Bermuda Connections Cultural Resource Asked to Thoroughly Investigate at Least One Guide for Classrooms Clearly Makes the Aspect of Our Culture

HANDBOOK INTRODUCTION

Overview ermuda Connections Cultural Resource Guide for Classrooms B prepares students to examine the cultural resources and heritage of Bermuda. The cultural examples, discussion questions, and activities presented in the guide through Anthony Wade, Louise Tannock, Betty Belanus, Nicola a classroom handbook, video, audio CD, O’Leary, Eugene Durham, Sharmaine Nusam, Lisa Falk posters, and essays are designed to stimu- late thought about the role of culture and and their community. As a result, they traditional arts in our lives. While not an will help preserve Bermuda’s rich heritage, encyclopedia of Bermudian culture, the become active in the island’s cultural life, guide provides the resources for students and help shape our understanding of to gain skills for their own investigation, ourselves and our society. documentation, and understanding of Bermudian folk culture. The guide is cross- The resources in this guide provide a jump- disciplinary in nature and easy to adapt ing-off point for your students to look into to social studies, language arts, and other the richness of Bermuda’s multicultural subject and skill areas. It also provides a traditions and heritage. The discussions content-rich means for integrating technol- stimulated by the materials and the cultural ogy with the curriculum. discoveries encountered as students step out of the classroom will provoke reflection This guide is based on research conducted on who and what is Bermudian. Don’t be for the 2001 Smithsonian Folklife Festival surprised if you see a surge in pride and and the 2002 Bermuda Homecoming festi- increased morale in your students as they val. Researchers interviewed tradition bear- realise that they, their families, and their ers in Bermuda and documented their arts. neighbours have rich and valuable stories Now with the aide of this resource guide, and traditions. The activities undertaken students can acquire the skills to conduct by your students will also increase their their own investigation of Bermuda’s folk- communications skills. life and in doing so learn about themselves

15 activities for how to conduct interviews are in this chapter. Sample lesson plans about the Gombey traditions are also included here, one for each grade level, to give an idea of how the same tradition may be presented and examined at different levels. The Handbook Notes on the songs on the CD are also in ach chapter of the handbook begins this chapter, as well as suggested activities with a page addressed to the teacher related to them. Finally, the chapter contains Ethat gives an overview of the chap- lists of books, websites, and other resources ter, a list of learning objectives, and links to helpful in the study of community traditions. different curriculum areas. Each chapter is a combination of readings, discussion questions, and suggested activities. These are The Video starting-off points for your students. Feel 30-minute video shows students free to choose which readings to use, and to conducting their own investigations add to or modify the discussion questions of Bermudian traditions. Two and activities to meet the needs of your A students from Sandys Secondary Middle students and the goals of the curriculum School interview Janice Tucker about into which you are integrating these making Gombey costumes; a student cultural studies. Don’t feel that you need from the Berkeley Institute interviews to do all the readings, all the discussion Warrington “Soup” Zuill and Colin Blades questions, or all the activities. Words about cricket; another team of students in boldface form a specialised vocabulary from the Berkeley Institute make presenta- whose definitions are provided in the tions to their class based on documenting Resources chapter. To meet the needs of Fernanda Pacheco as she makes egg bread your students, you may want to create for the Easter celebration; and a student additional vocabulary lists. A page at the from CedarBridge documents the skills end of each chapter spells out how the associated with racing fitted dinghies. chapter’s learning objectives fit specific Showing the video and discussing how social studies curriculum goals. these students are conducting their field- work provides a wonderful introduction The Resources chapter contains forms before your students set off on their own relating to activities throughout the book, projects. They will find it to be both inspir- such as a family tree form, interview report ing and illuminating. and release forms, a Venn diagram, and a map of Bermuda. Information and suggested

