Claire Ogle: Oral Historian

Gumine Oral History Project

‘Memory is the raw material of oral history, and repeated performances of narratives become a group’s story.’ [1]

As Brown observes, the narratives articulated in oral history are not only treasured personal memories, but also represent the materials of group legends and folk histories. In engaging with the diverse nature of social memory in oral histories of Gumine, Papua New Guinea, this project explores historiographical understanding by regarding the historical archive itself as a dynamic actor in both the production and transmission of historical knowledge.

The Gumine Oral History archive that I have created is an intersection of oral ethnohistory, archiving and information technology. Utilising the sources created by the Gumine Oral History and Preservation Program commenced by HOPE worldwide PNG in 2005/2006, I have produced an online database to archive these resources informed by Frisch’s notion of a ‘post-documentary sensibility’.[2] Though written texts and documentaries are expedient presentation forms, they do not provide much room for shared authority, multiplicity of narratives or further engagement with the raw sources, due to the structured narratives they create. However, new methods of knowledge transmission have emerged in the digital age, allowing for all people to engage with oral history in new ways, without sacrificing its valuable sensory nature.

The webpage I have created, www.gumineoralhistory.com, comprises a core home page which explains the project and key historical themes running through the oral history presented, linking to the interview videos and full English transcriptions where each is available. Given that the interviews were conducted mostly in Golin dialect, a language distinct to the Gumine region, the provision of English transcriptions allows not only Western readers to access the material but people from other regions of Papua New Guinea as well. As a linguistic source alone, this audio-visual material is invaluable. Several of the respondents state their desire for the preservation of their traditional tongue, with Sine Bosbe taking the opportunity to advise local young women not to ‘forget [her] language,’ while Dauna Kerepe and Kun Kame note that ‘Golin language is dying out fast so the elementary school should be empowered to teach the children the Golin language.’ While preserving the local language, the transcriptions of the online archive also provide a pedagogic resource for teaching both local history and dialects. Unfortunately it has been difficult to access the complete original versions of the interviews as they were recorded on tape, but I have been in communication with Joan and Martin Timothy of HOPE worldwide PNG who are tracking these down to be uploaded at a later date.

Similarly, Aiwa Ya describes his disillusionment as an elder in the quickly changing society, noting that ‘in the past we had good culture too but the young generation are looking forward to development, modern technology, so there is no way anybody can listen to my advice of traditional cultures, values or ideology’. By recording the cultural practices, historical events, and personal impressions of Gumine elders, the online archive provides a space for these personal histories and traditional advice to be preserved for and transmitted to future generations. As the only sparse records of Gumine kept so far are written from an expatriate perspective, these oral history interviews chronicle rich experiences from the unique perspectives of a generation that has seen immense change over the past 60 years: from an insulated highland community with no contact to the outside world to a developing community navigating multiple new influences, particularly that of the Christian Church (to which HOPE worldwide is related). The remarkable photography of Axel Poignant, a photographer and anthropologist living in Gumine with his wife Roslyn in the 1960s, and the work of my friend Felix Tokwepota complement these audio-visual sources, adding further detail to the comprehensive text and interview sessions to illuminate the everyday lives of Gumine peoples.

Hamilton and Shopes observe that oral history is too often not ‘taken out of the house and past the front door,’ as historians frequently put less thought into the theories and methodology of presenting and using oral history as opposed to organising and doing oral history. [3] Rather than just focusing on transcripts as the product of oral history, innovative digitised archives allow researchers – both amateur and academic – to search through online databases and bring together new historical narratives from engaging directly with the individual material. My project was inspired by the multimodal experience of the SBS History Capsules, as well as Spielberg and USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive which provides various search functions and formats, creating pathways through text and time points to make a huge collection of oral history accessible. Similarly, Sherratt’s Eyes On The Past is an experimental interface that uses facial recognition software to sift through Trove’s 120 million newspaper articles, bringing up images of faces on a page that users can click through and read. To bring such accessibility to my own project, I have created a simple yet visually engaging home page that provides a brief historical discussion of key themes running through particular interviews, and a ‘profile portfolio’ that links to each respondents’ interview and transcript through their pictures and historical theme tags. These are also accessible from the header menu, and I am currently working on a search function to comb all the text posted, but at the present time this is not yet operational – it is quite difficult coding!

