Sample questions to assist in developing your story. Use these questions as a guide to trigger your memory. Hopefully, these questions will spawn additional questions and stories.

Sample Life-Story Interview Questions 


Biographical Information
 
a. When/where were you born? 
b. What was your father/mother’s full name? 
c. Do you have any siblings?
 i. What are their names? 
ii. What are their ages? 
d. Are you/have you been married? 
  i. What is/was the name of your husband/wife?
 ii. When/where were you married?
e. Do you have any children?
 i. What are their names?
 ii. When/where were they born?

Family Heritage

 a. Can we talk about your mother's parents? Do you remember your grandmother? And your grandfather?
    i. Were your grandparents from the same town/city/region as you?
    ii. How did your grandparents earn a living?
    iii. Did they help to bring you up? Were you close to them?
    iv. Was either of them a strong influence on you? 
    v. [Repeat for father’s parents]
b. Do you remember any other relatives of the older generations in your family?
c. Were there any other old people who were especially important to you as a child?
d. Can you tell me about the relationship between your father/mother and your grandparents?
e. Can we talk about your parents? Let’s start with your mother?
 i. Can you describe her character to me?
 ii. Did she show affection? What about anger?
iii. Were you close to her? Was she easy to talk to?
iv. What kind of work did she do? Did she always do that kind of work? Did she continue working after she had her 
     children?
 v. Who looked after you while she worked? Was she ever out of work? 
 vi. How did you manage then?
 vii. [Repeat for father]
f. How would you compare your mother and your father as influences in your life? 
g. What do you remember your parents/grandparents telling you about their childhoods, about growing up?
h. How do you think your parents were seen by others?
i. What were your parents’ ethnicities/religions?
j. Can we talk about your brothers and sisters?
    i. Growing up as children, how did you get along?
    ii. Do you have a favorite brother or sister? Can you tell me more about him/her? Was he/she an important influence on you? 
    iii. What are your brothers and sisters doing now? Are they married?

 Childhood

a. What do you remember about your first home?
 i. Who lived in your house?
 ii. Who made the decisions in your house?
 iii. What were your responsibilities as a child?
b. What do you think of when you hear the name of your home town?
c. Can you describe your childhood neighborhood to me?
 i. Did you have neighbors living close by?
 ii. Did neighbors help each other? In what ways?
d. Can you tell me about your closest friends?
 i. What sort of games did you play?
 ii. Were you free to play with whom you liked?
e. When your parents were not working, what kind of things did they do to enjoy themselves?
 i. Where they part of any club or associations?
 ii. Where did they go in their leisure time?
f. How did your childhood differ from those of the opposite sex?

Youth/Schooling

a. When did you start school?
 i. What schools did you go to?
 ii. What did you think of these schools?
b. Who do you remember running the school?
c. Can you tell me about your teachers?
 i. Did they emphasize certain things as important in life?
 ii. Did they encourage discussion?
 iii. Did they treat children from different social backgrounds or races differently?
 iv. Was any teacher an important influence on you?
d. What did you most enjoy studying?
e. Did you do any special training or apprenticeship?
 i. While you were at school, did you have any part-time jobs?
f. When you left school, what did you want to do?

 Work/Community

a. When did you leave home? 
  i. Did you live by yourself?
 ii. Did you move to another town?
b. Can you tell me about the community you lived in?
 i. Can you describe the neighborhood to me?
 ii. Did you have neighbors living close by?
 iii. Did neighbors help each other? In what ways?
c. Where you part of any clubs or associations?
d. Can you tell me about festivals?
e. Where did people go to socialize?
 i. Did you have a favorite place to meet with your friends?
 ii. Were there differences between these and other gathering places?
 iii. Were there gathering place that you avoided? Why?
f. In your neighborhood, were you considered better off or worse off than your neighbors? 
  i. What was your relationship with others in the community?
  ii. Who did you mix most easily with?
  iii. Did one group feel itself superior to the others?
g. How did you make your living?
 i. How did you get your first full-time job?
 ii. Was it through family/friends/other connections?
h. Can you tell me about a normal day at work?
i. Can you tell me about the people you worked with?
 i. Did you have friends at work?
 ii. Did you work with members of your family?
 iii. Did men and women work together?
 iv. Could you talk or relax or have fun together at all at the workplace?
j. Did you feel you were reasonably paid or not?
k. What do you remember about your bosses?
 i. How did you feel about them?

 Marriage and Children

a. Can you tell me how you and your partner first met?
 i. Can you tell me about him/her (country of origin, social background, job, personality)?
b. Do you still live with your husband/wife?
 i. How would you describe your relationship now?
c. Can we talk about your children?
 i. When you were bringing them up, what did you think was most important to give them?
 ii. How much did you talk to them?
 iii. Who did you talk to if you were worried about them?
 iv. Did you believe that girls and boys should be treated the same or differently?
 v. Did you bring them up to believe that certain things are important in life?
 vi. If they did something you disapproved of, what would you do?
d. How do you think that your attitudes towards your children were different from your parents' attitudes towards you when you were growing up?
e. What are your hopes, dreams, and aspirations for your children?

