Columbia’s Oral History Master of Arts Presents “Oral History and Indigenous People,” 9/26
Oral History and Indigenous Peoples: Rethinking Oral History, Methods, Politics and Theories
Oral history was a native and indigenous practice well before, and after, the arrival of colonisers. With the resurgence of oral history in academic practice and as a popular public history approach, indigenous oral history has been displaced as folklore, superstition and often puerile and unreliable oral traditions. This discussion presents an indigenous perspective of oral history. It gives voice to the way native peoples describe oral history now, and in the process challenges the limited mainstream definitions of the field that have delineated it predominantly as on-on-one life history interviews, recorded interviews for those of our time, and a field driven by a traditional democratic politics of the West. What methodologies and politics are normative to indigenous communities? And how can a native redefining of the field enable new and innovative ways of thinking about memory, narrative, and the form and ethics of oral history practice in the twenty first century?
Dr NÄpia Mahuika is a NgÄti Porou and Fulbright scholar, and is the current convenor of History at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. He is Chair of the MÄori Historians Collective of Aotearoa and President of the New Zealand Oral History Association. His recent book, Rethinking Oral History and Tradition(OUP, 2019) presents an indigenous challenge to the field of oral history. Dr Mahuika teaches courses in oral history, Historical theory and methodology, and MÄori and New Zealand histories. He has decades of oral history research experience, and is a member of the indigenous global oral history network. His more recent work also draws on oral history interviews and are focused on A History of Makutu (curses and black magic) in Aotearoa New Zealand and A History of Indigenous Martial Arts in the Pacific.
When: Thursday, September 26, 2019
Where: Columbia School of Social Work, Room 903
1255 Amsterdam Ave, New York, NY 10027
Check out our upcoming events below:
- Sep 18 |Â Book Launch: Robert Rauschenberg: An Oral History
- Sep 19 |Â Newest Americans: Stories from the Global City
- Oct 3Â |Â Finding Fathers: A Cautionary Tale for Oral Historians
- Oct 24 |Â Standing With Sky Woman: A conversation on cultural fluency
- Nov 7 |Â “Necessary as Water”: Queer Black Ceremony and the Depth of Listening
- Nov 14 |Â OHMA Fall Open HouseÂ
- Jan 23 |Â OHMA Spring Open House
- Jan 25 |Â One-Day Oral History Training Workshops with OHMA