Cafesociety.org spent 5 years working with schools and young people on several of the Native American reservations in Arizona. Here is a selection of those Films made during Cafesociety.org digital workshops with young people on the Navajo , Hopi and Gila River Indian Community reservations. [1998 - 2003].
 

Our largest project to date on the reservation was REZ02 and invloved 8 creative practitioners visiting Arizona to hold a series of new media workshops with young people.

On July 18th 2002, a crew of 8 digital artists made their way from the UK and Holland to Arizona, USA to create a series of digital stories working with a selection of native american and rurally isolated young people.

Firstly we aimed to deliver a language and culture based multimedia project, showing students how to use film making equipment, web design, photography and computer animation to tell a story. 

The project explored Language Ecology which is the preservation of linguistic and cultural diversity. By using multimedia and film making projects we equipped the young people with new skills to record and preserve their own heritage and stories. 

The second goal of the project was to open up discussion with teaching staff from schools in Arizona to the possibility of future ways of collaboratively working and developing online curriculum projects and materials with schools in the Withernsea and South Holderness region of England.

We believe in the necessity for the preservation and celebration of all voices and if the youth are empowered with the skills to use modern day communications technologies, they can continue to speak out in their own voices, protecting and promoting their own cultures as they see fit.

Around 9.30 the crew were packed up and ready to leave Gateway Ranch. Departure was a little reluctant as we had all been captivated with the beauty of the place and the energy of our hosts. It was a shame we couldn’t stay around to meet and work with the kids at the Star School. Still we were looking forward to what the Gila River community experience would be and if our impressions of the Star School have only made us determined to return for a longer period in order to work with the kids some time soon.

The drive was a long one, we finally arrived around 4pm, after traffic jams and a couple of stops to stretch our legs and take pretty view pictures along the way.

The Heat:: Rising. And rising..

First impressions

We finally found our destination, the sister building to the Gila Crossing North Campus location (where we will be teaching), which is situated on the edge of the reservation, just outside Phoenix, close to Tempe. We were met by Mike who is the chairman of the board, director of River Children Project 21st Century, Kris Radke and the school’s principal, Jagdish Sharma. It was immediately obvious that we were back with city people, this was going to be a change from Rez life. Our accommodation for the week is a hotel about half an hour away from the school and about 10 minutes from Tempe. The hotel has a pool

Dinner was in Tempe, after not being allowed into their first choice of location because Jon’s international driving license was not enough for the doorman (according to state law it must an Arizona license or your passport) the crew was happy with a Tai restaurant. After dinner it was straight to bed, tired from the drive, the intense heat and the food.