Abstract
This chapter uses one rich case study to examine how oral history—used alongside other forms of life stories such as letters, family photographs and memoir—might illuminate the gendered history of post-World War II migration to Australia. It considers the analytical opportunities and challenges of using varieties of life stories in tandem; interpretative approaches to reading, hearing and seeing action and meaning within narratives, and to connecting individual experience to social and cultural contexts; and approaches and issues in “sharing authority” with narrators whose lives and histories are being examined.
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Notes
- 1.
See A. James Hammerton and Alistair Thomson, Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005); A. James Hammerton, Migrants of the British Diaspora Since the 1960s: Stories from Modern Nomads (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017).
- 2.
On oral history and migration see Rena Benmayor and Andor Skotnes eds, International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, Vol. III, Migration and Identity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994); Alistair Thomson, “Oral History and Migration Studies,” Oral History 27, no. 1 (1999): 24–37; A. James Hammerton and Eric Richards, Speaking to Immigrants: Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration (Canberra: Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2002); Nathalie Huynh Chau Nguyen, Memory is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009).
- 3.
Alistair Thomson, Moving Stories: An Intimate History of Four Women Across Two Countries (Manchester and Sydney: Manchester University Press and UNSW Press, 2011).
- 4.
Thomson, “‘Tied to the Kitchen Sink?’ Women’s Lives and Women’s History in Mid-twentieth Century Britain and Australia,” Women’s History Review 22, no. 1 (2013): 126–47.
- 5.
On migrant oral history and photography see Lynda Mannik, “Remembering, Forgetting, and Feeling with Photographs,” in Alexander Freund and Alistair Thomson eds, Oral History and Photography (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 77–96.
- 6.
Alistair Thomson, “Life Stories and Historical Analysis,” in Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire eds, Research Methods for History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 104–21.
- 7.
Thomson, “I Live On My Memories: British Return Migrants and the Possession of the Past,” Oral History 31, no. 2 (2013): 55–65.
- 8.
Copies of Phyllis Cave’s letters, photographs and unpublished manuscripts are held in the British Australian Migration Collection, Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections, Brighton, England; Phyllis Cave, interviewed by Alistair Thomson, 5 June 2006, Isle of Wight, British Australian Migration Collection, Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections, Brighton, England, cassette recording with transcript. Phyllis Cave has granted permission for use of her words and photographs in my writings.
- 9.
Phyllis Cave, Letter to Mum and Dad, 10 April 1970. I have written about my research relationship with Phyl Cave, and the challenges of “sharing authority” in interviewing and interpretation in Alistair Thomson, “Moving Stories, Women’s Lives: Sharing Authority in Oral History,” Oral History 39, no. 2 (2011): 73–82.
- 10.
Hammerton and Thomson, Ten Pound Poms, 230–37.
- 11.
Phyllis Cave, Letter to Mum and Dad, 10 April 1970.
- 12.
Phyllis Cave, interview, 2006.
- 13.
Phyllis Cave, Letter to Peter and Patricia Cave, 16 December 1973.
Bibliography
Benmayor, Rena, and Andor Skotnes, eds. International Yearbook of Oral History and Life Stories, Volume III, Migration and Identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Cave, Phyllis. Interviewed by Alistair Thomson, 5 June 2006, Isle of Wight. British Australian Migration Collection, Mass Observation Archive, University of Sussex Special Collections, Brighton, England. Cassette recording with transcript.
Hammerton, A. James. Migrants of the British Diaspora Since the 1960s: Stories from Modern Nomads. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017.
Hammerton, A. James, and Eric Richards. Speaking to Immigrants: Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration. Canberra: Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, 2002.
Hammerton, A. James, and Alistair Thomson. Ten Pound Poms: Australia’s Invisible Migrants. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2005.
Mannik, Lynda. “Remembering, Forgetting, and Feeling with Photographs.” In Oral History and Photography, edited by Alexander Freund and Alistair Thomson, 77–96. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011.
Nguyen, Nathalie Huynh Chau. Memory is Another Country: Women of the Vietnamese Diaspora. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2009.
Thomson, Alistair. “I Live On My Memories: British Return Migrants and the Possession of the Past.” Oral History 31, no. 2 (2003): 55–65.
Thomson, Alistair. “Life Stories and Historical Analysis.” In Research Methods for History, edited by Simon Gunn and Lucy Faire, 104–21. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2016.
Thomson, Alistair. Moving Stories: An Intimate History of Four Women Across Two Countries. Manchester and Sydney: Manchester University Press and UNSW Press, 2011a.
Thomson, Alistair. “Moving Stories, Women’s Lives: Sharing Authority in Oral History.” Oral History 39, no. 2 (2011b): 73–82.
Thomson, Alistair. “Oral History and Migration Studies.” Oral History 27, no. 1 (1999): 24–37.
Thomson, Alistair. “‘Tied to the Kitchen Sink?’ Women’s Lives and Women’s History in Mid-twentieth Century Britain and Australia.” Women’s History Review 22, no. 1 (2013): 126–47.
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Thomson, A. (2019). “I Am No Longer the Same Person”: Intimate History and the Gendered Experience of Migration. In: Darian-Smith, K., Hamilton, P. (eds) Remembering Migration. Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17751-5_2
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