| Tribal health in school libraries: oral tradition and cultural expression (2007) | |||||||||||
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| Health issues in indigenous communities all around the world has been always transmitted using oral tradition and cultural expressions such as music, chants and theatre. The current situation of these ethnic groups –discrimination, racism, acculturation and social pressure- has collapsed their ancient system of knowledge transmission, and thus a great amount of their traditional, useful wisdom is being lost almost at a daily rate. Without this information –which is part of their identity and of our cultural diversity as world citizens- they cannot face serious problems as the ones related to health. One of the main reasons for this to happen are their high levels of (bilingual) illiteracy and the scarce attention paid to them by national governments and educational systems. The collection of medicine and health traditions through oral history’s techniques has been developed in several countries of the Global South, in order to recover and organize an impressive amount of ancient experiences and information about medical care. One of these experiences was developed by author during his work in the project “Indigenous libraries” in NE Argentina (2001-2006). He created little libraries in schools, and recorded oral tradition referred to several issues, including health. Within the recordings, music, songs, games, masks, puppets, tales, legends, recipes and advices have been included, as sound files or colored home-made books, in the shelves of the school libraries, the places where the new members of indigenous communities are being educated. Through them –and with them- whole families can be informed about health care. In addition, the use of their indigenous languages and old customs is revitalized. Activities such as “living books” (community elders talking about their experiences) or conferences given by professionals translated into native languages and adapted to local cultures have also been included. The paper –based on author’s experiences in northeastern Argentina- presents some basic guidelines on the use of traditional knowledge and information channels in school libraries, putting an emphasis on their use for the spread of medical knowledge, and giving some details on the planning of this kind of services and their particular features. | |||||||||||
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