MAMU – Working together to showcase First Peoples' cultures
MAMU is the name of a project that creates short educational videos on the contemporary cultural and artistic practices used by Indigenous communities and Inuit villages in Quebec.
Description
MAMU is the name of a project that creates short educational videos on the contemporary cultural and artistic practices used by Indigenous communities and Inuit villages in Quebec. The goal of the videos is to make people curious, encourage different cultural groups to talk to each other, and help everyone understand each other better.
Making the videos starts with engaging in respectful, inclusive dialogue with community members, including the local teaching staff who work with young people. By doing so, we can find common ground among the different educational approaches being used and, at the same time, showcase the various communities’ distinctive cultural elements, such as their:
- artistic practice
- traditional objects
- crafts
- storytelling
- ancestral knowledge
- rituals, or worldview.
Engaging in this dialogue helps us get a current, living, and authentic image of these communities. It also promotes the cultural and linguistic heritages found throughout Quebec.
A bridge between memory and creativity
In order to build a bridge between past and present, these videos also create a connection between objects from BAnQ’s collections and Indigenous cultural knowledge and practices. These cultural objects complement the videos’ educational content and, at the same time, showcase the enduring nature and continuing relevance of local traditions.
Reasons for the project
Basically, the project is an invitation to learn together, build bridges between cultures, and celebrate the vibrant cultures that co-exist – in all its schools and across all its territories – in today’s Québec. It's based on a commitment to sharing, reciprocity, and dialogue, with the goal of raising awareness, and of empowering and guiding the teaching community in promoting Indigenous perspectives in schools.
Because we have so much to learn … together
Is your school located in one of Quebec's Indigenous or Inuit communities? If so, the MAMU project wants you to get involved in co-creating educational videos that highlight your community's cultural knowledge and practices. banqeducation [at] banq.qc.ca (Contact us) for more info!
