An oral tradition is the passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next orally (by speaking). All the important beliefs, values and social or religious customs that make each culture different from another were passed along to younger people from their Elders through the spoken word. Survival skills such as hunting, building houses and making clothes, tools or medicine were taught through telling, showing and doing.

For centuries the communication of information was entirely oral. After the creation of writing, however, people began to count on written documents for information about the past. A lot of the knowledge that was communicated orally was lost. Much later sound recording technology was invented. Then people who were interested in the past were able to collect and use information that was communicated by speaking.

Oral history refers to recorded interviews with people about events of the past or their memories of their life experiences. The recorded human voice is the main form of an oral history. This can be used directly as a sound recording or the speaker’s exact words can be transcribed (copied) into written form.

Oral history is often done by talking to several people about one topic. Just as no book can tell you everything, each person has different memories and experiences of the past. Oral history uses the actual words of people who lived and witnessed history. The spoken words of everyday women and men give us a more powerful understanding of the past than books alone can offer.

Oral history brings alive a past that the written word fails to capture. Studs Terkel, Oral Historian