Oral Tradition and Oral History

Discuss the various types of oral stories that exist in Aboriginal Societies . 

Oral stories of the Aboriginal societies are the oral form of what is referred to as Spiritual Dreaming which consists of art, music, lore and geographical forms. Researching stories by the Aborigines is a challenging task as you can find one story narrated in a hundred different ways all dependent on the region, the people, the area or the creature’s environment. These stories should be construed as more than legends, myths, parables and certainly not fairy tales for the pleasure of children. 

We have a few types associated with Aborigines. Firstly, life narratives where the story illustrates the complex ways in which myth, ideology, culture, and memories intertwine. Secondly, we have community based stories where you have the community’s distinctiveness is more significant than the story being told in the narrative. The third form is through cultural memories, where the form in which the story is told is important to people’s perception of the past. Looking at our progressive understanding of oral history in the last fifty years, we have seen many uses of the different forms to assist us understand the changes we are experiencing. The purpose of having all these categories of story telling is to utilize all that experience into information which can be benefit the whole community. 

Traditions are preserved in the history of Aboriginal people by orally passing down the cultural information from generation to generation. The community would gather in campfires after the evening meal and the storyteller would share creation stories, the connection to the land, traditional knowledge, historical accounts and cultural stories. From such stories they would learn about nature, the environment and the climate. They would also hear of past heroic deeds of their ancestors and even how to source for different types of food. 

Oral tradition was also used as a teaching tool. The written word has never been their way and for thousands of years the storytellers have educated children and young adults in this manner. The older women would tell the children stories to keep them from engaging in dangerous activities and to reiterate the taboos and traditions of the clan. Examples of such stories are Brolga and First Platypus which warned against interacting with strangers. 

These stories were usually told by storytellers who were quite knowledgeable and highly respected in the society. It was their responsibility to preserve the culture and disburse it to the community and to future generations in an effort to maintain the history. At important milestones such as puberty women took the girls and prepared them for future roles as wives and mothers while men took the boys and passed on critical information dressed up in stories. 

Creation stories have many types of myths that are passed down to the next generation. However, it should be noted that as a matter of courtesy it is important to seek permission from the source if one intends to share an Aboriginal story as different nations have different protocols. 

Discuss the differences between Oral Traditions and Oral History and the significance of each? 

Oral history is concerned with the study and use of scientific methods to collect historical data about people or significant events. The information is sourced from evidentiary documents, narratives or stories that have been quoted orally. Interviews can be used to record the memories of people who were physically present during past events. Oral history also includes data collected through interviews or oral means but preserved as written work. Information in this form can be found in libraries and archives. As a source of information it has to be used discerningly because the memories tend to fade and they can apply subjectively. It is therefore important to interview multiple sources to get a clearer more credible picture of past events. 

Oral tradition on the other hand refers to how cultural material, art, knowledge or ideas are transferred orally across generations through storytelling, song, parables or chants. It refers specifically to the memories and knowledge held by a common group of people carried over. 

Written history is therefore an authentic record of documents that reflects all the happenings of the past with proof and evidence depicting the rise and fall of empires, civilisation and religions. Different historians may have different views as per their school of thought but the facts will remain unchanged and will continue to hold its own value as a major tool in deciphering and understanding our history. 

Despite its shortcomings, oral history is important as it feels in the gaps where written history falls short. In the past, written history was almost always provided by the elite class of society and rarely ever provided much needed objective sentiments of the masses so to speak. In almost all societies the ruling political class endeavours to manipulate history by controlling the stories that will be consumed by the masses. In such instances oral history has helped tear down this narrative by directly interviewing affected parties on the ground to help get the true picture out in the open. 

The significance of oral history is also seen from the fact that it was the only way information was preserved before writing was invented. This is how stories were passed particularly ancient Greece, the dark ages and in Africa. In East Africa we find that knowledge about ancient medicinal plants have been passed down from generation to generation to benefit us in the modern age. 

