The Multicultural History Society of Ontario, located in the Multicultural History Centre, in the University of Toronto campus on 43 Queens Park Circle and the home of one of Canada's largest collections of oral history has launched Canada's first Oral History Museum. At the same time it included the launch of "Telling Lives" an interactive digital history project. "Both of these initiatives are celebrations of the rich diversity of Toronto and Ontario's peoples," says Milton Israel, Chair of the Board of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario.
" Telling Lives " is a project that began on October 4, 2004 and will run until December 17, 2004. It will ask people to recount a 10 minute segment, with this year’s theme being "Going to School " into the "Video Memory Bank" . "We ask Estonian people to come and contribute their experiences," said Dr. Lillian Petroff, Education Co ordinator at MHS. She adds, "times are available by phoning 416-979-2973. Once people have recorded their own memories they can view stories from other storytellers."
"Telling Lives" is a project of the American History Workshop, a consortium of historians, educators, and artists founded in 1980. The stories collected in Canada ( Toronto ) will be stored here available to university researchers. Subsequent projects from AHW will explore Family Vacations, Behind the Wheel, The Weekly Round of Meals at Home, Getting My First Job and others.
Lt. Gov. Bartleman spoke briefly at the launch, jokingly mixing up "Telling Lives" with "Telling Lies" and then went on to enter his " Going to School " experiences into the "Video Memory Bank" .
Participation in the "Video Memory Bank" is free, answered Dr. Petroff to my question as to cost to participants.