The Thought
Storytellers have captured the imaginations of audiences since time immemorial. Their stories shape and create our world, give places meaning and remind us of heroes long past. Stories are the backbone of oral traditions and work to keep the history of ages past.
Through the following resources, we hope that your students understand that these stories include personal or family histories as well. These oral histories allow students to connect with their own identity in a way that can open their ability to connect with other people’s stories.
Student Objectives
- Understand the role of oral histories and stories to the transmission of heritage and culture
- Students will better see the similarities between the oral histories of Pacific island peoples
- and their own family’s oral histories and experiences.
- Make a clear connection between oral history and storytelling.
Readings
Pacific Worlds Portals on Micronesian Nations
Pacific Worlds is a project to privilege indigenous voice and knowledge. Through oral history interviews with elders, the site speaks on stories and place making through their words. The stories recounted focus on traditions and also talk about the importance of storytelling to the community. When reading the accounts, it is interesting to pay attention how the landscape of the individual islands gain value and importance because of their surrounding stories.
- Pacific World Portal—Stories From Palau http://www.pacificworlds.com/palau/stories/stories.cfm
- Pacific World Portal–Stories from Yap: http://www.pacificworlds.com/yap/stories/stories.cfm
- Pacific World Portal—Stories from Northern Mariana Islands: http://www.pacificworlds.com/cnmi/stories/stories.cfm
- Pacific World Portal—Stories from Guam http://www.pacificworlds.com/guam/stories/stories.cfm
Maori in Cook Islands
- Tivaevae Quilting Tradition Video: Also from Te Papa, this video is from their series Tales from Te Papa where an item from the collections is highlighted in each video. This video speaks abou the tradition of putting stories within quilts as a way to remember and share tales. http://talesresource.tepapa.govt.nz/resource/081.html
- Tivaevae Quilting Tradition: (Starting on Page 16) This workshop was created to preserve and share the Cook Island Language and heritage. One section speaks on the Tivaevae and has ideas for activities. https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/sites/default/files/cook-
island-language-week-resource.pdf
Activity 1
Follow this worksheet and interview a parent or elder in your family.
Activity 2
Ask the students to make the oral history interview into a story. Have them remember the elements of writing a story and consider the characters; the actions that take place; any challenges they experience; and especially any memories they share and how they felt throughout their experiences. When rewritten this way an oral history can take on a new life as a story that can be passed down from one generation to the next.
Using the “I Used to Think…, But Now I think…” thinking routine, have the students explore how their own ideas about their family may have changed by completing these two activities.