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OUR LIFE M O N T H L Y , published by Ukrainian National W omens League of America Vol. XXXIV _______________________________________ DECEMBER 1977 __________________________________ No. 11 Editor Marta Baczynsky CHRIST IS BORN During this holiday time we wish to express our best wishes to all Ukrainians both inside and outside the Ukraine, and especially to those who w ill not have the opportunity to celebrate the joyous day of C hrist’s birth in freedom and amidst their loved ones. Our troubled thoughts are with them. We wish all of our members success and happiness in personal and com m unity affairs. We also wish to greet the honorary president of UNWLA, Ms. Lidia Burachynska, and pass on to her as president of WFUWO our holiday greetings to all its member organizations. Executive Board of UNWLA ORAL HISTORY IN THE UKRAINIAN COMMUNITY BY ANISA HANDZIA SAWYCKYJ 1. Why oral history? How do you begin? One of the most interesting and widespread phenomena in the U.S. in recent years has been the wholesale rediscovery by m illions of Americans of their com m unity and fam ily origins. This interest culm inated in the extraordinary success of Alex Haley’s book and TV series entitled Roots. For Ukrainians, an interest in their past is nothing new. As a com m unity and as individuals, we are highly conscious of our history. Our massive support for Ukrainian studies at various universities, the unceasing commemoration of historical anniversaries, the publica tion of numerous regional memoirs of Ukraine — all this testifies to our concern that the Ukrainian presence on this earth should be known and preserved for the world and for our descendants. Some Ukrainians also feel responsible for helping to document the twentieth century Ukrainian experience. Using the concept of oral history, they are interviewing various people in their comm unities who have lived through im portant moments of modern Ukrainian history such as the first and second im m igration from Europe to the U.S., the independence movement in Ukraine in the teens, the founding of certain com m unity organizations, or the Ukrainian com m unity in the U.S. during the Great Depression. But let us begin at the beginning. What is oral history? It is simply a spoken account of a first-hand experience. Put another way, it is a method of collecting historical material, usually on tape. It can be done almost anywhere, by almost anyone, including yourself. Ultimate goals may vary: you may want to record a conversation with a notable person in your com m unity just for the historical record, or you may want to tape your father’s memories of im migration for the benefit of your children when they grow up, or you may want to collect taped interviews with elderly women activists for a radio program on the wom en’s movement. Oral history has become a full-blow n movement only since about 1970, although oral history as a modern technique for historical documentation began at Columbia University in 1948 with memoirs of im portant American personages. The popularity of oral history has grown with the widespread availability of cheap and portable cassette tape-recorders. Today oral history projects are being conducted by a wide variety of institutions, comm unities and ethnic groups. Industrial firm s such as Ford and Continental Can Co. are finding that oral history promotes cor porate pride and bolsters public relations. Roman Catholic nuns are recording the early history of their order for the benefit of young novices. High-school students in rural Georgia are docum enting life in Appa lachia and publishing a highly popular series of oral histories under the title ’’The Foxfire Book.” Some oral history books such as Studs Terkel’s "W orking" — a series of interview s w ith o rd in a ry w o rkin g people — have been on the best-seller lists. (Look for these two books in your local public library). Oral history has been taken up by Americans of all ethnic backgrounds. Alex Haley’s Roots has inspired a project in which oral historians are tracing the gene alogies of thousands of black American families. In doing research for his book, Haley had interviewed African griots, native oral historians, to trace his slave ancestor back to a particular village in Africa. American Indians have redeived a $100,000 grant to enable tribal youths to tape 500 hours of oral histories by tribal elders, thereby permanently preserving the НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ, ГРУДЕНЬ 1977 29
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