Archives are not only made up of papers and objects that can be collected and put in boxes. Indeed, these are only the tip of the iceberg. Testimonies and oral histories are also an essential part of a survivor-centred archive, especially because survivors’ voices have so often been silenced or ignored.
Team members Alana Harris and Patricia Debney will collect ten new oral histories from survivor-activists as part of the project. Not only will they increase our understanding of past survivor-activism, they will also help to inform the archiving toolkit. Oral histories raise particular issues about content, anonymity and safety that we will work through and address with guidance from the Participatory Research Group.
With interviewees’ consent we will publish transcripts (and potentially audio) of interviews via our website, and archive them with the UK Data Service so that they can be accessed by other researchers and the public.