Seattle

Near the end of March the part of the Leadership Team met in Seattle at the Society for Applied Anthropologists. Wolf Gumerman and his team presented on the museum exhibit produced by the Footprints of the Ancestors Project. With him were E.J. Satala and Ruby. These three, Judie Piner and Jessica Lum further discussed plans for the future Intergenerational Digital Storytelling project.

A good time was had by all. The SfAA conference was preceded by a Traditional Foods Summit, where Northwest tribes presented their challanges and success in maintaining and reviving collection and preparation of Traditional Foods. E.J. and Ruby attended various sessions and met with anthropologists working in various disciplines. There were two sessions on Digital Storytelling that provided much food for thought, as well as good examples of others' work.

An excellant example of youth telling an elders story is this one, a graduate student discussing medical anthropology in the context of her grandmother's alzheimers. See "A Medical Gaze" at this blog:

Home again, home again. And back to work.

Some Revisions

Making some revisions for this blog. Mainly the tabbed pages above. What do you think?

Intergenerational Native Digital Storytelling Project

Northern Arizona University proposes an interdisciplinary and intergenerational project that focuses on Native American history and culture. The primary goal is to foster intergenerational learning of southwestern Native American history and culture. The project centers around youth meeting and interacting with elders while visiting places with special cultural meaning, examining artifacts pertinent to their tribal histories, and listening to and telling meaningful stories. In addition, it embodies self-representation and the forming of leadership skills. During the course of working with six regional tribes (Hopi, Zuni, Dine, Yavapai Apache, Gila River, and Hualapai) the project aids in building capacity for learning culture and history within communities and outward to other Nations.

To fulfill this goal we propose a digital storytelling model where Native youth pair with elders to form personal, thoughtful reflections and connections to places, objects, culture, and identity. Using multimedia tools, our team will participate in placed based storytelling at a variety of venues across the American Southwest that feature considerable cultural and historical resources that are significant to our nation’s history. The project will result in a DVD film and provide a web-based forum where southwestern Native youth and elders share their digital stories with each other and with the public at large. The project culminates with a nation-wide Native Digital Storytelling Summit that includes a digital storytelling festival (showing of gathered stories), presentations and discussions, alternative storytelling methods, and breakout training sessions in digital storytelling production.