Resistance and resilience issues for oral history in Iceland

Gudrun Stefansdottir

This paper tells the stories of two women with learning difficulties in Iceland. Both of them were born before 1950 and lived in institutions for many years but are now living in the community.

I collected their oral histories as a part of documenting the history of people with learning difficulties in Iceland in the 20th century. The emphasis is on telling this history from the point of view of people with learning difficulties. The paper will look at what the women said about how it felt to leave institutions and come out to live in the community from the women's perspective, how they coped with their experiences, both in institutions, and the community.