Forty Years On: The Transformations of Oral History

Professor Alistair Thomson presented September 2019’s Talking History lecture Forty Years On: The Transformations of Oral History

Celebrating forty years since the creation of the Oral History Association of Australia in 1979, current President of Oral History Australia Alistair Thomson reflected on the transformations of oral history across those years, in Australia and abroad. Starting with the first interview with his grandmother in 1979, and covering both community and academic oral history, Al drew on examples from his own interviews with war veterans, migrants and in the Australian Generations project to illuminate the history of oral history and its abiding value and impact.