The group formed an assembly line to put together the maquettes which went into the learners' binders. Some of the learners started immediately on their captions - one completed her whole maquette with the help of her supervisor at home. A corps of volunteers came in for the final assemblage - their help was crucial because the photo corners were fussy and each page had to be prepared with a line for the inscription of the caption. Then the learners settled down to a full session of writing the captions and devising a title, a hard push to be ready for the Christmas party where the albums were to be displayed.

The albums were very personal documents; one was in fact entitled "My first journal." Like most private albums, they would not make much of an impression on an outsider without knowledge of the context in which they were produced. What the albums did was make a direct link between things visible, nameable, and connectable -symbols of personal identity - with the desire for literacy. What had begun with the study of other people's albums blossomed in the making of their own. The learners pointed the workshop toward their interests and needs, simply by pointing the camera.

"Breath of Our Grandfathers"

The 'Ksan Historical Village and Museum Literacy Project
Beverly Clifton Percival, Coordinator

Our project has about 15 participants and serves as a template for educational workshops and for public programming that reach other communities we serve.

A bit of background will help to see how we work with our communities. We are located in the heart of the Gitxsan territories in Northern British Columbia and 'Ksan was begun in cooperation with members of the surrounding local villages: Kitwancoo, Gitwangak, Gitsegukla, Hagwilget, Gitanmaax, Glen Vowell and Kispiox. We continue to reach out and work with these communities and for advice and guidance in terms of our operation. This literacy project is another opportunity to see what our "communities" wish to see in terms of public programming.

Our group began by viewing a film about the Gitxsan entitled "Bread of Our Grandfathers". It is intended to stimulate ideas and brainstorming about public programs and to develop two workshop presentations. The group is creating and distributing a questionnaire for community members to give input about public programming. We will compile the results and use this as a stepping stone to developing year around public programming on the site. The group is also documenting this whole process and this includes doing a newsletter for community distribution. Literacy is woven into the entire process as we are working with the local literacy program throughout. Participants are gaining many skills: enhancing their writing, finding out about the museum, learning about photography and video.

It is a very exciting process.Our target date for the wrap up is early June. We will put together another article when the process is complete to see what has transpired.

Stay tuned........