Though I was initially concerned that this project would not comprise much true historical work of my own, I quickly discovered the authoritarian nature of selection and archiving methodologies as I made some difficult choices. Firstly, I struggled with how to select which interviews to upload first; deciding to aim for a broad base of topics discussed. Another key issue was how to present a significant amount of text in an accessible and engaging manner. I have presented the transcripts using an accordion layout, listing the interviewers’ questions that then expand to include the responses. Though I still struggle with whether this could be read as a focus on the interviewer’s authority rather than letting the respondent’s words stand on their own immediately, I felt it is the most effective way for a researcher to really navigate such in depth discussions. Whilst transcription processes also introduce questions of historical accuracy and authority, the presentation of these oral histories in full in both their complete audio-visual (where possible) and English text formats allows for a multiplicity of narratives and access points. My decision not to engage in historical narrative construction in this project emerged from both practical and ethical considerations: given the project limitations and immense culture gap, I found the construction of a comprehensive and accessible archive was a more appropriate and achievable task. Rather than critically examining sources against one another in hierarchies of authenticity, the creation of this archive allows for the cross-referencing of historical perspectives and the mutual illumination of the past as it has been experienced, remembered and evoked in the present. [4]

As this project and its history are freely available on the Internet, the future possibilities are endless. Given my personal connection to the project and the community, I hope to continue it over the summer to eventually comprise all the original audio-visual sources. There are a number of videos of cultural ceremonies, such as a ‘singsong’ and traditional pipe playing which I also hope to publish but have not yet had the time to go through this material with Stella or someone from the community, in order to upload it with explanations of its significance. To make the project accessible to the community, I intend to work with Kumani – one of the big-men of the community, Stella’s father and a close friend – and Dixon Dai, one of the original translators who presently works at Gumine Station, to determine how to distribute it in the community. In keeping with the original project aims, I would like to see it presented to the local Gumine schools and utilised as a teaching resource, and potentially adding some interactive element that allows for schoolchildren to create their own historical narratives from the material or new oral histories in the same vein which can then be added to the archive.

Furthermore, I am considering continuing the project in some way through an “alternative” thesis for Honours or a PhD, perhaps to develop it further by conducting further interviews along a particular line of inquiry such as the transnational colonial contact history surrounding Gumine Station, working with the Gumine people to create a place-centred and people-centred history that is accessible to them. I’m also intrigued by how the past is viewed in the Gumine community: how their history is experienced and interacted with, in varying age groups and temporal periods. This interest has stemmed from Brown’s observation of the adaptability of the Simbu peoples to social change, noting their keen awareness and focus on the present and future as a constantly developing community. Similarly, the interviews relate a relationship with ‘the past’ but not really translating to our Western concept of ‘history’ – few respondents know their age, elders’ traditional advice is rarely listened to anymore, and the seasonal passing of time is denoted by the position of the sun, with Aiwa Ya explaining the five terms used to refer to days: : erema – yesterday, tale – day before yesterday, aee – day before the day before yesterday, kene – day before the day before the day before yesterday, mene – 4 days later. However, there is still significant recognition of the difference between past and present in traditional customs and migration legends, passed directly from generation to generation through stories, songs and dances. I’m interested in exploring how this adaptable nature may impact on the community’s interaction with traditional customs and local history, particularly in such an intense period of social change. Tangentially, I am also interested in researching further away from the HOPE worldwide team and its related community circle as this is closely linked with the church. While the church influence in Gumine comes across as mostly positive in these interviews, I wonder whether this is a result of selection bias and if there are more balanced perspectives of the church’s effect on traditional customs and ways of life?

Whilst I worked on this project, a particular question of historical authority persisted in my mind: who possesses this history? As a profoundly social methodology, oral history engages a dialogue between the past and the present, through narrative and action. [5] An act of interpretation in itself, historical memory is more than just what is remembered, but why it is remembered and how it is experienced in the present. [6] This project was personally confronting as oral history challenges academics to recognise ourselves both as historians and individuals within the active roles of collector, curator, and creator. The online oral history capsule that I have created holds more than just personal memories of select Gumine elders: it holds traditions and legends, changing cultural identities, complex perspectives on transnational colonial interactions, disappearing customs and languages, and a diverse record of an ancient culture that is rapidly changing. Though one must acknowledge the inherent structuring influences of interviewing and translation processes, the oral histories that are presented are preserved as they were given, imbued with the perspective and values that these individuals have attached to them.

— CLAIRE OGLE

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Interview quotes from Aiwa Ya, Sine Bosbe, Dauna Kerepe and Kun Kame, accessible via the Gumine Oral History Project archive, www.gumineoralhistory.com.

Barber, S. and Peniston-Bird, C.M., eds, History Beyond the Text: A Student’s Guide to Approaching Alternative Sources, New York: Routledge, 2009.

Blouin Jr., F., and Rosenberg, W., Processing the Past: Contesting Authority in History and the Archives, New York: Oxford University Press, 2011.

Brown, P., Beyond a Mountain Valley: The Simbu of Papua New Guinea, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1995.

Frisch, M., in Adair, B., Filene, B. and L. Koloski, eds., Letting Go? Sharing Historical Authority in a User-Generated World, Philadelphia: The Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, 2011.

Hamilton, P. and Shopes, L., Oral History and Public Memories, Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2008.