My research asks how arts-based methods can enrich oral history as a practice of gathering, honoring, and archiving (de)fragmented diasporic memories. My concept of “(de)fragmentation” represents diaspora as a subject that comes into being through a continual process of turning: toward memory, homeland, loss, and away from them simultaneously; a psychic and physical negotiation with power that shapes and reshapes the self (Cho, 2007).

Though oral history is a traditional form of storytelling across cultures, the common interview approach—whether through a casual or scripted style — can feel limiting when met with the tremendous barriers that may be present within a (de)fragmented state — the oscillation between continuity and rupture. Barriers that can exist between and within familial generations: linguistic, cultural, relational, political, ideological, and various other “contingencies” (Greenspan, 2019). Arts-based methods and participatory approaches are potential pathways to ease these limitations and advance practices of culturally and trauma-informed approaches alongside longstanding oral history methods.

My proposal for the COHDS Storytelling Festival is a mini workshop showcasing one of the artistic exercises used in the interviews with my family members. My Line Exercise was inspired by Ahmed’s work that describes how bodies become orientated in space and time (2007). By turning and moving “this way” more than “that way” again and again, bodies are “directed” and eventually acquire the shape of this direction–creating lines that are followed and are thus followed by being created (p. 15-16). Collectives, like families, come to have their own lines and are shaped by the repetitive act of “facing” (p. 118). The Line exercise goes through a series of prompts based on (de)fragmentation and its re/dis/mis/orientations such as aspects of childhood, culture, identity, family, etc. The body of images created by participants themselves — in addition to the stories they have to share — was a crucial element in my interview process.

This workshop will take participants through aspects of The Line Exercise, adapted to a wider audience. Participants will be asked prompts, to draw lines based on those prompts, and have space to share, debrief, and offer feedback.

Workshop: Oral History Needs a Body With Dona Nham

Workshop: Oral History Needs a Body With Dona Nham

Event Info

Hosted By:

Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling

Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling

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