Developing the Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project

Abstract

This article outlines the process of developing a collaborative multi-sited oral history project on the history, traditions, and ongoing resilience of Black and Indigenous farm and garden practices in the Southeastern United States and Appalachia. The Heirloom Gardens Oral History Project is a collaboration between the Ujamaa Cooperative Farming Alliance, the Spelman College Food Studies Program, and the Princeton Food Project. Our model used student oral historians that we trained in oral history methods and ethics. Our initial goal was to collect oral history interviews and develop an engaging open access multi-media archive. The project documents seed saving and gardening stories from people who have helped preserve Black and Indigenous foodways, including elders and newer generations of gardeners and small-scale farmers. The stories serve as an important record of heirloom practices with rich cultural traditions and knowledge. Collectively, the archive documents the movement of seeds, practices, and ideas across people and space. This article details our process of conceiving the project, building collaborations, and the results of 2 years of oral history collections in six different field sites. We believe this project can serve as a model for developing similar oral history projects.