Welcome! Bine aţi venit! Q’a’pai! *

Welcome to the Alive as Folk: Transmission in a Digital Age project blog. Over a 6-month period from January – June 2020 students from the University of Oregon partnered with students in Romania to embark on a journey sharing intangible cultural heritage through an intergenerational approach while exploring the transmission of Native American and Romanian intangible cultural heritage, such as regalia making, storytelling, traditional folk costumes, rug weaving, and woodcarvings.

Alive as Folk is part of the project Exploring Indigeneity, Place, Traditions, and Transmission funded by Communities Connecting Heritage. “Communities Connecting HeritageSM is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. Government and administered by World Learning.

Photo created by Iris Teeuwen

The Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s Oregon Folklife Network has partnered with Romania’s Alexandru Stefulescu Gorj County Museum to develop a cultural exchange project focused on indigenous and place-based traditions. Funded through an award from the Communities Connecting HeritageSM program, the project will culminate with public programs at the Gorj County Museum in Târgu Jiu, Romania in April and at the University of Oregon’s museums and Knight Library in May.

Part of this project was to create a virtual product that combined the work from the Oregon and Romania team. The Oregon team created a website that showcases the work we have done throughout the project by sharing our culture, folklore, our countries, videos, pictures, and stories. The Oregon team also created a zine, which is a small-circulation self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images created by an individual or small group. The zine can be downloaded here. This website and zine were meant to be a collaborative project between the Oregon and Romania groups, but unfortunately with COVID-19, the Romania participants were unable to contribute to certain aspects of the project.

The University of Oregon is situated on Kalapuya Ilihi, the traditional homelands and political territories of the Kalapuya People, the First Peoples of the Willamette Valley, whose descendants are now citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community and the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians.

This video is one of our virtual exchanges with Oregon and Romania staff, students, and artists. In this video, you will see Riki Saltzman ask the Oregon and Romania artist what makes a good teacher. The answer touches on how these artists teach their intangible cultural heritage to future generations.

*The words at the top of the page are the “welcome” words for some of the different cultures and languages that were being represented in this project.

  • Welcome: is the English word
  • Bine aţi venit: Welcome in Romanian
  • Q’a’pai: “In the Kalapuya language, we don’t have a specific word for ‘welcome.’
    Our word for ‘hello’ is implied to be a welcoming word. The word is.  Q’a’pai….. pronounced, ‘Kaaah-pie’.” –Esther Stutzman

Social Media:

Twitter: @Alive_asfolk

FaceBook: @aliveasfolk2020

Instagram: @alive_asfolk