Collecting Community Oral Histories – You Can Do It!

Saltwater Connections will sponsor an oral history workshop on March 10 at the Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies media center in Buxton.  Interested residents (and high school students) from Ocracoke and all of Hatteras Island are invited to attend.

Cultural anthropologist Barbara Garrity-Blake and Saltwater Connections project director Karen Willis Amspacher will co-lead the workshop.  Both have extensive backgrounds in conducting oral history interviews in Outer Banks and Down East, Carteret County communities.

The workshop will start at 8:30 a.m., and end at 3 p.m.  A box lunch will be provided.

The program will include a general introduction to oral history, a review of existing regional collections, and guidelines for conducting a successful interview.  Much of the workshop will be interactive, with participants developing interview questions and identifying community members to be interviewed.

“We hope people from every Outer Banks village will attend the workshop.  The importance of collecting community stories and local history was a theme repeated in every village from Rodanthe to Ocracoke during the Saltwater Connections resource team visits,” Amspacher said.

There is no charge for the workshop, but participants are asked to register by contacting Susan West, Saltwater Connections coordinator, at ridgeroad@earthlink.net or 252-995-4131.

The deadline for registration is 5 p.m., March 8.

Cape Hatteras Secondary School of Coastal Studies is located at 48576 Highway 12, Buxton, NC.


Saltwater Connections is a regional initiative aimed at sustaining livelihoods, cultural heritage, and natural resources along North Carolina’s central coast, from Hatteras Island to Ocracoke and Down East Carteret County.