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As far as we know, we are the first oral history organisation to obtain such a position. We also regard it as the end of discussion about whether or not oral history is part of the concept “intangible cultural heritage”.

In our application for the position, we argued: “Our basic idea is that life stories are important intangible heritage, and should be documented, archived and shared on large scales. We believe that recordings of oral interviews and conversations are the best way for safeguarding constantly changing oral expressions, traditions and languages.”

Shared authority

The full text of our application is published by UNESCO.  Further down we wrote: “One basic principle for us, is the principle of shared authority, which means that we respect the interviewee to be the owner of each interview. Only she or he can decide if the interview may be delivered to public archives, and if it may be shared publicly. We establish a written contract about this in every new interview.”

We continued: “Our motto is “All have a story to share”.  By “all” we mean all: The memories of every living human being is a unique source of heritage.  By “story” we mean expressions about experience, observations and reflections about living as an individual in communities with others. By “share” we mean both archiving for future generations, and sharing with contemporaries through family gatherings, community events or interactive media.

We think upon history as streams of lived lives, side by side and interwoven. We think upon heritage as everything mankind created, tangible and intangible”