Oral histories of Nordic immigrants sought

Nordic American Voices, an oral history project, was launched by the Nordic Heritage Museum in 2009 with the mission to collect, preserve, and share the life histories of Nordic immigrants and their descendants in the Pacific Northwest.

Since 2009 project volunteers have recorded the life stories of more than 350 Nordic-Americans in the region. Some of the interviews were used to produce the 2011 video documentary "Under the Clouds of War: Growing Up in Occupied Denmark and Norway" and the 500 page book "Voices of Ballard and Beyond" released in 2012.

Project volunteers are currently working on a video documentary focused on the experiences of more than 20 individuals during the Winter War and the Continuation War in Finland.

This committee, chaired by Gordon Strand, wants to expand their collection, so they will be participating in Naselle's Finnish American Folk Festival July 25 and 26. The interviews will be approximately one hour.

Volunteers from Nordic American Voices will contact potential interviewees before the festival to schedule times. Once the interviews are completed, they will give the interviewees and Appelo Archives Center copies of the transcripts and DVDs. This is a real bonus for the AAC as they have wanted to add more oral interviews to their collection for several years, but have not had sufficient volunteers to take on this task.

If you are not contacted and want to participate, call Anita Raistakka, 360-484-3376 or email her: anita@finnam.naselle.net.