About The Author
Lorraine Lionheart is a Botswana-born doctoral researcher in ethnomusicology, musician, and filmmaker whose work focuses on music, youth, and Indigenous cultural expression, with particular emphasis on San communities in Botswana. She was born in Ghanzi District and grew up in close relationship with San communities.
These experiences continue to shape her research questions, ethical commitments, and ways of working.
Lorraine’s doctoral research was conducted at SOAS, University of London, and combines ethnomusicological inquiry with Indigenous and practice-based methodologies. Her work is shaped by an ongoing commitment to ethical listening, collaborative knowledge production, and accountability to the communities whose cultural practices and insights sustain the research.
Her research is grounded in long-term engagement rather than short-term fieldwork. It is informed by linguistic familiarity, regional knowledge, and relationships developed over many years, both within and beyond formal research contexts. Alongside her academic work, Lorraine maintains an active practice as a musician and audiovisual practitioner, allowing her to approach music not only as an object of study, but as a lived, embodied, and relational form of knowledge.
Working across Botswana, the United Kingdom, and international contexts, she brings a decolonial perspective to questions of representation, authorship, and cultural value. Her research is particularly attentive to issues of voice, visibility, and responsibility when working with communities that have been historically over-researched and under-heard.