Durban — The Human Sciences Research Council will establish a digital archive platform for the Wentworth community.
This was according to the HSRC, which said the Wentworth Social History Project research team, led by the HSRC, had held its second community engagement meeting with the Wentworth community.
The HSRC said the meeting, held on January 26 at the Silvertree community hall in Wentworth, Durban, and online, was aimed at introducing the second objective of the project: the creation of a digital archive platform for the community.
HSRC project leader Dr Gregory Houston informed the gathering that the envisaged digital archive platform would be a repository for the materials gathered during the course of the project. These included audio files of interviews and transcripts, as well as any other materials gathered by individuals and groups.
The HSRC said discussions were ongoing with eThekwini Municipality’s libraries and museums unit to develop the archive.
“This will ensure that the material gathered in the Wentworth Social History Project endures long after the project ends, and that it is accessible to members of the community, and others, for use in the future,” Houston said.
Also in attendance was Thevan Harry, from eThekwini Municipality’s libraries and museums unit, and he gave insight into various ways in which the unit engages with communities to foster a culture of gathering and archiving material. He also described some of the types of archival material held in its repositories.
The HSRC said the project team’s first product was the forthcoming publication of a collection of edited life histories of past and current residents of the area in a book provisionally titled Wentworth: A Social History in Life Stories.
It said the collection would bring together several edited interviews focusing on themes such as family ancestry, life histories prior to migration to Wentworth, and the reasons for and history of migration to the area.
The interviews would also cover the history of Wentworth from the early 1960s to the present day, focusing on education, social life, sport, housing, transformations in the built environment, business, labour, political activity, social ills, policing, major issues and concerns of members of the community, and the contribution of Wentworth residents to the local, national and international economy, sports, education, and the arts.
The HSRC said the vibrant discussion at the meeting drew attention to the existence of a considerable amount of archival material in private hands, including collections of photographs of community members, church records, and other matter, such as the records of the Natal Coloured Business Association and the Wentworth police forum, as well as community newspapers.
It added that it was noted that newspapers such as Post and the Daily News had covered many events in the coloured and Indian communities throughout the apartheid era, and may have many stories and archival material that were relevant.
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