STORIES

 

NEWS

LCS starts in Papua New Guinea, Ethiopia & Central Asia 2010-08-05
LCS is indebted to The Christensen Fund, for a major new grant to start community-empowering cultural activities during 2010 in partnership with their 'Conversations with the Earth' initiative on climate change. Following our preparatory LCS scouting visits, we will be working with communities in the Manus Island Province of PNG, the Konso region of Southern Ethiopia and an agreed region in Tajikistan, Central Asia. Already in July, Nicolas Villaume has just returned from a great start to the LCS activities in PNG and his preparatory visit to Tajikistan, while Robin and Muki Hansteen-Izora have returned, very enthusiastic after their activities and the start made by the communities in Ethiopia
LCS becomes a UNESCO-accredited NGO ! 2010-07-19
During Unesco's 22-24th June sessions of its General Assembly, the recommendations of Unesco's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage that LCS become an accredited NGO were approved. We are proud to have the quality our work recognized at such a high level and to assist in advising UNESCO on the protection and celebration of humanity's intangible heritage.
LCS participates in 2 conferences:Tofino,Vancouver Island, BC 2010-05-15
Muki Hansteen-Izora presented a reviewed paper at the International Society of Ethnobiology's Congress May 9-14 entitled ‘The application of novel information and communications technologies in addressing the global loss of biocultural diversity’. Nicolas Villaume also participated in a special panel session at the International Funders for Indigeneous Peoples (IFIP) Annual conference, May 15th on Transformatory Education and Information Technology. Our demonstrations of barcoded 'Talking Objects' aroused much interest in both events.
Cultural Ventures & Humanity’s Disappearing Diversity of Alternatives 2010-03-29
The need for sensitivity to, and celebration of local cultures in any social venture is hardly addressed in the Skoll World Forum 2010 on Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford, UK in April: http://www.skollworldforum.com/forum-2010 Yet, these are fundamental to community ownership and sustainability. A special breakfast session on Friday 16th is being organized by Paul Rankin (LCS) and Sean Holt (Om Ventures) in OxfordJam's complementary programme to focus on the most difficult, least funded, but most vital challenge we can learn from: How to nurture and enfranchise minority cultures. If you are in the area, please join us in a lively and productive debate. Register your participation via the ‘Book’ button on the webpage: http://www.oxfordjam.org.uk/?page_id=981
Tragedy in Timbuktu 2010-02-26
As a part of the Mouloud Festival to remember the birth of Mohammed, people in Timbuktu gather annually to walk en-masse through the narrow streets, three times around the ancient Djinguereber Mosque. In the early hours this morning, taking a different route because of renovations to the Mosque, the march ended in terrible tragedy. A old woman is said to have slipped and in the resulting crush and crowd panic, at least 26 people are now reported to have died, mainly women and children. Our hearts in LCS go out to the stricken community in its traumatic loss of so many loved ones, especially those who mourn mothers, sons or daughters.
LCS Participates in the Timbuktu International ‘Festival au Desert’ 2010-01-13
LCS was invited to participate in the 2010 ‘Festival au Desert’, which despite security concerns took place in the white sand dunes near Timbuktu (http://www.festival-au-desert.org/). LCS set up a traditional tent as a Tuareg meeting point, explaining our mission and showing some of our work. There, a very famous griot musician, Ahmed ag Wantahad from Farach near Essakane, entertained an audience of Tuareg and tourists alike. We are optimistic about local ownership, support and continued LCS activities after our recent meetings with the Mayor of Timbuktu and the President of the manuscript-preservation NGO, Savama-DCI, Abdel Kader Haidara (http://www.savamadci.org/).
A new audio CD of Tamacheq Stories 2010-01-06
