Arts and Media Basics:
Folklife Resources

Your identity is who you are. Through folk arts people in a community and those outside of it know, 'This is who we are, this is what we wish to be.' When you wear a tee-shirt or cap from your favorite sports team, you let the world know which teams you support. If you wear a traditional outfit on special holidays, you make a statement that you belong to a certain community. Traditional arts often help people to feel at home.

Priscilla Bettles, Chiloquin

Priscilla Bettles looks on as granddaughter and apprentice Priscilla Witcraft finishes her first cradleboard

Born on the Klamath Reservation in south central Oregon, Priscilla Bettles (Klamath/Wasco) learned traditional arts during her childhood. "I saw my mother and auntie making cradleboards for new babies. The designs, my mother said, should be your own creation or some design that is meaningful to that special baby. Designs that I put on cradleboards and other things that I make are the Indian way of searching for beauty and having it around you." Traditional cradleboards keep babies comfortable and safe and are part of the traditional life of Oregon's native people.

Khen Chiem Saepharn, Portland

Mien baby hats by Khen Chiem Saepharn

Laos is a country in southeast Asia. Khen Chiem Saepharn (ken chem SAY-farn) is a member of the Iu-Mien (ee-mee-EN) ethnic group of Laos. At age six, she began learning to embroider from her grandmother in Hua Khon, Laos. The two sat outdoors each morning and evening embroidering the traditional designs of their culture on women's clothing. While pregnant with her first daughter, Ms. Saepharn's mother-in-law taught her how to make a traditional Mien baby hat. Iu-Mien baby hats, or moua (MOO-ah), identify a baby's ethnicity and gender. Girls wear hats with a doughnut-shaped red yarn pompom. The boys' hats have three round pompoms. Ms. Saepharn now lives in Portland, Oregon and is teaching her daughter the special methods and designs for making moua. "This is to keep at least a little piece of our culture alive," she says. Like cradleboards, Mien baby hats are part of a child's first cultural experience. These traditions also identify the babies' family to others.

Leonard Yee, Portland

Leonard Yee plays the tai kim at the Yat Sing Music Club in Portland

On Monday nights, members of the Yat Sing Music Club gather to play traditional Cantonese opera music. Canton is the province in China where many of Portland's Chinese Americans are from. Leonard Yee recalls that when the club began in the early 1940s, they had traditional costumes and instruments shipped from Hong Kong. The club has both old and young members. They are often invited to play at weddings, parties and Lunar New Year celebrations, where music is a vibrant symbol of Chinese identity in Portland.

Activities

Activity 1 - Identifying Folk Groups: In order to understand the concept of folk groups, have the students create a Group Grid that identifies the elements that people can share and that give a group its identity. Choose groups that students might be member of: athletic teams, scouts, church youth groups, etc. Get students to place group names along the top, then list downward in the grid squares the features of each group. They will see that some of the groups will have the same features (several groups might be made up of all boys or girls, for instance). It is important to show elements or features that distinguish one group from another. This helps students understand that, while groups can have certain features alike, certain features set one group apart from one another and help define them.

Students can also create an Ethnic Group Grid. Here, they will want to list the specific features that define an ethnic group: place/country or origin, language, and particular traditions (religion, art and craft forms, music, dances, foods, and celebrations are some examples). It might be useful for students to investigate the ethnic groups mentioned in the student magazine. What makes Filipinos different from Germans and Scottish ethnic groups? Or, what were the differences between the Native American Indian tribes living in Oregon before Europeans arrived?

Activity 2 - Student Folklife and Traditions: Everyone-including students-has folklife. There are many traditions that take place each day in a school setting. A class-produced "Student How To Book" is a way for students to arrive at an understanding of folklife. Students should include things they learn informally at school. By brainstorming on the chalkboard, the class can come up with many customs, beliefs, stories, dances, music, games, food, celebrations, or crafts that a new student would not know, but an "old timer" would. Students may work individually or in groups on sections of the book. The book need not be an elaborate finished product, just a concrete way to understand the concept of folklife. An alternative project might be a "Family How To Book" that gives students an opportunity to explore traditional daily activities within their own families.

Activity 3 - Baby and Birthing Traditions Interview: Lu-Mien baby hats and Native American cradleboards are two examples of traditions having to do with babies and birth. Have students interview a parent, guardian or other adult about baby and birthing traditions in their community using the questions below as a guide. Visit the Louisiana Voices Educator's Guide for lesson plans on interview techniques.

1. What do birthmarks mean? What causes them?
2. What are some ways of telling a baby's gender before it is born?
3. How can you tell what a baby is going to look like?
4. What are some ways to predict a baby's personality traits or talents?
5. How do you choose a baby's name?
6. What are some things that bring babies good luck?
7. What are some things that bring babies bad luck?
8. Do you know any home cures or causes for:
   1. Bed wetting?
   2. Crossed eyes?
   3. Colic, croup, and/or fever?
   4. Teething?
9. Do you know any songs to sing to babies (i.e. lullabies)
10. What items should a baby have to sleep in, play with, keep it healthy? Are any of these handmade? Explain.

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Traditional Arts are Alive
Traditional Arts of the Oregon Country
Folklife Resources Index