Institutions

Main Research Units

CHAM — Centro de Humanidades
Escola Básica 1,2,3/JI das Furnas
Escola Básica e Secundária da Povoação

Sponsor

Associação História Sábias

The Raízes (Roots) project came about as a result of activities of cultural mediation and heritage education, carried out in 2008/2009, by two teachers of the Basic School 1,2,3 / JI of Furnas, with the support of Researchers from the Centro de História d’Aquém e d’Além-Mar (CHAM) and Associação Histórias Sábias, from 2012/2013 on. Since its inception, its primary objective was: "to keep the roots of the past alive, an essential condition for our identification as a people".

The activities of the project took place in the Furnas Valley, part of the Furnas volcanic complex, whose volcanic activity is currently limited to a set of fumaroles and natural boilers, although it is a high seismic risk area. This is actually the case with thewhole island of S. Miguel and the remaining archipelago of the Azores. Due to its geodynamic framing it is one of the areas with higher volcanic and seismic risk in Europe. This feature has been responsible for a number of tragic natural phenomena for the population of this region, from its settlement in the 15th century to the present. As a result of this, the local community has developed over the years a very particular set of socio-cultural mechanisms, and holds currently a very unique cultural heritage.

This project is based on the construction of a social memory and principles of active citizenship and it provides information and raises awareness to the importance of safeguarding the local heritage and to its role in the creation of each citizen’s identity.

The direct and indirect heritage and historical pathway of each participant is valued, focusing on the resources of their geographic area and families.

In this way, all students are offered space and supervision to express themselves through active participation methods, contributing with reports of their history, objects/artefacts, documental sources (newspapers/magazines/account books) and other elements that will build the "memory workshop ".

Goals

The Raízes project is a Cultural Mediation and Heritage Education project, developed in the academic year of 2013/2015, whose main objective is to encourage and develop the skills of young students of the 2nd and 3rd cycles of Basic Education, in what concerns the ??heritage. In addition, as a result of the work carried out in the project, a "memory workshop" (small museum in the school) was built, keeping the roots of the past alive. In order to do this, it seeks to articulate historical, cultural and scientific knowledge in the school community, in a crosscutting work, encompassing the concepts of material and immaterial heritage.

Team

Duarte Nuno Chaves . Coordenator

Wellington Nascimento . Coordenator

N’zinga Oliveira . Coordenator

Carlos Branco (Escola das Furnas)
Elisa Cabral (Escola das Furnas)
Elsa Gouveia
Pedro Basílio (Escola das Furnas)
Sílvia Santos (Associação Histórias Sábias)
Telma Bernardes (Escola das Furnas)

Auxiliary Documents

Projeto raízes – um olhar sobre. Mediação cultural (.pdf)