Our principal funder, Guardian Adventures, can work with your organization or company to explore various cultures through adventure and interactive storytelling: Capabilities Statement
Guardian Adventures explores the stories of a cultures and use them to create curriculum and experiences that promote Cultural Education. These stories spanned from the oral histories of the Arawak and Abenaki Native American Tribes to the Sumerian stories and legends in Syrian culture.
In order to prevent cultural appropriation and to assist in presenting the stories in a sensitive manner, Guardian Adventures hires a cultural educator who is an actual member of the culture that they are portraying. The cultural educator must approve all props, costumes, and stories before they are performed. Sometimes the educators even step in and play a major role in the plot for the kids.
Every year, during the non-summer months, Guardian Adventures held two large events for summer campers. One was a journey into Death’s Realm during the Day of the Dead. In this world, Death has various manifestations, depending on the culture being explored. Their objective isn’t to just study a culture, but to explore more subtle aspects of the culture through their stories. For example, the year they chose Native Americans, they thought it best to explore more than one tribe since the term “Native Americans” actually covers a profoundly diverse array of peoples and cultures.
During the Day of the Dead event, they explored an Arawak tribal story about Opiel, the three-legged dog/human who guards the realm of the dead. They had Claudia Fox Tree, a local Arawak educator, counsel them on the story, props, and costumes. When it was time to celebrate the coming of Spring, they enlisted the help of Jim Bruchac, Abenaki educator and author from Ndakinna Education Center in upstate NY. Jim gave them the stories to enact, how to appropriately represent them, as well as input on our costume designs.
Guardian Adventures chose both the Abenaki and Arawak tribes to explore because they were very different from each other in location (Arawak are Caribbean and Abenaki are Northeast US and Canada). As well, both Jim and Claudia are renowned educators who generously made themselves available to them as consultants so that they could make every effort to present their tribal stories in a culturally sensitive manner. It is their company’s mission to inspire lifelong learners who want to make a difference in the world. And their company’s values are the same as what their campers know as the Three Tenets of a Hero: Courage, Honor, and Compassion.
Guardian Adventures considers the concept of bringing the world’s stories to their clients as a primary vehicle for both learning and developing compassion. By representing stories outside of the typical Eurocentric myths and legends, they endeavor to show their Heroes that despite our varied attire, skin color, language, and customs, we are all more alike than we are different. And by involving educators who are actual members of the culture that they are exploring, they hope to empower people from those cultures (especially cultures that are often mis- or under-represented in media) to make certain that their stories are presented in a manner that is both accurate and sensitive.
Thus far, Guardian Adventures has been fortunate to work with very committed educators – many of whom even come to the camps and events to portray characters themselves. They hope that over the years, more cultural educators will have the opportunity to see their stories brought to life under their guidance and play a role in helping kids and teens from around the world learn – and care – about the rich diversity of people around the globe. And through this, allow the future generations of Heroes to expand their understanding and compassion outside of boundaries of their neighborhood, city, and even country.
What cultural stories would you like to explore? Contact Guardian Adventures through the form below.
When teaching about different cultures, it’s important to enlist the assistance of educators from the actual cultures as their knowledge and advice will allow the lesson to be more accurate as well as provide a perspective from stakeholders in the culture.
Here are a list of just a few of the organizations and educators that Guardian Adventures has worked with in the past:
Alma Richeh, Executive Director of The Center for Arabic Culture
Nelly Tonchev (Pen Name: Ronesa Aveela), Bulgarian Cultural Education