In the Project Ideas section we offer some suggestions for sharing your oral history research with your community. During the research and interviewing phases of an oral history project, group members have had a chance to use Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun language to interact with luent speakers in meaningful ways. When the literacy group follows their research with a community presentation, they extend and strengthen language, literacy and critical thinking skills. They also offer valuable language and cultural activities to others in the community.

The projects in this section are just a few of the possible ideas for sharing your research with the community. Your group will have many other ideas of your own. The guidance we provide – the steps for carrying out your project – are just general suggestions. We know that many of you have your own ways of doing things that work well for your groups. In some cases you may need more guidance than we have provided; so we have included a list of resources that you may find helpful. You can adapt or expand on project ideas. This is your manual to use in whatever way works best for your group.

The project ideas in this section have been divided into four categories:

Although these projects have a main focus, the four language and literacy skills – reading, writing, speaking and listening – should be integrated into each project. In How Can Oral History Projects Help Develop Language and Literacy Skills, the next section, we have provided suggestions for building the four language skills, as well as numeracy skills, into each project idea. We also give suggestions for making this an intergenerational project – for involving the family. We encourage you to think holistically about the development of mind, body, heart and spirit in the individual, the family and the community as the literacy group works through the project.

There are at least two ways of approaching community projects:

  1. Research Focused
    Your group’s main focus may be collecting information for an oral history theme. But when the research is finished, you may then decide that you would like to share your information with the community. You can discuss, as a group, what would be the best way to present the knowledge to others. You might choose one or more of the project ideas presented here or make up your own ideas for a project, depending on the interests of the group. This approach might be appropriate for a long-term project, perhaps one that lasts through the entire course of a full-time literacy program – three to six months or more.

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