An ilkak'mana called Multnomah once lived near the river where New England merchants chopped Portland, Oregon, out of a Douglas-fir forest. With a bow and shield slung behind his back, the chief stood imperiously in Hermon A. MacNeil's 1904 statuette inscribed at its base with his name. Nearby tribes preserved Multnomah in words, but years later…

Recording lectures and making it available as MP3's might seem counterintuitive for a course that denies students the use of paper and pencil. The author speculated that online technology might help students get away from writing and allow them to think and learn in new (or perhaps older) ways. As with any other technological invention, it is…

Traditional stories include myths, legends, and folktales rooted in the oral storytelling traditions of a given people. Through story, people pass their religious beliefs, customs, history, lifestyle, language, values, and the places they hold sacred from one generation to the next. As such, stories and their telling are more than simple…

Introduction: Sharing of information across cultural boundaries does not always live up to expectations. Information behaviour is an underlying factor, which can contribute to poor use or non-use of the information or information services at the disposal of indigenous people in a development context. Method: A literature study of information…

The author explored how the oral tradition is currently "voiced" in tribal college and university classrooms. He asked a number of instructors how they approach literature and writing--particularly if the texts that they assign represent the value that Native people have historically given to traditional stories, teachings, speeches, tribal…

In West Bengal, India, a traditional caste community of artists, called "patuas", paint colorful scrolls to accompany songs which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, and cultural events to their audiences. These itinerant painter/singers are part of a long lineage that has passed the tradition down for generations. In this…

Indigenous oral narratives are an important source for, and component of, Coast Salish knowledge systems. Stories are not only to be recounted and passed down; they are also intended as tools for teaching. Jo-ann Archibald worked closely with Elders and storytellers, who shared both traditional and personal life-experience stories, in order to…

Over the last century, the small Malay Islamic Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam, on the northern coast of Borneo, has moved away from an oral tradition, to a print culture and towards mass literacy. Discovery of oil in the early part of the 20th century transformed the economic situation in the country, and led to major changes and developments in…

Oral tradition has a long and valued history in Native American cultures and communities. In the past and still today, reading has had lesser value among many Native Americans. But oral tradition can be a vehicle toward improved literacy. This article uses literacy stories from Native American people, as well as quotes from prominent Native…

This paper discusses an attempt to establish community literacy procedures in an Eastern Cape community school. The school hosts the Additive Bilingual Education (ABLE) project, a cooperation between UK and South African universities and the school trust. The community literacy strand of the project encourages family members to contribute oral…

Among American Indian Pueblo tribes, community-based language revitalisation initiatives have been established in response to a growing language shift towards English. This has been most prominent among school age children, prompting some tribes to extend tribal language programmes into local public schools. For centuries, the transmission of…

In this paper we examine discourse and interaction during Saturday morning religious instruction classes in a Gitano (Spanish Romani) evangelist church. The focus is on adults as literacy mediators for the children in the process of learning ways to use and interpret the Bible. The analysis centres on two aspects: (1) the forms of textuality that…

The aim of this dissertation is to explicate memory's role in catechesis. Catechesis is a term that early Christians chose to describe their "...work of teaching the gospel and...to mean 'instruction given by word of mouth.'" A brief historical overview confirms the continuity between catechesis and memory from apostolic to present…

Recent arguments have suggested that literacy in the Pacific does not give added status to vernaculars and that it should be discouraged, because it is not part of traditional cultures. This article disputes this interpretation, arguing that as these cultures have changed since colonial contact, literacy has been fully incorporated into many local…

This communication discusses an aspect of language and culture that informs the identity of a group of Romany students as they learn mathematics. Observations were made by the authors in a multicultural community in Athens. We explore how Romany language roles and features significantly affect the teaching and learning of mathematics. As examples,…