In this workshop we will think about how to take an intentionally anti-colonial or indigenizing approach to the planning, execution and presentation of oral history. We will consider how, who we choose to tell certain stories, the questions that we ask of them, and the additional information that we use to supplement their narratives, ensure that the stories we amplify empower the people who share them with us. We will use Sara’s project How We Go Home as a case study and launching point for discussion and exercises to explore project, interview and editorial design.

Sara Sinclair is an oral historian, writer, and educator of Cree-Ojibwe, German-Jewish, and British descent. Sara’s book How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America (Voice of WItness/Haymarket) is forthcoming this fall. Sara was the project manager and lead interviewer for the Columbia Center for Oral History Research’s Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project and co edited a book from these narratives, Robert Rauschenberg: An Oral History, published with Columbia University Press in 2019. Sara has conducted oral histories for the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City Department of Environmental Protection, and the International Labor Organization, among others. A graduate of Columbia University’s Oral History Master of Arts program, Sara has taught at Columbia University, Princeton University, and the Museum of the City of New York.

Sponsored by: OHMA and