SUMMARY
A Long Struggle is part of a larger oral histories project that offers
an opportunity for the little studied minority ethnic groups to present
themselves and their cultural groups to the international community using
their own words. Oral histories of ethnic leaders, IDPs and refugees,
is currently being developed to create an online resource center.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The Oral Histories project offers life stories of political and military
leaders, teachers, health-care workers, religious leaders, and others,
to construct a collection of histories of the ethnic nationalities movements,
and an account of life under military rule in Burma. By gathering oral
accounts rather than written document, this project seeks to present the
voices of those who have been denied a place in the world, the region,
and the country: ethnic minorities, women, the poor, the disempowered,
and the colonized. By using oral history methods, there is opportunity
for ethnic minorities to impart their individual and collective histories
in their own words, while translation and dissemination will make these
histories available to the world. The project's research methodology is
informed by 'Learning to Listen, A Manual for Oral History Projects,'
published by the Open Society Institute, and written, in particular, for
people from Burma, especially people from minority communities.
The oral histories are recorded with digital video.
INTERVIEW RECORDS AND TOPICS
The interviews were conducted in Thailand (Mae Sot, Chiangmai, and Mae
Hong Son), and inside Burma's border, in Karen controlled territory (from
Mae Sot).
Burmese opposition leaders, as well as IDPs and refugees have been interviewed.
Topics discussed include:
Education
Health Care
Landmines
Forced Labor
Drugs
Religion
Agriculture
Slave Trade
Child Labor
Rape
Terror Tactics
Internally Displaced
Refugees
Ethnic armies
Democratic movements
Deforestation
Burmanization
Women's Issues
Ethnic Nationalities Movements
EVALUATION
The Oral Histories project is evaluated according to the following criteria:
- Objectives: To document oral histories of individuals from Burma's ethnic minorities through interviews documented by video recording.
- Need: To what extent does the project add fresh information, fill gaps in the existing record, and/or provide fresh insights and perspectives?
- Research Quality: To what extent is the information reliable and valid? Is it eyewitness or hearsay evidence? How well and in what manner does it meet internal and external tests of corroboration, consistency, and explication of contradictions? What is the relationship of the interview information to existing documentation and historiography? How does the texture of the interviews impart detail, richness, and flavor to the historical record? How does the form and structure of the interviews contribute to making the content understandable?
- Distribution: How will the interviews be used? How is information about interviews directed to likely users? How have new media and electronic methods of distribution been considered to publicize materials and make them available? How will the interview materials, including recordings, transcripts and other documents, be placed in a repository, after a reasonable period of time, subject to agreements made with the interviewees? Are the methodologies of the project, as well as its goals and objectives, available for the general public to evaluate? Will the oral histories materials and all works created from them, be available and accessible to the communities that participated in the project?
- Ethics and Interviewee Rights: Have the interviewers treated the interviewees with respect? What procedures are used to insure that the interviewees are made fully aware of the goals and objectives of the oral histories project? What procedures are used to insure that the interviewees are given the opportunity to respond to questions as freely as possible and are not subjected to stereotyped assumptions based on race, ethnicity, gender, class or any other social/cultural characteristics? Do the interviewees understand the right to refuse to discuss certain subjects, to seal portions of the interviews, or choose to remain anonymous? Are the interviewees fully informed about the potential uses of the material? How do the interviewers consider the potential for public programming or research use of the interviews, and endeavor to prevent any exploitation of, or harm to, interviewees? Do the interviewers and project endeavor not to impose their own values on the communities being studied? Will the tapes and transcripts will be used ethically?