American Indian Project

Last summer a couple of brilliant teachers, the two Dani’s I call them as they are both named Daniela, put together a week-long camp with the theme being American Indians. Since I am part Native American I had lots to add from my own experiences and from the stories and hands-on things I learned while growing up. The two Dani’s brought the hardcore English lessons which made the camp intensive, rewarding, and fun! The camp was a success and we recently condensed the camp into a 3-day workshop which I presented in Villanova. The kids were enthusiastic and of course, very cool! During the three days they learned a little bit about what it’s like to grow up in New Mexico, they listened to and participated in a typical Native American story from the past, saw old archive film of Native sign language in use and created the story of the their tribes using native drawn symbols on paper. We all had a great time! This photo is of the last day as the kids create their buffalo hide on paper and tell the story of their tribe with colored pencils!

Special thanks to the two Dani’s, one of them being Dani Tomatis the teacher of this class at Villanova, who are my spiritual guides in all things teaching!

Update! It’s hard to keep up with all the video and image work generated by my work with the kids, but I finally managed to put some more photos together of this workshop. Here they are!

Villa Nova School, Italy 2012

The last day I was deeply touched, (I get so emotional over things like this, especially this!) when the class presented me with these hand-drawn oversized cards as a farewell gift.

From Villa Nova School, Italy 2012

The artwork is beautiful, a beaver of course, but the words inside express the sentiment and make them extraordinary, here are a few so you see what I mean;

Thank you for…..

Telling the beaver story. Smiling very much. Speaking about your life. Teaching new words. Listening to our stories. Coming here. Being kind to us. Being patient with us. making us happy.

And so on. But obviously when I opened the cards and read the sentences., well you can imagine how truly special I felt!