Central Otago Heritage Trust's oral history programme (COHT OHP) has been boosted by a $11,430 grant from Central Lakes Trust (CLT) in the August funding round. 

COHT coordinator Maggie Hope said CLT had supported the volunteer-led project from the start in 2019. The recent grant runs from August 2023 until July 2025.

“We now have the funds to continue the project for a further two years.”

COHT oral history manager Carolyn Squires said the stories of the people of Central Otago are considered to be a shared taonga (treasure) and essential to have recorded, preserved, shared and celebrated on an ongoing basis.

“The Central Otago oral history programme will continue to collect oral history interviews on the lives of the people of Central Otago, preserving our unique history shared through the spoken word, and make these available for the public to enjoy and listen to on our website.” 

Interviews are carried out by volunteers, and the project aims to collect 30 oral histories a year. 

Currently there are 84 oral histories in the collection, and 12 are available online for anyone to listen to.

Each oral history can involve 16 or more hours to complete, covering preparation, pre-interview meetings, recording and editing. 

So far volunteers have spent 2,160 hours working on the oral histories. 

Carolyn said COHT OHP currently has a full quota of volunteer interviewers but they do need assistance from someone who has expertise in using software to edit audio content. 

The collection of interviews cover a wide range of topics including farming, viticulture, health, dance and community engagement. 

“We are interested in collecting more oral history recordings on the stories of different ethnic groups across Central Otago [too].”

For more information contact [email protected] or visit the OHP webpage.

Fourteen grants were approved in CLT’s funding round, bringing the total grants approved to date for the year ending March 31 2024 to $3.7M.