Living in Harmony Community Grants 1999

Victoria

Our Migrant People - Their Stories and Their Contribution

$50,000 Awarded

This project, now completed, aimed to:

counteract negative community perceptions about people from other cultures
increase public awareness of Living in Harmony values in a rural area
inform the wider community about the contribution made by migrant people in business and community life
raise the profile of migrants and their contribution to business and community life by developing oral histories of established migrants and making these available via local libraries, newspaper articles and so on
help build links into the community for newly arrived individuals

The project:

held a survey to determine community views on migrant issues and their contribution to the local community, to act as a basis for interview topics
produced the data base Our Migrants’ Stories - Oral History Collection which was based on interviews by project members, which focused on the migrant experience and included:

the transcripts of interviews with many established local migrants
photographs provided by participants about their lives in Australia
an Interview Guide with tapes, transcripts and photographs to libraries in the High Country region, at Wangaratta, Benalla and Myrtleford

involved students in literacy, English as a Second Language, and the Victorian Certificate of Education, as well as local schools in the interviewing and production
converted the base data from the oral histories into verse form for a book entitled Voices from In Between, Migrants in North East Victoria
gave the original guidelines and tapes to the High Country Library in Wangaratta, printed 500 copies of Voices from In Between and sent copies to:

The project:

gained additional funding from the Victorian Government through Arts Victoria and the Community Support Fund to publish Voices from In Between
presented the stories from the interviews in free verse form for greater impact in the publication
raised such enthusiasm in the community that more potential participants volunteered than could be taken on board
raised the profile of migrants and acknowledgment of their contribution to business and the community, by developing and publishing oral histories of established and newly arrived individuals.
found that secondary school students showed a startling change in attitude towards migrants, and much reflection on issues after the interview process
noted that:

it needed to seek (voluntary) legal advice about any potential difficulties as to the possibility of participants, even unintentionally, libelling others (or even appearing to) in their reminiscences
the possibility of libel could affect other oral history projects, and warned other organisations to take into account that this is a possible litigious minefield