Its time to write it down before we forget it a

BANGALORE: Highlighting the importance of oral narratives as important historical documents, the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) hosted a conference on Oral History and the Sense of Legacy. Organised by the Centre for Public History, a new unit of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, along with The British Council, NGMA’s auditorium turned into a classroom where historians, researchers and academicians deliberated the different methodologies of oral history.The one-day conference saw researchers and academicians present research papers based on their experience with oral history.Be it Shabnam Virmani’s beautiful rendition of the Kabir dohas to show how delightful the practice of oral history can be or Mary Stewart’s analysis of how the traditional notions of archiving are changing to incorporate oral narratives as well, the conference tried to define the role oral history can play in contemporary public archives. Delivering the welcome address at the inauguration of the conference, Dr Geetha Narayanan, director, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology spoke about the relevance of using design to create public history archives. “Memory is the subject and the source of oral history,” said Robert Perks, the lead curator of oral history at the British Library. In his introductory remarkes on oral history, he spoke of how the oral tradition is a part of oral history. Mary Stewart spoke of the change in the definition of archives and how oral archives are increasingly becoming credible enough to be a part of archives. Highlighting what use an oral archive can be put to, Suroopa Mukherjee spoke of her work as part of the Bhopal Social Movement     Study Group in which oral testimonials highlight the problem from a people’s perspective. In the case of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, she spoke of how oral narratives can be used as tools of empowerment. In her paper, she spoke of how oral narratives restore knowledge back to the people and bring the focus back to redressal and remediation.The conference will be followed by an orientation programme for the students of Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology in Oral History.