Heritage Voices

On this month’s episode, Jessica speaks with Dr. Norma Gregory (founder and director of Nottingham News Centre) about her efforts to document and educate the public on the industrial heritage history of the African diaspora. Dr. Gregory’s work to develop her book on Jamaicans in Nottingham led her to shift her life work to making sure that Black coal mining history got the attention that it deserved. We talk about some of her different efforts to promote this history as well as how all of us can do better public education in our own work. We also talk about her work for the Windrush museum, on Nottingham Carnival heritage, as well as her future dream vision for continuing this work.

On this month’s episode, Jessica checks back in with Aaron Brien (Apsáalooke), who you may remember from Episode 23 on Salish-Kootenai College’s Tribal Historic Preservation Program, Episode 25 on Technology, and episode 41 on Collecting Oral Histories in Indian Country. In the more than 5 years since our last recording, Aaron has moved from being Tribal Historic Preservation Program faculty at Salish-Kootenai College to being the Crow Tribal Historic Preservation Officer. We talk about how that transition happened, the process of reinventing the Crow THPO program, and how the SKC program prepared him for being a THPO. On that note, the podcast Aaron and Dr. Shandin Pete started right before we recorded episode 41 is now called the Tribal Research Specialist podcast and is still going strong! Finally, the third segment focuses on the work the Crow THPO is doing and ongoing challenges as a THPO. We close out by discussing how the second Trump administration affects the work of a THPO and what we should all be doing to support THPOs and the resources they fight for.

After more than 4 years since they recorded Episode 60 (Historical Archaeology for the Future) together, Jessica checks back in with Dr. Ayana Omilade Flewellen (they/she; Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University and Co-Founder of the Society of Black Archaeologists). The two discuss Dr. Flewellen’s move to Stanford, how Dr. Flewellen’s research focus was entirely flipped on its head, and how they came back from that in a creative way. We also discuss the importance of standardizing excavation for future use as legacy collections. Finally, we discussed the oral history work that they are doing with Diving with a Purpose and even as a cultural anthropologist their methodology was one I had never heard of before!

After being part of two panel episodes (Heritage Voices Episode 79: The Intensive NAGPRA Summer Training and Education Program (INSTEP) and Episode 92: The 2024 Updated NAGPRA Regulations, Jessica finally got to sit down with Chance Ward (NAGPRA Collections Specialist at History Colorado; enrolled citizen and tribal member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe) for a one on one episode. During this episode we talk about how Chance first heard about anthropology during his time at Fort Lewis College, his time doing CRM work, and why he chose to switch to Museum Studies. We talked about a couple of projects that are near to his heart, including a workbook for Indigenous young people on CRM, how it affects Tribes, and why it is important to be involved and a couple of papers on the ethical treatment of animal remains. Lastly we talked about his approach in his current position and his advice for how other museum professionals can better work with Tribal Nations.

This Heritage Voices episode features Ms. Betty Kimble and Mr. Howard Clark from Denton, Texas. In Episode 99 with Dr. Maria Franklin, Dr. Alex Menaker, and Doug Boyd, we started talking about the Bolivar Archaeological Project and the excavation of Mr. Tom Cook’s blacksmith shop. For the 100th episode of the Heritage Voices podcast (!), Jessica chats with Ms. Betty Kimble and Mr. Howard Clark who are direct descendants of Mr. Tom Cook. We talk about what it was like learning more about their family history through this project, seeing the artifacts from their ancestor found during the archaeology study, participating in and conducting oral history interviews, and how they have been sharing with the community about this important history. Their family story highlights so many different eras of American history. On that front, we were particularly lucky to have Ms. Betty Kimble share her work in the 1960s working with other mothers on desegregation through the Denton’s Women’s Interracial Fellowship.