16 The CD ighteen songs covering many aspects of Bermuda performance traditions Emake up the enclosed CD. From Gombey to marching bands, sacred music to reggae, calypso to spoken-word pieces, the CD provides a soundscape of Bermuda’s oral traditions. See the related essays and notes about individual songs in Part 3: Bermuda’s Musical Connections. Eugene Durham and Sharmaine Nusam with a display of student cultural projects at the 2002 Bermuda Homecoming Festival. Photograph by Lisa Falk. The Posters Integrating the Guide he kit contains two posters. Hang these in your classroom to inspire Into Your Classroom Tyour students and whet their his guide was created with the assis- appetites for their own ventures to investi- tance of a group of Bermudian gate Bermudian folklife. A brightly coloured Tprimary, middle, and senior school poster highlights some of the traditions teachers and their students, who tested covered in this guide and displays a map earlier versions. Educators from the of Bermuda. A black and white poster Bermuda National Trust and The Royal illustrates the steps involved in undertaking Gazette and content advisors also helped a cultural investigation project. develop this guide. Here are some com- ments from teachers at each school level. They describe what this guide means to The Website them and their students and how they integrated the Bermuda culture studies he Bermuda Connections website into their classrooms. They enthusiastically provides more Bermuda folk culture encourage you to do the same. Tcontent materials and lesson plans created by Bermudian teachers. It is also a place to post student work and your own lesson plans. As you work through this guide, be sure to visit the website.

17 From Louise Tannock, history will enhance a lesson about being Bermudian. teacher, The Berkeley Institute: Teachers, old and new, will find this to be a valuable resource. It offers easy, ready to be his is an excellent resource guide. reprinted readings, which are packed with TI visualise it serving many needs in our volumes of resources that are adaptable and community. First of all it is a wonderful easy to understand. definition of what and who is a Bermudian. Anyone would be able to use this document This package soundly examines Bermuda’s —government ministers, business people, culture and offers multiple ways to make visitors, educators, students and, in general, the lessons taught on this subject informa- the average man on the street. The docu- tive and creatively skill-based. Teachers can ment provides a vivid picture of life in get many useful “Do Nows” from this text Bermuda. It is compact and especially (for example, “Your Identity Card,”“Choose useful to the educator who is forced to a Nickname,”“Who Is your Mama?,” and search for resources to build a lesson. “Know Your Bike”). Every bit of information can be adjusted to reach any level of I am pleased with the number of suggested our education system. activities offered to aid the understanding of each chapter. It is interesting to note So much of our folklife/traditional ways of that a teacher at any level of education— our lives in Bermuda are constantly being primary, middle, or senior school—can minimised. This resource book offers a find numerous examples of activities that revival of all that is good for our community.

Natural Features Architecture Bermudiana, pink sand, cedar trees, Slate roof, scalloped gable, butteries, welcoming-arms stairs, tribe roads, whistling frogs, longtails, eyebrows, jalousies (push out) blinds, bottle-shaped chimney, cahows, parrotfish, rockfish, coral above ground water tanks, verandas, limestone walls, pastel reefs, palmetto, natural arches, skinks, coloured houses, white roofs, moongates, cedar furniture caves, Bermuda dialect (e.g. Old Devonshire Church, St. Peters, Forts, The State House)

Plants Dress Boats Bermuda rose, Bermuda shorts, Foods Fitted dinghies, Easter lily, pastel colours Red Bean soup, Bermuda sloops Bermuda onions Peas ’n’ rice, fish cakes, farine and Transportation Pink and blue buses, cassava pie, Bermuda’s Uniqueness Johnny cakes, narrow roads, horse fish chowder, and buggy, mopeds pawpaw, Hoppin’ Well-Known John, montespan, Personalities Drinks Celebrations banana bread, Friendly People Loquat Liquor, Easter (kite flying, Hot cross coconut cakes, Johnny Barnes, Black Seal rum, buns), Christmas, Boxing Day, macaroni and “Champ” Hunt, Barritt’s Gingerbeer, 24th May (Marathon Derby, cheese, shark hash, the Town Criers, Rum Swizzle Dingy races & swimming), gingerbread, Ruth Thomas, Cup Match (Crown and lobsters, codfish Edna Mae Scott Anchor, Outlandish outfits), and potatoes Remembrance Day, Veterans Day

Bermuda’s Uniqueness Graphic Organiser, by Louise Tannock, The Berkeley Institute.

