Priceless links to the region’s past are being preserved through the Southland Oral History Project (SOHP) which now boasts more than 300 recordings fully catalogued and available to the public.

SOHP coordinator Rosie Stather said with the assistance of a $6250 Community Trust South grant more than 250 recordings had been catalogued during the past 18 months – significantly boosting the total number of recordings now searchable on the project’s database.

The grant, alongside ongoing funding and assistance from the Invercargill City Council and Heritage South, has helped SOHP achieve increased awareness and use of the project by the public in Southland and people further afield, as well as use by academics.

“The collection is relevant at a national, as well as at a local, level. With active promotion planned for the collection we anticipate numbers of people accessing the wealth of information available on the region’s history will steadily increase,” Stather said.

To date there had been a wide range of requests for information, including requests relating to Ngai Tahu history, authors researching book topics, and many people looking for information about family members.

“We also believe that with New Zealand history about to become a compulsory part of the school curriculum we will see a steady increase in access to the collection by schools and students looking for authentic local historical information.”

It had been particularly pleasing to be able to assist family members to access recordings of loved ones who had since passed away, Stather said.

Tales about rabbiting, cheesemaking, local body politics, the depression years, mutton-birding, farming, film-making, World War II and sports were just a few of the many topics covered in recordings, she said.

People could arrange to listen to interviews at the Invercargill Library and there were plans to continue to increase the depth of material available online, she said.

The SOHP is also hoping to digitise recordings from around the region stored on cassette tapes to preserve these for future generations. 

SOHP works closely with the library team to promote the collection at events around Southland, and also visits schools and rest homes to share stories.

Stather said Southland’s stories helped define who we were as a people and a region.

“The project aims to capture these stories as a collective memory of what it is to be part of this community. Oral histories provide a window into a world that is fast disappearing.”

“The project covers a broad range of subjects, not only the defining events in Southland’s local history but also our traditions, our everyday way of life and what it means to be a Southlander,” she said.