Voices Unheard Digital Oral History Archive is Live!
May 11, 2020
Voices Unheard: Arizona’s Environmental History, a digital oral history archive, now lives online as way to preserve the experiences and stories of Superfund sites in Arizona. This research project, initiated by University of Arizona Superfund Research Project (UA SRP) Trainee Denise Moreno Ramírez in collaboration with community leaders, features 21 full oral history interviews along with highlight videos, digitized items, interview transcripts, personal and artifact photographs, and photo elicitation interviews.
The Voices Unheard project uses oral history as a method of sharing accounts, descriptions and insights about Superfund sites in the words of those who were most effected. Moreno Ramírez partnered with two Superfund sites in Arizona – the Tucson International Airport Area Superfund Site and the Iron King Mine and Humboldt Smelter site – to produce these interviews because their histories are tied to the experiences of individuals. By encapsulating the environmental history of Arizona, Voices Unheard is creating an invaluable archive for future generations.
Moreno Ramírez said, “It is fabulous to see the culmination of all our hard work. The archive has been well received by community members and the interviewee families. It is great to see that this history will live on intergenerationally.”