April 16, 2012
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) Announce the Winners of the 2012 Talk Story Grant
The American Indian Library Association (AILA) and the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), supported by Toyota Financial Services, are pleased to award the Baranov Museum in Kodiak, Alaska, Carson Regional Library in Carson, California, the Jamestown S’klallam Tribal Library in Sequim, Washington, the Mzenegen Tribal Library in Dorr, Michigan, and White Mesa Library of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in Towaoc, Colorado each a $500 grant to host a Talk Story program at their library. AILA President, Sandy Littletree “hope(s) that the Talk Story projects selected this year will inspire others to support literacy development projects that focuses on families and home cultures. The impact of these library-based projects can be enormous, especially those that appropriately reflect our cultures. I’m pleased very that we’re able to continue Dr. Camila Alire’s focus on family literacy in our communities.”
The Baranov Museum on Kodiak Island in Alaska creates opportunities for the public to explore the history of Kodiak Island and neighboring communities while also maintaining a local history lending library. The Baranov Museum, in partnership with the A. Holmes Johnson Memorial Public Library and the Filipino American Association of Kodiak, will collaboratively lead an event called “Kodiak Filipino Family Tree.” High school students studying the history of Filipinos on Kodiak will host the event at the public library for community members to come in with their family photographs to scan, and document their family trees to be stored for public access in the Baranov Museum archives.
Carson Regional Library is part of the County of Los Angeles Public Library system and is situated in a community with a large Filipino population. The library plans to enhance the collection and develop an artist workshop with a local artist that will discuss and teach the history and art of Baybayin, which is a Filipino script before Spanish colonization. The event will be held in October, which is Filipino American History month.
Jamestown S’klallam Tribal Library is a small, non-reservation based tribe on the isolated rural Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. The library will host a 2-hour indoor/outdoor event with a S’Klallam Storyteller sharing stories based on the ancestral stories of the S’Klallam people. Tribal members will also learn how to prepare salmon and oysters using traditional methods and will create Story Poles to write their own stories and/or read stories already in the library.
The Mzenegen Tribal Library of the Match-E-B-Nash-She-Wish Band of the Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan is a newly created library/archive which was organized in 2011. The library plans to host a program on the wild rice harvest which has historical significance to the tribe. The program will include music, storytelling, reading, hands-on rice processing activities, a book-making activity, and a meal featuring wild rice.
The White Mesa Library is a service offered by the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe headquartered in Towaoc, CO to the 335 reservation residents of White Mesa, Utah. The library plans a special program to educate the children and families of the White Mesa Utah, Ute Mountain Ute community about the traditional Ute Bear Dance Ceremonial Drum. The program will also include a craft workshop on making miniature traditional drum style key chains.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture (www.talkstorytogether.org) is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions, and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience. 2012 is the third year that AILA and APALA have partnered on the Talk Story project and allocated grant funding to libraries to implement programs geared towards the APA/AIAN communities. This is the first year that Toyota Financial Services has helped to sponsor grants. APALA President, Sandy Wee commented, “Seeing this project develop from the very beginning, I am pleased to see the collaboration between AILA and APALA remain strong. This project is very rewarding.”
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture is a joint project between the American Indian Library Association (www.aila.org) and the Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (www.apalaweb.org) that started as part of ALA 2009-2010 President Camila Alire’s Family Literacy Focus Initiative. Committee Chairs are Liana Juliana (AILA) and Lessa Pelayo-Lozada (APALA). For more information, please visit the Talk Story web site, www.talkstorytogether.org.
Talk Story: Sharing stories, sharing culture (www.talkstorytogether.org) is a literacy program that reaches out to Asian Pacific American (APA) and American Indian/Alaska Native (AIAN) children and their families. The program celebrates and explores their stories through books, oral traditions, and art to provide an interactive, enriching experience. 2013 will be the fourth year that AILA and APALA have partnered on the Talk Story project and allocated grant funding to libraries to implement programs geared towards the APA/AIAN communities. To date, thirteen Talk Story grants have been awarded.