18 Lisa DeSilva, Nicole Douglas, Anthony Wade, Tony Spring, Sharmaine Nusam, Lisa Falk, Louise Tannock, Eugene Durham, and Deirdre Ross-Nwasike talk about their experiences integrating culture studies into their curriculum at the 2002 Bermuda Homecoming Festival.

It helps to take us back to the basics and proved to be a rewarding experience for reconnects and reinforces the foundations my students and me. I saw positive changes of who we are when we proclaim with in my students on many different levels. pride to be a Bermudian. Cultural markers (objects with personal meaning) and tradi- At Spice Valley, the children were encour- tion bearers are given their rightful place aged to venture out into the community of honour and we are able to recognise to gain information about various aspects the value of each to our community. The of Bermuda’s culture. All students were Bermuda Connections Cultural Resource asked to thoroughly investigate at least one Guide for Classrooms clearly makes the aspect of our culture. They were to become connections alive and meaningful for all. experts on their subjects. The topics they It is a resource package which offers sights were to investigate (though interviews, and sounds, meanings and directions for videotapings, and photographic essays) finding all that is unique and must be ranged from architecture in Bermuda to appreciated, valued, and protected in the traditional weddings. They truly gained Bermuda of our present and our future. insight about everything from A to Z. Students learned that there is so much about our island home not yet in a text- From Sharmaine Nusum, book. The significance of oral histories was Spice Valley Middle School: highlighted. Also, students recognised that the contributions each and every person ncorporating cultural work into the makes in carrying out a craft is what makes curriculum is not an added task. To view I us so unique and so special. A renewed it as such would surely be a mistake. As interest in their home and an appreciation we attempt to meet the objectives of the for the people of the island developed as a curriculum we can simultaneously invite result of completing their research. In addi- discussions about the community in which tion, students’ confidence in public speak- we live regardless of the discipline taught. ing increased as they interviewed persons Incorporating culture into the curriculum

19 in the community in an effort to gain information. More importantly, a sense of pride in being Bermudian was established. They discovered for themselves what it means to be a “real” Bermudian. In essence, This guide could be the connection that they learned that there is no place like home. helps to bring our communities together.

I too benefited from my students’ research. Teachers can identify with the information There was much about our island I learned in the guide because it is about them. as they reported their findings to the class. The nicknames, getting a motorcycle at What I realised as a result of the overall 16, kites, manners, and marriage. These project was that promoting dialogue with customs have been passed down from persons of different generations is essential generation to generation. in keeping our culture alive. Valuable information about our rich heritage, traditions, Students will have a wealth of information and way of life can be obtained from com- in the community. Everyone has his or municating with persons in our community. her own personal story to tell. Students Our greatest resource is our people. Let’s can conduct interviews, talk to relatives, continue to celebrate who we are by passing look at picture albums, and obtain cultural this information along to our children— markers. The list is endless. tomorrow’s future.

Schools in Bermuda, past and present have From Eugene Hastings always taught someone else’s history and Durham, Southampton culture. However, this guide provides Glebe Primary School: students with the opportunity to learn about themselves and their community. he Bermuda Connections Cultural TResources Guide is about us, all This guide, particularly in primary school Bermudians. Its uniqueness is that it can be studied from a more practical, connects us—in all our diversity of ethnic hands-on approach. Making a kite, a groups, age groups, genders, occupations— Gombey costume and instruments, a punt, to each other. The people of Bermuda have a go-cart, fishing from the rocks are fun always lived as if we are separate entities. and exciting things to do. This guide enables However, historically and culturally we a teacher to be creative and resourceful in have always been connected. There is noth- this and other subject areas. ing more satisfying, more uplifting than to analyse what “being a Bermudian” means.