While we all grapple with the idea of what this arbitrary concept of "cultural sustainability" really means, I thought I'd post a couple links which feature people doing just that.... Sustaining Culture... Although these links will feature many different people working in many different capacities, their goals are distinctly universal..
http://uidaho.edu/class/classfeatures/ftspokane
The above link describes an archaeological excavation project that a colleague of mine has been working on this year. I was invited by Tiffany Brunson while I was at the University of Idaho to be on her excavation team, although regrettably, I was unable to participate (due to relocation through my spouse's job). Although I wish I could have participated, I would like to eagerly showcase her efforts to my classmates (and a wider audience) through this blog. Her work at Fort Spokane is unique, in that it specifically looks at material culture found in a Native American Boarding School. At a time where the US Government focused on assimilating these people into European culture, their spirit and sense of identity ultimately prevailed. It is the material trace of this amazing spirit that Tiffany is ultimately trying to capture. When you look at it from a Native perspective instead of a strictly European perspective, the story truly changes. When we're no longer looking for artifacts which showcase a life that we're not familiar with; when we're truly helping to tell the Natives' stories of adaptation and survival through their own eyes, the real truth emerges.
http://www.bainbridgehistory.org/
I thought I would share this small island museum with anyone interested. This is the museum which I have devoted a lot of my time to. Currently, the BIHM is showcasing an exhibit titled "Ansel Adams- A Portrait of Manzanar". In 1943, Adams was invited to Manzanar (a Japanese-American internment camp) to document (through photography) the daily lives of those who were imprisoned in this government constructed city. Rather than focusing on the struggles these people were facing (by being forced to exist-with guns pointed at them-for three and a half years), Adams wanted to focus on the great human spirit he witnessed. In only a couple of months, the residents of Manzanar developed their own newspaper (which enjoyed state-wide circulation), their own co-op, their own hospital system, and even their own school system with little to no help from the US Government. Their school system was so successful, that it became a model for the rest of the state to follow. When the students of Manzanar rejoined their classmates (after the internment camps were closed), they often performed significantly better than their counterparts on tests. As Adams' only public documentary work, these photographs were published after the war. This book, titled "Born Free and Equal" was ill-received by the war-shaken American public, and was often publically burned. Adams eventually donated his work to the National Library of Congress, where it sat, untouched, for decades. It has only recently resurfaced.
This exhibit is a compilation of Adams' photographs, as well as some very riveting text and personal accounts (given by actual Bainbridge Island residents who were prisoners at Manzanar). While this exhibit will take your breath away, it will ultimately leave you wondering... Could this type of thing ever happen again?
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