Notes from Aural History

By The Royal British Columbia Museum

This issue represents an important step in the development of Sound Heritage as an aural history quarterly. The articles show both the wide range of aural history in writing, teaching, and research, and the value of producing sound documents as well as typescripts.The feature article of the issue is about Steveston, a Japanese-Canadian fishing community on the Fraser River, and illustrates the work of Aural History, Provincial Archives of British Columbia. A book on Steveston will be published next year. In Canadian aural history, more attention has been given to the common man than the great man. Nevertheless there is a growing interest in documenting community leaders, politicians and important Canadian events. This issue of Sound Heritage draws attention to some of these projects and promotes some creative work in the area, thus encouraging balanced aural history work in Canada.The articles about former Prime Minister Diefenbaker and the Conservative Party show both the potential and the problems of interviews with national figures. They also contain some judgements about aural history as a methodology. Richard Alway's short article illustrates how educators in Canadian Studies have met the lack of documentation in this area. It describes a feasible approach for educators confronted with similar problems elsewhere. The Columbia River Treaty Lecture Series described by George Cook is an exciting way to provide university students with a first-hand involvement in the study of the history of British Columbia and Canada. The material created by the lecture series is now available for use by researchers, writers and teachers, providing a new source of information on this still controversial topic.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Royal British Columbia Museum
• Release date: Jan 8, 2019
• ISBN: 9780772677655

Book preview