Why Interview?

Interviews are a way to find out what other people know. Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, a lot of our history has not been written down. Sometimes, we cannot just pick up a book to find out what happened in the past, or to understand the work people did, how they lived, and how they felt. But we can find out for ourselves by doing interviews.

Interviews are only one way to learn these things, but they are important. Almost everyone has information about their own lives that no one else knows. Unless we interview these people, that information is lost forever. People also have stories to tell. These stories are more interesting than bare facts. Sometimes, people say things in very special ways. Their words make the past more real.

Finding People to Interview

A good talker or storyteller with a good memory will usually give a good interview. Most of us know someone like that. Sometimes, we hear about people from friends and relatives. If you see a good interview in a newspaper, a magazine, or on television, you can track that person down to interview.

An archive is a place that keeps papers such as old letters, photographs and other information about the past. At Memorial University in St. John's, there is a special archive called the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive. Many archives only have papers and photographs. The Folklore Archive also has interviews. Most of these interviews were done by students in folklore courses. They are recorded on tape, and sometimes transcribed (copied down onto paper). The Folklore Archive has between 15,000 and 20,000 interviews. That makes it a good place to find people to interview. When we were working on this project, some of us found the people that we interviewed by looking in the Folklore Archive.