Series “Youth” – Description

The series “Youth” was the first series of life stories we managed to collect. Our work on this series began in 2008 with the formation of the first group of interviewers, who then completed the work on this series. We could say that this was our pioneering effort in the field of dealing with the past.

Why the series “Youth”? We wanted to explore which narratives are dominant in the youth in Macedonia regarding the ethnic conflict and the war of 2001. We interviewed young people who were teenagers or adolescents in 2001. We considered it important to hear and present their stories and views of that time, how that influenced their/our present and how that war past influenced the formation of their personalities. What narratives the war produced and how they accepted them.

The possibility to hear other people’s stories or even the possibility to socialize with other young people from different ethnic groups, which were on the opposing sides in the war only a few years earlier, was precious to all of them. In a time when the process of school segregation continues in Macedonia, thus effectively reducing the possibility for youth exchange, we thought we might help young people to hear the other side’s story through collecting stories of young people, i.e. people who were 26 or younger during the war in 2001.

In this period, the participation of Laura Lauberga-Nikolova, a historian from Latvia and back then a Peace Action volunteer, was of great help because due to her great knowledge on this field, as well as her experience in the field of oral history that she gained in her native country, she made a great contribution, especially concerning the techniques of processing and documenting of life stories.

The series “Youth” was carried out in partnership with the Norwegian People’s Aid.