Audio recordings are the home of a wealth of verbal and non verbal information, information hinted at rather than signposted, nuance and silences. For this reason they make time consuming and demanding sources for text based work. So it is wonderful to find books that make extensive use of oral sources. I’ve come across two recently. 

Dr Rosemary Baird, an historian and oral historian who is Senior Outreach Advisor at Heritage New Zealand Pouhere Taonga, has used 18 interviews she recorded for the Manapouri Hydro Scheme oral history project  to write about a range of experiences for her book The Middle of Nowhere – the story of Manapōuri Hydro Project. She focusses on what it was like working on this massive infrastructure project and she includes the experience of women who went to live in the remote hydro village and raised children there, and men who lived on the Wanganella, an old ship that was repurposed as a floating hostel at Deep Cove in Doubtful Sound. The oral histories are archived in the Collection of Oral History & Sound at the Alexander Turnbull Library here. 

The book contextualises the project but keeps a steady focus on the social history aspect with poignant extracts from the interviews. The oral interviews remain the primary source but for many people Rosemary Baird’s text is a fascinating and accessible account of working on New Zealand’s largest hydroelectric power station. 

Moira C. Lockington KSM’s book Reef Town as remembered by Edgar Elliston, which has had a second print run by James Print, Greymouth, also has its origins firmly in oral history. 

The primary source for the book is many hours of reel to reel tape Moira Lockington recorded with Edgar Elliston nearly every Wednesday for three years. Beginning in 1973. Edgar, who was born in 1888, created a spoken, accumulating record of his thoughts, experiences and life in ‘Quartzopolis’ (Reefton) and 50 years later Moria Lockingham’s book was published with the help of Paula M. Cunliffe. To learn about the book, and hear Edgar’s voice, I recommend watching the YouTube video, A short film of the book, REEF TOWN – As Remembered By Edgar Elliston. Extraordinary oral history work more than 50 years ago.