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Borderlands: A Case Study

Borders & Identity Education Kit

Talleres de la Frontera Workshops

Smithsonian Folklife Festival Program

Presentation by: Dr. Olivia Cadaval 2

Goals• Raise awareness and understanding of Borderlands intangible

cultural heritage within and beyond heritage communities

• Strengthen transmission within Borderlands heritage communities

• Develop transmission beyond Borderlands heritage communities

• Mainstream intangible cultural heritage in school curriculum

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Smithsonian Institution

• Promotes the understanding and continuity of diverse, contemporary, grassroots cultural traditions in the United States and throughout the world

• Works collaboratively with exemplary artists, cultural communities, scholars, leaders, and various sectors of society

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Heritage practitioners collaborate with the Center as experts.

The Center assists in strengthening the ability of communities to safeguard their own intangible heritage culture.

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Smithsonian Folklife Festival

•• People speak for themselvesPeople speak for themselves

•• Engage in Engage in ““cultural conversationcultural conversation””

•• Participate in cultural democracyParticipate in cultural democracy

•• Use the visibility of the National Mall to communicate importantUse the visibility of the National Mall to communicate importantmessagesmessages

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Community ProjectsResearch and Presentation of Expressive Traditions

Latin American Youth CenterYouth project on expressive traditions in

the community

Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood FestivalWashington, DC

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Tohono O’odham elder Blaine Juan introduces the Pascola dance at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival Borderlands program.

Asia-Pacific Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)

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Blaine Juan: My name is Blaine Juan, and I'm from San Simon village. It's the Tohono O'odham Nation and where I live is about 105 miles west of Tucson, which is the main Tohono O'odham reservation, and we live by the Mexican border.

Jim Griffith: I suppose I could ask you a silly question. I could say, how come you settled so close to the border?

Blaine Juan: I guess the way I probably would answer that is it's the white people who put the border there.

Conversation between Elder and Folklife Specialist

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Identity as Intangible Cultural Heritage

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A Resource Guide for Teachers

Identidad y Fronteras

Borders & Identity

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Talleres de la Frontera:

• Teacher workshops– Raise awareness and appreciation of local intangible

cultural heritage– Demonstrate how to identify and engage local heritage

practitioners in the classroom– Model implementation of activities

• Student workshops– Connect young people with their own heritage and

with heritage practitioners– Raise their sense of self-worth – Mobilize as guardians of their heritage

A Series of Bi-national Workshops for Teachers and Students

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Talleres de la Frontera

Students talk with Pai Pai elder.

Teachers enjoy presentation at a workshop.

Project on local identity by a school in Texas.

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Evaluation“Most importantly, the materials andworkshop were based on a model ofcommunity-as-resource and were designedto foster an appreciation of thepersonal/expert and material resources acommunity can provide for the education of itsyoung people.”

Connie Kubo Della-Pianna, Ph.D.Gabriel M. Della Piana, Ph.D.

University of Texas at El Paso, 1997

Asia-Pacific Database on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) by Asia-Pacific Cultural Centre for UNESCO (ACCU)