Intergenerational heritage between Côa (Portugal) and Siega Verde (Spain)

Story Natural
Country
Portugal
Year
2018
Storyteller
Alexandra Cerveira Lima
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Overview

The project “Archive of Memory” aims to bring together schools and nursing
homes resulted in the meeting of young and elderly to record life stories and
to digitize family archives. Through the use of new technologies, particularly filming of interviews, the project created an in tandem with a database available at the website: www.arquivodememoria.pt. These oral histories contribute to driving knowledge and to establishing intergenerational bonds and preserve common heritage.

In 2010, ACOA, the Friends Association of friends of the Coa Park and Museum
submitted the project Vale do Coa: an Archive ofMemory to the the Gulbenkian FoundationHuman Development Program under the topic of Between Generations. The goals of the Gulbenkian project were, according to its guidelines, to promote social cohesion and lower the isolation of the elderly. The application was successful and the group was able to develop the project in Foz Coa during the the 2010/11 academic year. The pilot project received very positive feedback from all stakeholders and we started another guideline, that links recent life stories with ancient memories of the region, and which include common heritage such as the Prehistoric Rock Art Sites in the Coa Valley
and Siega Verde. As part of this phase of the project ACOA organized visits to the Coa Museum for elderly individuals from the region, aiming to conversations about their own lives and the lives of our ancestors, especially comparing today’s lives to how they may have lived thousands years ago.
We plan to expand the project by:
 translating the interviews featured in the website to English;
 organizing intergenerational meetings at the Coa Museum and the archaeological site of Siega Verde that include both visitors and members of the local community to highlight recent memories and prehistoric ways of life;
 organizing intergenerational group visits to European sites with common prehistoric and recent histories.

European Dimension

Goals:
Improve the quality of life of elderly individuals;
Promote training of younger generations in the use of new technologies;
Expand research and knowledge of common heritage;
Foster the community’s relation to its cultural heritage;
Foster awareness of a common past.
Methodology:
- translate an initial set of 50 interviews from the website www.arquivodememoria.pt into English as a pilot study for future translations into French and Spanish
- conduct 20 interviews in Siega Verde to include in the website

- organize 5 intergenerational meetings at the Coa Museum to include both visitors and the local community:
a) visit to the Coa Museum and Siega Verde
b) session about common heritage (e.g. the prehistoric art; the migrations and smuggling throughout the last centuries)
c) conduct a workshop of experimental prehistoric archaeology
- Organize an intergenerational trip for students and seniors from the Coa Park area and Siega Verde to Altamira and Niaux using historic migrants' and smuggler's paths