Mobile Unit - NZ Oral History

Collection held in Christchurch

After the Second World War, one of the Mobile Units set up for wartime service travelled around New Zealand recording amateur musical groups and performers, as well as older citizens recollecting details of everyday life in earlier times. The recollections go back to the 1850s and include stories of the gold rushes, accounts of Maori and European contact, pioneer life and general descriptions of the times. Both Pakeha and Maori subjects were interviewed. The collection is now preserved to digital formats, though cataloguing work ongoing.

A database of currently catalogued audio is available for online searching.

Finding Aids

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Further Help

Apart from the publicly available online catalogues there are many other finding aids, catalogues, inventories and indexes available to the staff at Sound Archives/Nga Taonga Korero to facilitate client enquiries. We welcome enquiries regarding specific recordings that we may hold. Such enquiries should be as specific as possible, including all relevant names, dates, places and other particulars. You are welcome to email us for more detail on any of our recordings.

Disclaimer

If you are aware of any inaccuracies or omissions, or have information relating to the database, please contact us at info@soundarchives.co.nz.

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