Sharing stories : problems and potentials of oral history and digital storytelling and the writer/producer's role in constructing a public place

Abstract

The Kelvin Grove Urban Village (KGUV) is a 16-hectare urban renewal redevelopment project of the Queensland Department of Housing and the

Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Over the last century, the land has housed military and educational institutions that have shaped Brisbane and Queensland. These groups each have their own history. Collectively their stories represented an opportunity to build a multi-art form public history project, consisting of a creative non-fiction historical manuscript and a collection of digital stories (employing oral history and digital storytelling techniques in particular) to construct a personal sense of place, identity and history. This exegesis examines the processes used and difficulties faced by the writer/producer of the public history; including consideration of the artistic selection involved, and consequent assembly of the material. The research findings clearly show that: giving contributors access to the technology required to produce their own digital stories in a public history does not automatically equate to total participatory inclusion; the writer/producer can work with the public as an active, collaborative team to produce shared historically significant works for the public they represent; and the role of the public historian is that of a valuable broker--in actively seeking to maximize inclusiveness of vulnerable members of the community and by producing a selection of multi-art form works with the public that includes new media.