Oral History Consulting

I work with Indigenous communities and organizations to help with:

• distinguishing between oral history for settler courts vs. oral history for sharing in community and maybe beyond

• understanding how to create a book like Lha Yudit'ih and why structured interviews and voice recognition software or other forms of AI won't help

• working with translation in a bilingual oral history project

• other questions and concerns relevant to decision-making about the costly, time-consuming and crucially important work of creating a community oral
history.

Let's talk
Email: Lorraine.Weir@ubc.ca
Or use on Messenger on theFacebook Page
See our Lha Yudit'ih page

Sechanalyagh
Thank you

Dinah Lulua on the left and Elder Mabel Solomon xinli on the right, looking at an image on my laptop.
Dinah Lulua on the left and Elder Mabel Solomon xinli on the right, looking at an image on my laptop. Photo by me.
Oral history is a difficult genre, and Weir has elegantly surmounted the difficulties to create a book that sings with the beauty of the spoken word as it conveys the life-and-death seriousness and courage of the Tsilhqot'in people. ... This splendid book belongs in every school library in Canada, and on the bookshelves of anyone interested in the truth and reconciliation process."
Tom Sandborn
Tom Sandborn
The Vancouver Sun, April 6th, 2024
Photo of Lorraine Weir

Designing your oral history project to achieve your goals

"Lorraine was able to get very good information from the people she interviewed ...and some of what our people shared surprised me – very powerful and sometimes sacred information about what we as Tŝilhqot’ins have gone through and are still going through. It is important that all of this information be written down for future generations, especially as many of the people who contributed to this book are now in the spirit world."  

Chief Roger William

Photo of Elder Martin Quilt xinli
Elder Martin Quilt xinli. Photo by me.
"My teachers took me to a river of stories reaching back to the beginning of time , and to a love of Tŝilhqot’in ways of being and knowing which are at the heart of the Title case, alongside a passionate, indomitable commitment to freedom and self-determination.  All of the stories in Lha Yudit’ih have the power to change the world.  May you experience that power of transformation as you read this book." – Lorraine Weir