What We Did

8 young Hmong men and women trekking guides were taught the basics of interviewing elders in an ‘oral history’ style (e.g. different ways to ask questions, gaining consent, ethical practices).
They completed an oral history interview with someone they knew - an elder in their family or a long time neighbour in their village.
Each interview was taped and then reworked to make continuous story script (we took a little bit of artistic license from an academic approach here…)
The story script was then taken back to the elder and checked to see if the elder agreed with our script and so that they could add any further details they wanted to (academic speak = participant validation).
Each revised and OK’d script was then recorded by the Hmong trekking guide in English to reach as broad an audience as possible…we hope to have these available in Hmong in the future too! This was also a learning opportunity for the guides since they were able to practice their reading abilities.

Links to the Oral Histories

Please listen to the following nine Hmong elders' oral histories recorded in July 2014. Additional notes and details about the histories can be found here.

Mr Kee, Y Linh Ho village, aged 67

Mrs Pai, Y Linh Ho villages, aged 60s

Mrs See, Ta Van village, aged 67

Mr Xw, Ta Van village, aged 61

Mr Khao, Hau Thao village, aged 90

Mrs Van, Hau Thao village, aged late 60s

Mrs Za, Cat Cat village, aged 60s

Mrs Mu, Lao Chai village, aged 94

Mr Cau, Lao Chai village, aged 77