Oral tradition also plays a vital role in areas like African where its significance is felt the society today. Traditional values, morals and beliefs continue to inform African culture where young members of the society seek to embrace their roots despite heavy influence from the west. Oral tradition also remains a rich source of information in the fields of archaeology and anthropology. Records in a small scale were kept were only available after the Egyptians discovered it. Before this historians have had to rely on oral traditions and oral history. 

Summarize the Practical and Ethical considerations that are involved in the process of confidentiality informed consent when it comes to documenting oral knowledge? 

Bearing in mind how qualitative studies are usually framed researchers may encounter moral predicaments because there is a high possibility of becoming heavily invested in various sections of the process. They should therefore take it upon themselves to develop moral rules to guide them. This presentation will highlight the significance of developing clear and succinct guidelines to keep tab on the role of the researcher. 

When documenting oral knowledge, it is important to seek permission before proceeding to document or record the interviewee. This entails preparing a consent form which will show evidence of approval. Informed consent is necessary for the participant’s protection. However, even when the participant has given consent it is not a reproachable or satisfactory indicator of a participant’s approval. Therefore the researcher bares the burden of ensuring that participants are aware of what is expected of them and have decided to participate in the study of their own free volition. Participants should then be allowed ample time to make reasonable inquiry, to reflect on the available information and receive satisfactory responses before choosing to participate. 

Before embarking on the documentation process the researcher should reach out to the specific Aboriginal community to find out if there are any protocols that need to be observed. Informed consent should be obtained from all persons or groups that intend on participating in the research. This consent should preferably be in written form but if this is not feasible the researcher is required to record all the procedures that were followed in trying to obtain the consent. 

All the participants in the research process should be provided with pertinent and timely information regarding the purpose and nature of the process and also be informed that they are free to withdraw at any time during the research. They should be apprised of the benefits and possible risks that might be encountered. Furthermore, the researcher is prohibited from compelling anybody to participate in the process or force any one to reveal information against their will. 

Discretion is similarly important and it should be exercised when handling any information that has come to light during the research process.  When one is conducting medical research a lot of extremely sensitive personal information becomes available to the researcher for which they are held accountable.  Protecting this sensitive data is vital to sustaining trust and respect that should exist between the researcher and the informants.  Given the type of research it would be advisable to use to hide the names for people and places or if it will not affect the study they may need to be indicated.  Where the study necessitates collection of data the researchers can take alternative measures in an effort to preserve the privacy of the informants. 

Methods that can be used to ensure confidentiality include replacing names with participant codes, maintaining a detached list of code to name match ups, using only the informant’s first name or use of aliases when documenting data from interviews.  If the data will be published then all steps should be taken to protect any sensitive or confidential information like gender, any known associations, residence or informant’s age. Even with all these precautions the researcher needs to take care not to make public information that has the potential of identifying a participant. 

A further consideration would be to put in place a policy or give a written confidentiality agreement guaranteeing that certain conditions will be met. They can guarantee that: all information will be kept confidential, that the participants will remain copyright holders of any information they divulge, all interview records will held in trust by the researchers, that the collected information will only be used to the purposes divulged to the participants, that all information will not be disclosed to third parties or published without express approval by participants. 

How are aboriginal languages integral to understanding and interpreting oral stories? 

We often overlook the significance of communication although we appear to have made great strides with the advent of globalization. However, miscommunication, misunderstanding and mistranslations are more common that we realize. Being able to understand the aboriginal languages and thereby accurately to translate the message conveyed into a different language is a critical skill to possess. It is only when one has advanced comprehension skills of the language that they can claim to be at a level where they can interpret the sometimes deep meanings found in these oral stories, chants and songs. 

As a researcher it would be advisable to hire the services of a local translator to help translate the more complex terms that you are bound to encounter. The translator can also catch the hidden meanings like those conveyed in parables, songs and stories. The stories are often times described to be layered like onions. This simply means that stories are layered one on top of the other and the listener is expected to peel one layer after another until they decipher the deeper meaning of carried by the stories. 