A selection of 15 of our Tuareg stories which were presented in the Timbuktu multimedia exhibition has been made into a audio CD. The stories in Tamacheq are each accompanied in the nice booklet by an image of the storyteller and summaries in both French and Tamacheq. The CDs can help Tuaregs’ appreciation of their culture or could be sold by the team to Tuareg families which may now be in cities, Europe or America to help finance further cultural activities. Gifts of the new CD were much appreciated by many VIP’s, including the Minister of Culture of all Mali.
LCS Recommended for recognition as an accredited NGO by Unesco 2009-10-23
We are proud that at the end of September 2009, the fourth session of Unesco's Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Abu Dhabi decided to recommend to the General Assembly that our organization be accredited. The General Assembly’s next session is scheduled for June 2010, when it will consider the Committee's recommendations and decide on final NGO accreditations.
LCS exploring program possibility in PNG 2009-10-20
For the Conversations with the Earth initiative, Nicolas went to Papua New Guinea to document indigenous voices on Climate Change in the islands of Manu. He met Christensen Fund programme officer Catherine Sparks and community leaders there and found keen interest in LCS. Some serious partnerships are being discussed around LCS in PNG. We might start a first mission there in 2010. More news soon.
New Community video from Peru 2009-10-03
William and Tom, LCS Peru team based in Cusco, have placed online a new video from the community. It shows some footage of the great Cusco exhibition made last year at the Inka Museum. Also presented are some young and elder Quechua testimonies, and the nice introduction speech from Efraim, LCS Peru student from Tambobamba community. Adolfo closes the presentation by explaining goals of LCS program in the region.
Audio widget Beta Testing 2009-09-22
Martin has finished the LCS audio widget which enable the facility for users to give spoken feedback when listening to an audio story online. This device will be compatible with any website, and will be soon tested in the Tambobamba blog for betatesting. Ultimately we will see this widget functioning both on the LCS website for leaving audio message feedback to the storytellers, and also during future multimedia exhibitions via the next version of our touchscreen.
Welcome Claudia! 2009-09-10
A new person has joined the LCS effort: we wish a warm welcome to Claudia Hatmaker! Having a strong background in grant application writing, Claudia with her enthusiasm and great experience will definitely play a strong role in the LCS present and future developments. Welcome aboard, Claudia!
Third LCS retreat in Portland 2009-08-18
Four very intense days were spent in Portland for our annual LCS retreat and team brainstorming. Major progress was made including a clear formulation of our LCS Product Roadmap, the kick off meeting for writing the LCS Handbook, and the presentation to the team of three first talking object samples from the Peru team (Chullo, scarf, woven hat etc.). We aim to demonstrate a prototype of live barcoded links between these objects and story playback on a mobile phone this December at the Climate Change summit in Copenhagen, the COP15 event. Much more will follow on this theme...

LCS ON THE WEB

BLOG
Timbuktu - Mali community blog
Tambobamba - Quechua community blog
Ccatcca - Quechua community blog
Urpay - Quechua community blog
Konso - Ethiopia community blog
VIDEO
Last video
LCS lab - Talking Object prototype demo
Peru - LCS story gathering training in Tambobamba communities
Mali - LCS Soiree opening ceremony
Watch all

MISSION

LCS seeks to nurture the oral heritage of minority cultures by developing respectful methodologies accompanied by appropriate technological solutions.

We aim to enable indigenous communities to share and celebrate their traditional stories, poems or songs with community members dispersed across great distances. We thus promote a revitalization of their values and identity, helping communities to build capacity around their cultural capital, reconnect the generations and strengthen their proud voices in the global society.

LCS PRESENTATIONS

LCS presentation- 42 pdf slides explaining the LCS project in deeper perspective
LCS flyer EN- 2 pages quick LCS summary document in english and easy to print
LCS flyer ESP- Spanish LCS summary flier designed for the Cusco Museum exhibition
LCS prato paper- 15 pages document for the CIRN Prato conference in Italy
LCS Poster - New York 2008 IUCN Symposium on Biodiversity

PARTNERS

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