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The recording of any oral history is an
attempt to record, on tape or other media, the ideas,
experiences, and impressions of persons who might not
otherwise leave any written record. It is an important
tool for primary research in community, ethnocultural or
other less formal historical research. Oral history
utilizes and adds to existing information about historical
events and other aspects of "official" history; it is not a
substitute for more traditional techniques of research but
does provide an invaluable glimpse into the lives and
experiences of those interviewed. In the latter part of the
20th century, it has become a vehicle for understanding
cultural memory and living traditions-all of those aspects
of life that help define identity and create a sense of
place. Although an
interview cannot capture everything that a person knows, it can
capture part of a person's life experience and fill gaps in
our written historical knowledge. Oral histories
may not be historically accurate because people's memories
are imperfect and may also be influenced by wish fulfillment
and desire for certain things to be so. Having said
this, they have an immediacy and vibrancy that is lacking in
the formal recounting of events
We are extremely fortunate that, on several occasions and
through several different projects such as the Dante
Alighieri Project, the Italians
Settle in Edmonton Project , and the Celebrating
Edmonton's Italian Community Project, there has been a
great number of Oral Histories recorded with members from
the Italian Community in Alberta. In this section we
would like to share with you some of these, and allow you to
experience the stories of triumph and tragedy, as told by
those that lived them.
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