Oral History and Indigenous People

Abstract

Indigenous peoples think about oral history differently. This is the key assertion of this opening chapter, which draws on a specific Māori tribal context and community to show how native peoples maintain and employ our own interpretations of oral history. This chapter highlights the tensions and divisions between oral history and oral tradition, revealing how these disciplines have been instrumental in the colonial displacement of indigenous historical knowledge as traditions, myths, and folk songs. Drawing on a personal tribal journey and experience, this chapter reveals how indigenous perspectives remain largely absent in today’s popular oral history definitions, particularly in regard to the form, methods, theories, and politics of the discipline.