Dear all,
We are grateful to the large pool of British-Goans registered with us to be
interviewed. So far we have interviewed 20 people, although we are just 8
months into the project. They reflect a cross-section of society; tailors,
clerks, teachers, train-drivers, cooks, doctors, etc. We have a wonderful team
of volunteers ranging from the young in the community to the not-so-young. Our
first workshop at the Royal Geographical Society is set for 13 April, 2012 and
was sold out within 2 days of advertising it. Our second workshop at Bexley
Archives is scheduled for 22nd April. (Please contact me for details of second
workshop if you are interested. It is about Goan geneoloy).
Our website went live some time ago and has registered over 15,000 hits. It
hosts clips of interviews conducted. The duration of each interview is between
60 to 120 minutes. Only small 4-5 minute editted clips are hosted on the
website and Youtube so as not to consume too much bandwith. We have reached
agreements with both the British Library and the Bexley Archives for the entire
clips (the total output of the project) to be hosted in perpetuity by them in a
special collection called Life stories of British-Goans. This will be in the
public domain, copy-right free including photographs, for future researchers,
writers, historians and family historians.
It might be pertinent to note that these are life stories. They are a recording
of personal memories. As such they are subject to the fragility of memory but
what they do contain is the validity of a lived experience, captured on audio
and video from a generation which is now withering away. All these stories
would be lost forever if not for the funding from the UK government. I have
conducted interviews where the person has silently shed tears recalling their
past life. Our team is currently working on a short documentary which will
capture the overall narrative of settlement, displacement, transition and
resettlement experienced by this generation.
We are thankful to Goans - some of whom are on this list like Mervyn Maciel,
Rene Barreto and Eddie Fernandes who have moved this project along and do so
everyday in the service of the community.
Please assist us in whatever way you can. This is a heritage preservation
project of our community.
Best,
selma
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