 Reasons for Leaving/Migration

a. What were the events that led to your leaving?
 i. What was the first news of violence in your country?
 ii. How did you and your community react to this news? 
 iii. Did it create divisions within the community? 
 iv. How did you perceive of the policies of the government at the time?
b. When did you first begin to feel unsafe?
 i. Why did you feel unsafe?
 ii. By whom did you feel threatened?
 iii. Did you feel unsafe in your community?
 iv. Did you feel as though you had the support of the people around you?
c. What were your own experiences with violence?
 i. How did you respond?
 ii. How did others in the community respond?
d. How do you think your experiences of these events differed from those of men/women?
e. Did you ever make efforts to hide or to mask your identity because you felt threatened?
f. Can you tell me about the weeks and days leading up to your leaving?
g. Who do you feel you left behind?

About where you are (ie. City/Country, etc.)

 a. When did you first think about coming to (ie. City/Country, etc.)? Why?
 i. Had anyone in your family gone abroad before you? Where?
 ii. Why did you settle in (ie. City/Country, etc.)? 
 iii. What did you know about (ie. City/Country, etc.)? Who from?
 iv. How did you imagine (ie. City/Country, etc.)?
 b. Can you tell me about your experiences with (ie. Country) immigration?
 c. What were your first impressions of (ie. City/Country, etc.)?
 d. What was the most difficult thing about settling in (ie. City/Country, etc.)?
 i. Would you say that people were generally friendly or hostile towards you?
 ii. What do you think helped the most?
 iii. What did you most need and didn’t have?
e. Did you get support from the (ie. City/Country, etc.) community?
 i. Have you met new people in the (ie. City/Country, etc.) community since moving here?
 ii. Do you have a “network” for meeting people, or finding work/housing? Who belongs to your“network”?
 iii. Are there divisions in the community related to the violence at home?
 iv. How are memories related to these divisions? 
 v. How do survivors/refugees organise themselves?
f. Do you celebrate holidays or traditions from your home country?
g. How have you made your living since moving to (ie. City/Country, etc.) ?
 i. Have you had difficulty finding work?
h. Can you tell me about the different waves of immigration from your home country?
 i. How has this affected the community?
 ii. What are the differences/commonalities between the experiences of these different groups?
i. How do you think your feelings of home have changed since moving to (ie. City/Country, etc.)? Since you were ad?
 i. How do you think your feelings of community have changed?
j. What do you think about the divisions between people here in (ie. City/Country, etc.)? Between the different cultures,    ethnic groups, etc?
k. How have you been treated by other "groups" ad  "culture" from outside your community?
 i. Do you have friends from other cultures and groups? 
l. When/where do you feel most out of place in (ie. City/Country, etc.)?
 i. Where do you feel most comfortable?
m. Do your children like it here?
 i. Do you think your children feel more comfortable here than you do?

Going Back
a. Have you been back to your home country?
  i. If no, why not?
 ii. If yes, what did you do while you where there?
 iii. How did you feel about being back?
 iv. What were your feeling about the changes in you home country?
b. Have you thought about moving back permanently?
  i. What are some of the reasons you would like to?
 ii. What are some of the reasons you would prefer to stay in (ie. City/Country, etc.)/not go back?
c. Have others from the community in (ie. City/Country, etc.) moved back?
  i. What have you heard from/about them?
 
 
 Memories/Looking Back


a. How/where/when do you talk about your home country since moving to ­­­__________l? 
i. Who do you talk to about it with?
b. How/when/where do you talk about your experiences with violence?
 i. Who do you talk to about these experiences with?
 ii. What stories of violence  do you tell? Why? 
c. How do acknowledged storytellers in your community talk about the past?
 i. How/where/when/why are particular stories told?
 ii. How do these stories relate to your own?
 iii. What are the silences in these stories? What isn’t being said? 
d. What do you tell your children about your home country?
 i. Do you talk about your reasons for leaving?
 ii. How do you talk about violence with your children? How do  you put it into words?
e. Do you think of yourself as a survivor?
 i. What do you think it means to be a survivor?
 ii. What do you think of media portrayals of survivors? Do you think they are accurate?
 iii. Do you feel that you share common ground with survivors from other communities?
f. Do you sometimes try to avoid thinking about the past? In what ways?
g. What do you think of recent developments in your home country?
 i. What are your feelings about the Truth Commissions?
 ii. Do you think the causes of the violence in your home country have been explained?
h. Have you seen your community’s experience expressed in artistic media or performance?
 i. How did you respond to this?
 ii. How did the community respond to this?
 iii. How would you feel about participating in such a performance?
i. How do you think your stories and those of your community can be expressed through museum exhibitions, theatre performances and in the classroom?
j. What would you most like others outside of your community to know about your experiences?
 i. What would you most like others within your community to know about your experiences?