NPHT and Coventry University oral history research programme, January to December 2024

Don’t Dis my Ability: Marginalised Voices From Sport funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. 

 

A pilot project focusing on the development of an inclusive and engaging oral history interview, seeking to increase the understanding of disability within British society. As well as the impact of sport and the Paralympic Games on the lives of disabled people.  

Six disabled people, including our four museum trainees Simon, Ben, Adam and Thomas, and two Paralympian's Robin Surgeoner and Mark Chamberlen were trained in oral history. They recorded the stories of 16 disabled athletes and developed a toolkit to enable disabled diversity in the training of oral historians. This provided a working document and through project management by Dr Rosemary Hall is now a point of discussion with a newly formed steering group within the Oral History Society. 

Mark Chamberlen interviewing David Clarke OBE

This work made us question what makes a good oral history and to come up with alternative approaches. We also uncovered what it meant for a Paralympian to be interviewed by someone with lived experience of disability. 

Interviews with our Oral Historians Find out more about the experience of training to be oral historians from our museum trainees.

The Archive Stories Collective

As part of the programme of work we also explored how disabled artists might engage the public in oral history through the creation of their own work and workshop ideas. For this, we partnered with Buckinghamshire Culture and their programme The Archive Stories Collective. The artists worked collaboratively, led by Ellen Renton, exploring the National Paralympic Heritage Trust's (NPHT) archive and oral history and those of the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive. The four other artists, all either based in Buckinghamshire or with roots here, were Noor-e-Sehar Ali, Arden Fitzroy, Guy Morris and Jess Starns.

 Visit to the Heritage Centre by the Artists

Their work resulted in an exhibition and performance launch at the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, followed by artist led tours for audiences and stakeholders feeding back their thoughts and ideas to the creative team. 

This has been a fascinating project full of learning on how to improve accessibility in terms of oral history work and will form the basis of a larger project in the future. We are currently working on the evaluation which we shall share in due course. 

Naturally Floating Animatino by Guy Morris

Guy Morris’ piece creating kaleidoscopic versions of old photos, like church windows, set to music and the voices of Paralympians echoing as if across a vast stadium.

Blackout poetry by Arden Fitzroy

Poetry created by blacking out areas of script from oral history transcriptions.