Luke Gelata is a student member of the On the Record project.
Click here for his interviewee, Donald Wadleitgh's page, and a link to audio file of the full interview.
Hello CWRC!
My name is Luke Gelata, and I am currently enrolled as a History major, along with a media and cinema studies minor. The On the Record: A Community History of Guelph project is a perfect combination of my interests considering it utilizes both aspects of my university career. My hobbies include filmmaking, photography, and video editing. I'm thrilled about the concept of CWRC and I'm honored to be a part of this historical project.
Reflection
When practicing my first academic project that utilizes oral history through interviewing participants in the Norfolk retirement home, I realized that to establish an authentic oral-history-project is much more complex than previously thought. It is a process that involves uncertainties, spontaneous nature, and trust between the interviewer and the participating interviewee. My participant, Donald Wadleitgh, represented strong characteristics of Canadian citizenship through his fascinating millwright experiences. Thus, sharing his experiences online will allow his phenomenal stories to be heard by others. In this oral history course, I experienced the concept of “sharing authority” by creating an online portfolio displaying a collaborative effort between myself and a participating Guelph citizen.[1] Without this course, the community of Guelph would have never obtained fascinating stories of historical pasts’ from its local citizens. To be given the opportunity to engage with another person and share their story on the internet is a rare, yet amazing experience.
After meeting my participant for the first time, I needed to construct an interview outline and begin to enhance the quality of my online page. During this stage, I was personally excited with the stories expressed to me from my interviewee participant. Once I began conducting extensive research on his historical past, I was able to discover the importance of his culturally-enriched story. To authenticate my research, I implemented scholarly primary and secondary sources relating to his original source material. I learned new skills in research techniques and in oral history and I was encouraged to find sources through digital archives, public libraries, and online collections of scholarly journal articles. After finding primary sources relating to my participant, I discovered that this type of research felt more satisfying than other projects because I was organizing my own research based off of another person's personal experiences. These topics were my responsibility to enhance because I wanted Donald to appreciate the work I’ve made.
During the interview, I realized I wanted to create a more collaborative workspace to achieve a genuine response involving historical viewpoints and experiences. To achieve this, I focused less on my interview outline relied more on Donald’s storytelling. As a history major and media and cinema studies minor, I established successful developments in my studies through learning about distinctions amongst oral history and storytelling. Since I was very amused by Donald’s historical experiences and his life as a millwright, I was able to find incredible sources involving the Collingwood Shipyard and Darlington Nuclear Plant. One of my favorite parts of my CWRC page is hearing Donald read the article I gave him about the tragic Tadoussac incident. Although he was reading the exact information found in the textbook, considering the event occurred while he was working there; the recording of Donald reading, had emitted aspects of storytelling and emotion. He represented such strong qualities of a Canadian individual and I wanted to create these shared stories from Donald's life in the most compelling way I possibly could. I made my CWRC page with moving images and video because of my understandings between oral history and storytelling. Alexander Freund, in his Under Storytelling’s Spell? Oral History in a Neoliberal Age journal review, speaks of the relationship between oral history and storytelling and states “in the marketplace of stories, oral historians’ stories are often too complex, too gloomy, and too critical of the nation. Storytelling unambiguous and often patriotic celebration of individual survival and success is unhindered by historical context.”[2] Freund believes North American culture heavily relies on stories of “love, generosity, overcoming hardship, and survival. They are often touching and almost always appear to be apolitical.” Although the distinctions that exist between storytelling and oral history have become clear, that does not mean oral history cannot be told or learned in a compelling way. As a practicing oral historian, I was naturally intrigued in creating a satisfying and captivating audience experience. Thus, I created videos, moving gif images, and provided images I believed to be the most convincing.
By preserving historic information onto an online database with photographs, audio files, bibliographies, and moving images -- there is far greater potential for research value. Digital technology has allowed a better overall “presentation, public consumption, and greater interactivity. All of these have become more possible—and therefore more prevalent—in the digital age.”[3] Technological advancements have granted historians new tools in creating an oral history. CWRC was of great technical assistance because I was able to create a research page displaying interview engagements, contextualized local histories, transcriptions, and other media-based entities such as web page design and archival research. After creating my CWRC web page based on Donald Wadleigh and conducting extensive research on his historical past, I was able to discover the importance of his culturally-enriched story. After this experience within Kim Martin’s course The Uses of History, I truly recognized the significance of oral history because I was able to tell the story of an important Canadian individual.
