Last week my post on the Museum’s collaboration with Global Kids to produce a prototype for a new family activity guide for our Hall of Northwest Coast Indians tended to focus on the getting-up & running-around activities, like this one:
But actually, much of the time has also been spent observing the cultural treasures in the hall and researching them. This is an example of the GK Leaders using the 1905 report by John Swanton (Contributions to the ethnology of the Haida. Memoirs of the AMNH ; [v. 8, pt. 1]) to research the objects they selected within the Hall. These two teens love this one particular hat, so much so they are always talking about how they can get a print on a shirt, and this video shows how they learn, for the first time, which crest is represented on it:
Here are some GK Leaders using photos they took in the Hall to research more about it with Swanton:
Finally, here is a GK Leader using our Anthro Database to look at the original handwritten entry within the Manuscript Catalog to learn more about her object:
Another highlight for the teens at the end of last week was getting to meet, via Skype, Shoshanna Greene. Shoshanna is a resident of Haida Gwaii, a college student, and an aspiring artist. She will also be creating much of the original art within the Activity Guide. In the image below, you can see how the teens approached the screen to ask Shoshanna questions as she presented to the whole group:
At the end of the week, we asked the teens to reflect on what they had been learning so far. Jevougn said something so profound I asked him to repeat it, but this time on camera:
