Aussie broadcasters introduce oral history methods<\/p>\n
By Santi W.E. Soekanto<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): From a tape-recorder placed on a table in the
\ncenter of a small auditorium at the Australian embassy came the
\nvoices of several women, breathless and full of reminiscence.<\/p>\n
"It's getting dark and every 10 minutes there was a sound of a
\nsiren....the radio gave warnings.<\/p>\n
"Suddenly there was a gust of wind...and the sky turned red,
\nand we heard cracking sounds."<\/p>\n
The women kept on talking amid the sound of sirens and
\ncracking noises which vividly gave the impression of a natural
\ndisaster occurring during the time the conversation took place.<\/p>\n
The sirens and cracking noises were simulated. The women,
\nhowever, were the real survivors of Cyclone Tracy which
\ndevastated the Australian city of Darwin on Dec. 25, 1974,
\nkilling 50 people and destroying more than 12,000 homes. Around
\n30,000 people had to be evacuated by airlift after the disaster.<\/p>\n
The women were respondents of two experienced Australian
\nbroadcasters, Tim and Ros Bowden, who were giving a practical
\nseminar on the use of oral history techniques for radio
\ndocumentaries here last Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Bowdens, both from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
\nin Sydney, demonstrated how the techniques of interviewing people
\ninvolved in certain historical events can lend drama to the
\nreporting.<\/p>\n
Both believed that the use of the techniques in broadcasting
\nwould provide a more human view of history, which is more
\ninteresting than a mere recounting of historical facts.<\/p>\n
"What we are doing here is essentially telling the stories of
\nordinary people, their views of certain events involving them,"
\nTim said.<\/p>\n
Ros, for instance, played a recording of her interview with a
\nwoman about her struggle in nursing the wounded during World War
\nII.<\/p>\n
"It was so cold...the eggs were frozen, and we needed to peel
\nthem first before boiling them," was how the respondent described
\nher experience, giving a vivid picture of the biting wintertime
\nand the horror of war.<\/p>\n
Tim played a part of his oral-history-based series of
\ndocumentaries on the life of people in Papua New Guinea, which he
\ncalled the colony of Australia.<\/p>\n
From Tim's recording came a young woman's voice haltingly
\nrecounting her feelings and experiences as a person of mixed-
\nblood, Australian and Papuan.<\/p>\n
"I like to think of myself as a Papuan...but mostly I feel
\nlike I'm an in between....in between feels so like....in
\nbetween." the girl said, her voice a mixture of sadness and
\nacceptance.<\/p>\n
Flavor<\/p>\n
The Bowdens gave several practical suggestions for
\nbroadcasters wishing to use the techniques, including the need to
\ncross-check for accuracy, seek for background information as well
\nas ways to "catch the flavor" of history being retold.<\/p>\n
"When you interview people involved in certain historical
\nevents, ask them the same question: Why did you survive?" Tim
\nsuggested. "And they will tell you human stories."<\/p>\n
For some of only the handful who attended the seminar, the
\ntapes had indeed given them a more vivid and interesting
\ndescription of the history being told.<\/p>\n
"If broadcasters at the state-owned Radio Republik Indonesia
\nstation used the techniques, their news reporting would be more
\ninteresting," said a young man. "Right now, news reports from RRI
\nare so dull."<\/p>\n
For others in the audience, who happened to be employees at
\nthe Indonesia's National Archive Center, the seminar gave
\n"nothing new".<\/p>\n
"We are also trained to interview people involved in
\nhistorical events or historians," said Aat, a woman employee at
\nthe Center.<\/p>\n
The seminar was part of the Australia Today Indonesia '94, the
\nbiggest trade and cultural promotion program to date. An officer
\nat the Cultural Department of the embassy, however, expressed
\nregrets that, despite its usefulness, the event was attended by
\nonly a small number of people.<\/p>\n
Tim Bowden, a Sydney-based journalist and author, has recently
\ncompleted an oral-history-based series of programs called
\nCrossing the Barriers. The series deal with experiences of Asian
\nstudents who came to Australia from the 1950s and 1960s under the
\nColombo Plan.<\/p>\n
Tim joined the ABC in 1963 in Tasmania and was posted in
\nSingapore as a foreign correspondent in 1965, with assignments in
\nIndonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines as well as the
\nVietnam war. In 1974 he joined the ABC's Radio Drama and Features
\nDepartment and began making radio documentaries.<\/p>\n
Among his published books are One Crowded Hour-Neil Davis,
\nCombat Cameraman, The Way My Father Tells It-The Story of An
\nAustralian Life and Antarctica and Back in Sixty Days.<\/p>\n
Tim's wife, Ros, also worked as a producer for a public radio
\nstation and has taught radio documentary techniques to Aboriginal
\nstudents in the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n
She has produced a number of oral-history-based documentaries
\nfor the ABC beginning with a four-part series on women, Work of
\nEqual Value, a program on The Australian Women's Land Army and on
\nEarly Women Aviators.<\/p>\n
Ros won the Human Rights Award for a Radio Documentary in 1987
\nwith Being Aboriginal in which Aboriginal Australians describe
\ntheir feelings about their own history.<\/p>",
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