Oral History and Cultural Documentation
In 2025 we received funding through a Cal Poly Graduate Student Fellowship to hire a Cal Poly graduate student, who helped us make progress with editing oral history transcripts in order for us to finalize and upload them to our website. As interviews are transcribed they will continue to be uploaded to our communities page.
We continue to conduct oral history interviews and document cultural practices. The end goal is to make the recordings, transcripts, photos and videos available through our website. While we love this work, it does take considerable time and labor to complete with fidelity. We build the relationships, set up a time to conduct the interview, or document the practice, share the recording with community members. For oral histories we then listen, transcribe, edit, and also allow community members to review recordings and transcripts before posting them on our website. With cultural documentation, we sort through videos, photos and interviews, provide narrative context, share with community members and finally upload to our website. We share this to illustrate the work involved to hold these materials with care in order to present them forward.