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Introduction to Indigenous Oral Tradition and Anti-colonial Oral Histories

In this workshop, we will think about how to take an intentionally anti-colonial or indigenizing approach to oral history.

About this event

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, ensuring that the stories we amplify empower the people who share them with us.

Exercises and discussion during the workshop will explore project, interview, and editorial design.

This event will be recorded and the recording will be made available to registered attendees.

Sara Sinclair is an oral historian of Cree-Ojibwa and mixed settler descent. Sara teaches in the Oral History Master of Arts Program at Columbia University. She is Project Director of the Aryeh Neier Oral History Project at the Columbia Center for Oral History Research [CCOHR]. Sara is currently co-editing two anthologies of Indigenous letters, for Penguin/Random House Canada.

She is the editor of How We Go Home: Voices from Indigenous North America (2020, Voice of Witness/Haymarket Books). She has contributed to the Columbia Center for Oral History Research’s Covid-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive, Obama Presidency Oral History, and Robert Rauschenberg Oral History Project. Sara’s current and previous clients include the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of the City of New York and New York City Department of Environmental Protection. She served as Oral History Association's program committee co-chair in 2021.

Image Description: A blue poster with a photo of Sara Sinclair wearing a red lettered sweatshirt smiling at the camera in front of a beach waterfront. On the blue poster, it reads “Introduction to Indigenous Oral Tradition” on the top right and “and Anti-Colonial Oral histories” on the bottom left.

These events are open to all. You can use this quick survey to let us know how we could make these events more accessible for you. Note that we are able to provide ASL interpretation for any event, but need two weeks' notice. Please contact Rebecca McGilveray at rlm2203@columbia.edu with specific access requests or questions.