. Listen to her story here.
The American Library Association designates the last week of April as 'Preservation Week' to bring awareness to library, archives, and museum collections. This week-long campaign places a spotlight on the role libraries play in providing ongoing preservation and treatment of collections to prevent damage and extend the life of an item.
Everyone's story matters. By sharing our stories, we build connections, pass on culture and languages, and fortify a better sense of ourselves. By recording your family's oral history, you will create an invaluable archive for future generations to know where they come from, and they will have a wealth of stories to draw strength from during life's challenges.
Often the repository of family stories is a kūpuna. Interviewing them for a family oral history project is a natural way to connect with them while learning stories and life lessons.
Modern oral history is typically audio and/or video recordings of personal testimony obtained through an interview. This recorded testimony preserves personal history or an eyewitness account of a past experience. Oral history, as we know it today, became popular among historians during the political and social upheavals of the 1960s. The popularity and rise of oral history are directly tied to the proliferation of portable recording devices such as tape players and cell phones with recording capabilities.
Windward Community College Library