Uploading another individual’s historical background online is to compose their information about historical experiences, recorded voices, photographs, and biography. The task involves a deep analyzation of a person’s real human experience and is further verified with a bibliography of scholarly sources. This type of history involves more preparation than most due to implications of legal concerns, fundings, scheduled interview dates, and immense preparations.[4] Undertaking an oral history project is to portray online research based on an individual's personal information. An intriguing aspect of The Uses of History was acknowledging that there are strict requirements and legality to follow for using the information given to us by the participants. During class discussions, speaking about privacy and confidentiality was fundamental in understanding ethical practices. When practicing oral history, it needs to be approved under strict consent by a university research ethics board. This was introduced by the recent Tri-Council Policy Statement in 1998 and represents specific ethical conducts for those engaging in oral history or private research.[5] The promotion of consent amongst researchers and their interviewee is an important ethical aspect in oral history, but unfortunately; in many instances, this policy statement may prevent oral historians from giving subaltern communities a voice.
Prior to my understandings on confidentiality and privacy, I can recall an ignorant statement I once made during class. I said something in relation to “anyone being able to do oral history”, and that this type of research “is relatively cheap because anyone can sit down and record an interview.” I now realize I was very wrong because of the vast amounts of ethical preparation it requires to conduct an oral history. Not only was I wrong about oral history being uncomplicated, but I was also wrong to think that this type of research is of cheap cost. Considering our class collaborated with the Canadian Writing Research Collaboratory (CWRC) to display the participants’ historical essence online, the website is certainly not a cheap investment. CWRC is a massive online platform that is sponsored by many partners and supporters around the world. It was funded by a Leading Edge Fund grant from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and matching funds were provided by the Provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, and the University of Alberta, Simon Fraser University, and the University of Guelph. I learned that CWRC is a specialized program offered in my educational institution and that this course offers the ability to conduct oral history very efficiently.
One of the most interesting -- but rather tedious aspects of this oral history project, was to transcribe sections of the recorded interview. As a content creator, transcribing text over the video is simply time-consuming no matter how much you familiarize yourself with editing software. I wanted to transcribe the text aligned with video and audio because I thought it would portray fascinating and documentary-like material. In many instances, transcriptions “spoil the data.”[6] Since the human language is composed of specific tones, volume ranges, and popular speech patterns, a transcription will not be as authentic as audio recordings. Due to time constraints, I could not make the video the best to my abilities, but I was still very to be doing what I’m passionate about.
Overall, after taking this course, I was enlightened as a history major. I now realize the existence of certain career opportunities and how to become a more insightful historian. This course was the perfect combination of my interests and I want to strive in becoming a better, more compelling storyteller, and oral historian. I was very lucky to meet Donald and be able to hear about his experience as a millwright.
For more of Luke Gelata's work, click here to read his reflection on St. Patrick's Ward in Guelph, and here for his reflection on Eden Mills.
Bibliography
[1] Zembrzycki, Stacey. "Sharing authority with baba." Journal of Canadian Studies 43, no. 1 (2019): 219-238, 263. http://sfx.scholarsportal.info.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/guelph/docview/20....
[2] Freund, Alexander. "Under Storytelling’s Spell? Oral History in a Neoliberal Age." The Oral History Review 42, no. 1 (2015): 96-132. https://doi-org.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/10.1093/ohr/ohv002
[3] Sheftel, Anna and Stacey Zembrzycki. "Slowing Down to Listen in the Digital Age: How New Technology Is Changing Oral History Practice." Oral History Review 44, no. 1 (2017): 94-112. https://muse.jhu.edu/ (accessed April 10, 2019).
[4] Ritchie, Donald A. Doing Oral History: A Practical Guide. Oxford University Press. 2014. https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/lib/uoguelph/d...
[5] Janovicek, Nancy. "Oral History and Ethical Practice: Towards Effective Policies and Procedures."Journal of Academic Ethics 4, no. 1 (2006): 157-174.
[6] Zamorski, Krzysztof, and Marta Kurkowska-Budzan. Oral History : The Challenges of Dialogue. Studies in Narrative. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co. 2009. http://search.ebscohost.com.subzero.lib.uoguelph.ca/login.aspx?direct=tr....