Resisting oral history's sonic silence on youth

How does oral history sound different when seen through the eyes of children and young people? How is it different if those young people are involved in co-producing, collecting and creatively sharing their own sources? This paper reflects on these questions by drawing on a case study of the accounts of young people from a UK HIV oral history collection (Positively Spoken: 2021-2023). Through an analysis of project processes, young people’s oral history extracts and reflections on involvement, it shares learning about how transitioning oral history towards meaningful youth participation challenges the wider system. It seeks to further extend questions about oral history’s sonic focus on older age groups, resisting a sonic silence on young people’s voices in the archives.