Feminist Oral History and the Victorian Domestic Violence Services Movement

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This paper explores some of the theoretical and practice issues in relation to feminist oral history. The central theoretical premise is that transcripts from interviews are to be understood as constructed texts rather than as windows into the past. It draws on the author's conduct of a research project that documented the history of the Victorian domestic violence services movement from 1974 to 2005. The author's position is analysed in relation to the production of historical evidence—which was done by conducting oral interviews and producing transcripts—and in writing feminist history.