Everyone has a story to tell. Through oral history people tell their stories, recording them in their own voice for future listeners. Whether personal, intimate, anecdotal or authoritative accounts of public interests, this work illuminates the past for people in the future. For me, these interviews are engaging, challenging, inspirational, moving and always interesting.
Apart from interviews that are directly related to my writing, I have carried out oral history projects for a number of organisations, such as Archives New Zealand, Statistics New Zealand, New Zealand Society of Authors, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, Theatre Archives New Zealand and various private commission. The greater part of my oral history since the 1990s has been theatre-related, including 24 life history interviews 2003–2019 for Theatre Archives New Zealand – Pūranga Whakaari o Aotearoa.
These interviews and their accompanying documentation are deposited in the Alexander Turnbull Library in the National Library in Wellington. Access is according to the terms of agreements signed with individual interviewees. They may also be available for broadcasting or publication.
Some of my earlier theatre interviews are also held at the Nola Millar Library at Toi Whakaari o Aotearoa: New Zealand Drama School.
Podcasts of my interviews with authors Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, Ian Cross and Tony Simpson went live in May and June 2018. They can be heard at New Zealand Society of Authors.
