Calling all Oral Historians

24 March 2009

Media Release

Calling all Oral Historians

Applications are being called for this year’s Awards in oral history.

More than $1.25 million has been awarded to over 300 New Zealand oral history projects since 1991 by the Australian Sesquicentennial Gift Trust for Awards in Oral History.

The awards were introduced by Australia as a gift to the people of New Zealand in 1990 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Around $75,000 is available for distribution each year for the recording of interviews for oral history projects about the history of New Zealand and New Zealand’s connections with the Pacific.

Projects supported by the awards cover a wide range of subjects. Last year’s awards included money for projects from divorce in the 1950s and 60s to New Zealand composers, the Tairawhiti region, refugee groups and the Auckland Harbour Bridge.

The awards are decided by a committee of oral historians and administered by the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.

Oral history recordings are deposited at the Alexander Turnbull Library and are accessible to researchers.

Applications for the 2009 awards close 30th April 2009.

For more information about the awards see:

http://www.mch.govt.nz/awards/history/oral.html
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