Interviewing Assyrian families and elders

Begin with a conversation, not a recording

An oral-history project starts by explaining the purpose of the interview, intended listeners, the anticipated archive and the limits of control after release. Oral History Australia advises informed consent before recording and an opportunity for the interviewee to review, correct or withdraw material. Explain those choices in a language the narrator understands. A participant should be free to decline any question or stop the interview. Recording is not permission to place a file online.

Invite the ordinary details

A family history can be richer when it includes everyday life: a home or village, school, agricultural work, trades, festivals, language at home, journeys and objects carried across borders. Questions should be open-ended rather than seeking confirmation of a pre-written historical narrative. People may identify themselves through different community, church or linguistic names. Record their own wording, and do not assign an ethnic or religious category based solely on a surname or place.

Keep testimony and historical claims legible

An interview documents the narrator's remembered experience and interpretation. It can contain specific dates, family names or explanations later compared with contemporary records, without reducing the person's account to a pass-or-fail fact test. A migration document, dated photograph or institutional file may support part of a recollection, but it does not validate every statement. Oral history should be identified as attributed testimony, while a scholarly reconstruction should carry separate references.

Before an interview is shared

Describe the intended access levels, who may quote or translate, the narrator's chosen public display name, any passages to restrict and how later corrections will be recorded. Oral History Australia recommends making those agreements clear and in writing. Include a review step for transcripts and translations; distinguish private preservation from public distribution. The Living Archive currently offers planning templates only; it does not receive, host or review private interviews.

Prompts that produce a concrete account

Instead of asking only what migration was like, follow a sequence: what happened before departure, who was present, what was packed, which place came next and what the first day after arrival involved. Follow up a detail introduced by the narrator.

These questions do not supply the answer or demand an emotional response. They allow ordinary routines and major events to appear together. An object or stage of travel can help organise memory without forcing the account into the interviewer's preferred story.

When dates and memories differ

Preserve uncertainty when a narrator cannot supply an exact date. A photograph or public record may clarify it, but the recorded recollection should not be silently replaced. Distinguish testimony from later context.

Before publication, check quotations, attribution and access. A contributor may authorise an edited extract while wishing the complete recording to remain private. Recording those choices helps future readers distinguish spoken memory, editorial explanation and independently established chronology.