Oral History Collection
Oral history is a picture of the past in people's own words usually
done as tape recorded interviews.
The Polish Historical Institute in Australia strongly supports
and promotes oral history in recording the lives of Polish Australians
and the various histories of the Poles in Australia. The Institute's
agreement with the National Library of Australia has meant a re-assessment
of its own oral history programme, which up to then duplicated
that of the Library's. Rather than maintaining two parallel oral
history projects both partners have agreed to collaborate in the
Library's Polish-Australian Oral History Project with
the Institute providing names of potential interviewees and the
Library the recording of those interviews.
The Felix Parry-Pisarewski Oral History Project is now closed
but it is a rich resource about a number of Polish Australians
from all walks of life. In order to aid further research into
these Poles the list has been modified for public use.
The Felix Parry- Pisarewski Oral History Project was named after
the Polish Sydney businessman who generously donated funds to
buy the recording equipment. His vision coincided with that of
the founding Director's which was to record
the background, settlement experiences of the two waves of migrations
(World War II and Solidarity). Interviews were conducted in most
States and Territories using the same questionnaire. Most of the
interviews are in Polish and they vary in length from 50 minutes
to several hours.
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