Workshop 2024

From Storytelling to Archive: Oral History, Oral Tradition and Indigenous Practices

Call for Application

While examining the forms of storytelling of the Patachitrakars (scroll painters)from West Bengal, oral historian Indira Chowdhury argues that the myriad oral traditions of India often intersperse with oral history, demonstrating the complex interplay of experience and memory, events and their interpretation.[1] In this workshop, we look to extend Chowdhury’s idea to understand how these two distinct, yet parallel, methods of cultural preservation play an important role in shaping the collective memory of individuals as well as communities. To do so, our primary aim is to examine practices concerning oral tradition and theoretically read them alongside oral history narratives.  

We will address the difference between indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives on oral history to comprehend how indigenous communities of Northeast India have conceived of oral sources and methods in order to recognize such formulations as legitimate as well as alternate perspectives. The central concern is to think through ways to overcome the binary differentiation between what Tadu Rimi terms ‘insider/outsider’ and ‘native/non-native’.[2] Theoretical formulations on oral history suggest that the interview opens up a narrative space, where both the narrator and the interviewer are at once the observer and the observed.[3] We seek to evaluate such theoretical developments by bringing together scholars and practitioners of oral history from diverse fields. As they share their experience, the workshop will familiarize interviewers on how to immerse themselves in the field, negotiate the power dynamics of the interview process, engage with intersubjectivity, and dwell on the ethical responsibility of recording people’s life stories. 

The workshop is organized by the Oral History Association of India (OHAI) in collaboration with the Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies (AITS), Rajiv Gandhi University, Rono Hills. The workshop is designed to build oral history practitioners and train them on fundamental aspects of oral history documentation, particularly in the indigenous contexts. Building on theories and practices, there will be sessions on the etiquette of developing interview schedules, identifying one’s interviewees, recording equipment to use, ways to transcribe interviews, preparing metadata for oral history collection, and digital archiving. 

We believe that the workshop will be ideal for students, scholars, researchers and organizations/institutions interested in recording people’s narratives or aspiring to employ oral history methods in their respective domains. It must be noted that this is a residential programme where the participants will have to be present at the Rajiv Gandhi University campus, Arunachal Pradesh, during the entire period of the workshop.

In this workshop, we will be working with participants to:

  1. Understand how oral history is an empowering tool that highlights the voices from our society’s periphery and brings them to the centre of our discussions and how it can be a critical tool in decolonizing research
  2. Bridge the gap between indigenous and non-indigenous practitioners of oral history
  3. Employing decolonizing perspectives and ethical considerations while researching and documenting among indigenous communities. Be aware of the ethical responsibilities of having people as subjects of one’s research
  4. Gaining insights from traditional and indigenous methods of preserving knowledge, history and stories
  5. Explore the manner in which one can frame questions without suffering from a fixity of form
  6. Develop sensitivity to listen to the voices of the narrators attentively
  7. Comprehend how one’s subjective position needs to be negotiated to avoid interpretive conflicts
  8. Examine the implications of conducting video and/or audio recordings
  9. Acknowledge the politics of documenting and archiving the interviews
  10. Understand the importance of digital preservation of oral narratives

Workshop details for participants:

Workshop days:        Five days (including fieldwork and presentation)

Workshop dates:       05th  –   9th November 2024

Venue:                        Arunachal Institute of Tribal Studies, Rajiv Gandhi University, Doimukh, Arunachal Pradesh

Registration Fee: (Including workshop materials, tea snacks and lunch each day)

  • Student: Rs. 1500
  • Non-Student: Rs. 3000

Lodging and Food in the RGU Guest House:

  • Accommodation with breakfast and dinner on a double shared basis: Rs. 670/- per day.
  • Accommodation with breakfast and dinner on a single share basis: Rs. 870/- per day.

Student bursaries:

  • Those who need concessions with registration fees may write a separate application.
  • We have a small grant to partially support at least 5 participants on a need basis. The amount will partially cover either the accommodation or the travel costs of the participants.

Last date to submit the application: 30th August 2024

Selected participants will be notified by the end of September 2024

Link for Google form application: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfTL-av6TRId2dVRV1LcW-EcYxYZU8GLK5rapKn6FC6TYYBWQ/viewform?usp=sf_link

Workshop Coordinators:

  • Dr. Zilpha A. Modi (Assistant Professor, AITS, Rajiv Gandhi University)
  • Dr. Sumallya Mukhopadhyay (Joint Secretary, OHAI & Assistant Professor, NIT Silchar)

[1] Chowdhury, Indira. “Oral Traditions and Contemporary History: Event, Memory, Experience and Representation.” Economic & Political Weekly 49, no. 30 (2014): 54–59.

[2] Tadu, Rimi. “Doing Oral History Among Indigenous and Oral Communities: Dealing with Rigors and Ethics.” Journal of Tribal Intellectual Collective India 3, no. 1 (2017).

[3] Portelli, Alessandro. “Living Voices: The Oral History Interview as Dialogue and Experience.” The Oral History Review 45, no. 2 (2018): 239–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/ohr/ohy030.