Day 19. Whirlwind in the national library.

Day 19. Whirlwind in the national library.

Today I was going to take an introductory course on oral history for Video. I woke up to find that the weather was overcast and trying to rain. I was going to go out with a jumper and my heavy jacket, but I thought better as I felt it wouldn’t be that cold and went to have breakfast. I was right I didn’t need the extra layer, but I will need it when I leave for the airport in the early hours of the morning.

The walk to the National library wasn’t too bad and I did get there quicker than I thought I would. I did think I would have been delayed by the traffic or where I was walking. I am not sure if you are supposed to be walking on bike lanes when pedestrians are not marked. I managed to make it into the library and one of the hosts let me in the elevator to head to the first floor. I was offered coffee and scones. I felt there is something unique about walking around a library with a cup of coffee in my hand. There were books I had never heard of like a woolly mammoth in the library and several other kids books about libraries. I met Tyna pronounced China with a T. She was maori and had started over 20 years ago with oral history with her specialty being with a video camera. We were supposed to have a camera and while it wasn’t necessary, they would like you to have one. It was explained during the day some of the techniques used to interview people and how video is used.

I think most of the videos were aimed towards those who are of Maori decent and there were several people like that.  I do like New Zealand as they seem to focus on Maori genealogy and it was explained a little to us as things could lengthen as time goes on and distractions do occur. We were all expected to work in teams to produce video although the lady I teamed up with, her recorder had a flat battery and nothing worked unless we had the machine on charge. All the people who were there from some sort of background revolving around oral history. One lady was even talking to deer hunters from the 1960s as they have a story to tell about their experiences and Tyna did also interview those in the Maori battalion for WWII I think. I will have to look into this. We all had to get up and introduced yourself although I was the only one from Australia, but also still a kiwi in everyone elses eyes. I did get some paperwork for interviewing people and did write down notes as well. One of the interview techniques we did was to interview each other and that was on school life as a kid. What was wanted of us was for us to learn to zoom and use the wide view. It was interesting doing something like this though I am going to have to learn this, but the day wasn’t about learning the ethics at all as all the people wanted to do was learn about making a video. The ethics was for the two day course and Tyna wanted us to be very hands on.

I thought the day was very informative even though there were technical hitches as Tyna was from Wellington and the equipment didn’t have all the wires or leads. She hadn’t been to Auckland National library before and there was actually only one tech that worked at the Auckland branch. Tyna did apologise to me for all the problems, although I was telling her this does happen. During lunch I did get to have a look through the displays in the library especially the one about women getting the vote in the late 1800s and what happened regarding kiwi women until the 1960s. One of the information leaflets did have more records the National library like manuscript and other research papers.  We did end up leaving just before 4pm after watching and giving advice about some of the videos that were recorded. It is interesting when everyone used certain maori words especially since no one really does that back home that I have heard of. It was raining by the time I left for the hostel and I was lucky it stopped raining when I got closer to the university. There was only one real plan to pack to heave for the airport in the early hours. Everything is actually charged and ready to go.