To remember in oral form or in writing that the parallel indicates how literature is a continuation of the identified oral traditions. The interdependence of the sources of oral history and the written history appear to be a trait of modern native writing which deserves further analysis. 

Discrepancies when looking at various interviews and also taking into consideration a host other evidence points to the clear and discernible bias characteristic of oral history. One cannot term oral history as just a substitute resource to be examined like any other historical source. Since interviews are a sourced from the informants’ memories there is a very real possibility that data will be erroneous and deficient. It has come to the fore that interviews regularly contain erroneous and vague information if not outright lies. The informants rottenly get the dates wrong, make up names, mix up different events into one single event and narrate stories that lack credibility. We have diligent historians who do their part and go conduct careful background research to try and verify the legitimacy of the stories. Unfortunately even though these researchers or oral historians try to ensure that they do careful background research and informed questioning, they are ultimately less concerned with the seemingly small inaccuracies but are concerned with the larger context or the large strokes. 

With this understanding, oral history should then not be viewed as an endeavour in fact finding but as a general interpretation of how the informant viewed or understood particular events inclusive of personal biases. The informant will also choose to level out details that in their mind did not seem pertinent until they are pressed by an eager and keen interrogator. This means the quality and quantity of responses is also dependent on the questions asked, how they read the situation and the skill of the interviewer to decipher the responses and determine when to probe. All of this is based on the principle that the interviews describe past events in the here and now. With the understanding that responses are limited to the questions posed by the interviewer and how they are interpreted one can begin to appreciate the parameters within which to consider oral history. 

Describe in detail some of the translation issues that are associated with documenting oral stories and legends? 

Since the mid-20 th century, western academics have significantly adopted oral history as a valuable aspect to the historical record. This came as a result of an increasing interest in the histories of the various existing minority groups including women, the working class as well as the African-Americans. 

The advantage of conversations as found in oral history is that the same story can be told in various ways making them more dynamic and interesting. Though whether the underlying message will be altered remains a concern. This is not the case with written history which subject to the reader’s imagination will remain the same as when it was penned by the observer of the said events. 

Transcribing has long been recognized as one of the key oral history’s remarkable practices. It is the art of representing spoken history in print. Transcribing forms the basis of any spoken history. It is acts as an archival practice aimed at generating documents for future reference by both scholars, researchers, historians among others. Based on the narrator’s key words, a transcript often lays emphasis on the knowledge communicated during an interview. Regrettably, numerous oral programs as well as projects uphold an unsurmountable backlog of unstranscribed oral interviews. As a matter of fact, majority of these interviews are never transcribed. 

Despite having numerous benefits, transcripts have their fair share of its limits. To begin with, transcription is both a time consuming activity as well as a highly developed skill that requires extensive training and practise. If carried out by the unskilled personnel, it is bound to have numerous errors, hence leading to misinterpretation of the original content. Unfortunately, even among the highly professional personnel, they still end up doing a shoddy job. They hardly carry out follow up on the completed tasks. Many are the times when revisions, editing, cataloguing as well as annotations are left unchecked, incomplete or even undone. 

. It is generally accepted by oral historians that an audio recording of an interview is what will be accepted as the primary source. Though a transcription is still derived from this original source it falls outside the accepted norm of a primary document. Transcribing can be argued to be a mere translation of one form of communication to another, in this case from audio to a transcription. However, this transformation robs the process of an intangible touch in the embodiment of expression. Tonal variation, the emotions conveyed in the informant’s voice, all combine to provide a more compelling record as compared what is conveyed on a transcript. When you take this together with being able to read facial cues in a face to face interview the responses become ever the more valuable as a resource that can generally be referred to 

Generally speaking, the attempt to distinguish between aural and written history is misplaced. In the grand scheme of things the two are not mutually exclusive as we are led to believe but in fact complimentary. They each possess strong points depending mainly on the occasion in which it they are utilized. They both contribute to the information pool adding to existing knowledge. When used in conjunction, the two methods of documenting the past have the ability to play a more impactful role in recording historical data.