Indigenous Oral History Preservation
Norman William Young, Wolf Lake First Nation
My grandfather didn't get his status paperwork from the Canadian government until he was 40 years old. When he was a boy in Tee Lake, he used to watch his father walk home from the store with the family's groceries on his back, carried by a tump line strapped across his forehead.
None of that is written down anywhere. I only know it because I sat down and asked him.
I'm Algonquin, from Wolf Lake First Nation. I'm a filmmaker. I started building StorySeeker because I was sitting with my grandfather trying to capture his story, and I realized I was missing things. Details I didn't follow up on. Threads I let go because I didn't know what to ask next. So I built the tool I wished I had beside me in those conversations. Now I use it every time I sit down with him.
Not every community can hire a professional filmmaker or oral historian. But every community has someone who cares enough to sit down, press record, and listen. I built this tool for that person.
Why this matters
When my grandfather was 17 years old, he and my grandmother had a baby. They had nowhere to go, so they moved in with his parents. My great-grandmother pulled a drawer out of a bureau, lined it with clothes, and made a bed inside it. That's where my mother slept.
I am standing at the end of that bloodline holding a recorder.
Across North America, Indigenous Elders carry irreplaceable knowledge. Traditional practices, family histories, language, land-based teachings, and memories of events that shaped their communities. When an Elder passes without their stories being recorded, that knowledge is lost. No archive can reconstruct it. No historian can recover it.
Oral history is not just documentation. It is an act of love, of respect, and of resistance.
This work belongs to communities. Not to outsiders, not to institutions. The people who know their Elders, who speak the language, who understand the protocols, are the right people to do this. They just need a little help knowing what to ask next.
How StorySeeker helps
Here's how it works, because love and good intentions don't always survive a blank page and a recorder counting down.
StorySeeker's Oral History mode is designed from the ground up for this kind of conversation. It is not an interview tool. It is a storytelling companion.
The AI reads the conversation and suggests follow-up questions based on what the storyteller is already sharing. It follows the story wherever it goes, and when difficult or painful memories surface, it navigates them with respect and compassion.
Every suggestion is a warm, ready-to-read question. Just glance down and ask it. The AI does the thinking about what to ask next so you can stay present and listen.
If the storyteller says "I can't talk about that" or signals discomfort, the AI respects it completely. No circling back, no rephrasing, no second attempts. Some knowledge is not meant to be shared, and the tool honors that.
After the session, StorySeeker generates a review that catalogs the teachings shared, the people and places named, and the threads worth returning to in a future conversation.
Oral histories unfold slowly. The AI gives the storyteller room to breathe, reflect, and circle back to what matters most.
Getting started
Sign up for free. No credit card needed to start.
This activates the culturally aware coaching mode designed specifically for Elder storytelling.
Press the Story Setup button to tell the AI who you are talking to, your relationship with them, what you hope to explore, and any other context that helps. The more the AI knows, the better its suggestions will be. The conversation focus is optional. You might enter "family history" or "traditional food practices," or leave it open and let the storyteller guide the conversation.
StorySeeker will transcribe the conversation in real time and suggest gentle follow-up questions as you go. When you are done, it generates a session review cataloging what was shared.
You don't need to be a professional interviewer. You just need to care enough to sit down and listen. StorySeeker will help you with the rest.
I'm still sitting down with my grandfather. Every conversation, I catch something I would have missed on my own. A name, a place, a detail that connects two stories I didn't realize were the same story. That's what this tool does. It doesn't replace you. It makes sure you don't leave the room wishing you'd asked one more question.
My grandfather spent his life fighting for his people to be seen. I built this so no one in my family, or yours, has to disappear quietly.
These conversations can't wait. But they don't have to happen alone.
Jordan Presseault
Algonquin, Wolf Lake First Nation
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