PEOPLE & EVERYDAY LIFE
Preserving Community Stories: The Art and Practice of Oral History
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Can collecting community histories confront the silencing of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders?
Chapter objectives
- Learn about the methodologies for documenting, archiving, and sharing community histories, especially through conducting oral histories.
- Understand how silences have shaped dominant historical narratives about Asian American and Pacific Islanders, as well as the ways that AAPI community members, scholars, and activists have used community history to challenge those silences.
- Explore the power of community history to document and share life histories of marginalized communities in ways that challenge historical silences.
In traditional US history, Asian American and Pacific Islanders are often absent from dominant historical narratives. To resist this erasure, AAPI and other marginalized communities create their own community histories as a form of counter-narrative, documenting the stories of everyday people and sharing these stories with their communities. One way to contribute to a community history is to conduct an oral history, which is a planned, recorded and collaborative conversation with a person focused on that person’s memories of their life. This chapter guides students through all of the steps necessary to conduct their own oral history and become community historians.
Modules in this chapter
An Introduction to Community History
Defining Oral History
Preparing for the Oral History
Conducting an Oral History
Sharing Your Oral History with the Community
An Introduction to Community History
Definining Oral History
Preparing for the Oral History
Conducting an Oral History
Sharing Your Oral History with the Community
Chapter Sources
Chinese Historical Society of Southern California. Linking Our Lives: Chinese American Women of Los Angeles. CHSSC, 1984.
Densho Digital Repository. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://densho.org/.
Filipino American National Historical Society. Accessed October 21, 2024. http://fanhs-national.org.
“Fred and Dorothy Cordova.” The Seattle Civil Rights & Labor History Project, University of Washington. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://depts.washington.edu/civilr/cordovas.htm.
Gow, William. “Forgotten Foundations: Los Angeles Chinese American Historians, 1975-1984.” Gum Saan Journal, 46 (2024). https://gumsaanjournal.com/vol46-2024-linking-our-lives/forgotten-foundations-los-angeles-chinese-american-community-historians-1975-1984/
Jones, Mark. “Search for Roots by Oral History,” Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1977.
Kim, Christopher. “Three Generations of Koreans Living In America.” Bachelor’s thesis, UC Berkeley, 1974.
South Asian American Digital Archive. Accessed October 21, 2024. https://www.saada.org/.
Trouillot, Michel Rolph. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Beacon Press, 1995.
“Wailua and Haleiwa: The People Tell Their Story.” Center for Oral History, University of Hawai’i.
