Episode 01: Mother[lands]

In oral history, we often use what’s called a life history approach. This method of interviewing spends the first part of an encounter recording an interviewee’s narrative account of their life, usually beginning in childhood, and then follows the significant events that occurred within their living memory. This method was particularly important in my project which is largely about the care of young children. My interview questions were designed to understand how the narrators were raised, by who, and what meaning they made of it. I wondered if these threads would show up later in their work as nannies, and if there were any threads that would tie all together. When is a nanny born? And how does she come to understand care? Chapter 2 will focus more on who, but for this first chapter, I wanted to establish a sense of place, or rather many places, that form the foundations of each narrator's identity before immigrating to New York. These are worlds populated by mango trees, sugar cane, grandmothers, aunties, and cousins. These are Mother Lands.