It has been the language of New Bedford for centuries, immortalized in song, literature, and the sounds of a working waterfront.
The diverse voices of the people who work in the storied industry are captured in the Casting a Wider Net Community Oral History Project that was on display at the New Bedford Fishing Heritage Center.
The exhibit featuring Cape Verdean, Vietnamese, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Guatemalan, and Salvadoran workers will now travel to three locations, thanks to a $19,525 grant from Mass Humanities.
The heritage center received the Expand Massachusetts Stories — StoryForward Grant, the nonprofit said in a recent statement.
In the coming months, the exhibition will be on display at the Greater New Bedford Community Health Center, the Community Economic Development Center, and the Global Learning Charter Public School, the center said in a statement last week.
“This will allow students and community members who were not able to view the exhibit at FHC a new opportunity to learn about and connect to the stories of immigration, labor, and family that are integral to New Bedford’s fishing industry in the spaces they frequent most often, breaking down barriers to access and bringing the archive to life,” the statement said.
The state grant will also fund curriculum materials, tie-in programming, and a digital exhibit on the heritage center’s website, according to the statement.
The project’s interviews and their transcripts, as well as photographs, can be accessed on the website for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who helped fund Casting a Wider Net, as well as on the center’s Online Collections Database, the center said.
“The project was designed to honor the integral role they play in our food system, build bridges of understanding between newer and older immigrant groups, expand capacity for people to tell their own stories in their own language, and ensure fisheries science and policy is informed by those voices,” the center said in a statement.
