The Research Centre's oral history project, "Scottish Voices from the West", is a resource for the study of the Scots in British Columbia. The interviews contain valuable material that provides information on the stories of Scots who settled in British Columbia and their families. The interviews also shed light on how diasporic populations create memories of their land of origin while negotiating their way in a new environment. The project is an example of "public history": history written by the people who lived it.
The "Scottish Voices from the West" Oral History Project, consisting of 52 interviews, is currently available
"Scottish Voices from the West" has proceeded in two stages:
Phase 1 (2003-4)
From 2003-2004, then Co-ordinator of Scottish Studies, Harry McGrath, and community members Ron and Eileen Sutherland embarked on a project of interviewing Scottish immigrants to British Columbia and individuals whose families emigrated to B.C. from Scotland some time ago. They collected interviews on cassette tapes.
Phase 2 (2010-12)
In 2010, Leith Davis, then Direction of the Research Centre for Scottish Studies, obtained a grant from to digitize these interviews, summarize and provide information about each interview and make them available on SFU Library's website