Colin Hyde- East Midlands Oral History Archive- East Midlands Regional Advisor
The Sounds for the Future project finished at the end of October, but an underspend and matched funding has enabled us to extend some of the contracts on a part-time basis for six months, so we can work with oral history collections at the Record Office that have slipped through the net, and do more outreach.
New deposits of collections have been received from: a school project recording elders from the local Caribbean community; recordings about a Northampton youth hostel in the 1980s; recordings from a project about the steel industry in Corby; and recordings from the Charnwood Roots project.
The artist residency funded by the British Library is in progress – https://eastmidsoha.home.blog/2024/09/25/sharing-our-sounds-artist-residency/. The audio audit of the Midlands in preparation for a major funding bid is also in progress; and EMOHA is also included in a bid for project about responsible use of AI, led by Dr Stef De Sabbata, of the Geography Department, University of Leicester.
Volunteers from the University are helping to create an online oral history exhibition about Leicester in WW2. This has only just started, but test webpages are here: https://leicester.omeka.net/exhibits/show/ww2/intro.
EMOHA continues to provide talks on its works, including this year at Melton Mowbray; Lincolnshire Heritage Forum; Derbyshire Museums Forum; Coalville Library; Houghton on the Hill history group and Robert Hall Memorial Baptist Church, Leicester. Training sessions have also been held at several schools across the region; for the disability charity Mosaic 1898 in Leicester; Corby Heritage Group Corby heritage group; Loughborough Bell Foundry Museum’ and Hinckley Library.
Cynthia Brown- East Midlands Regional Advisor
My main involvement this year has been with the new community-driven UK South Asian Digital Archive project (UKSADA), which will incorporate oral histories. It is dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich heritage of South Asian communities in the UK. There are over 5.5 million British Asians in the UK, representing nearly 10% of the population, and their stories are integral to understanding the fabric of modern Britain. The project had its official launch in Leicester in October 2024, and is still in the early stages of building a comprehensive archive that will ensure the stories, experiences, and contributions of these communities are accessible for generations to come. See the UKSADA website at About Us – UK South Asian Digital Archive, and the blog ‘Stories that should be told’ on the OHS website at Stories that Should be Told – Oral History Society.
