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You
are here: Bridges to Understanding
by Phil Borges
"What if a child in Los Angeles, who views sports figures and celebrities as heroes, could get to know a Tibetan child whose main goal in life is to develop the level of compassion attained by Tibetan Lamas? What if a child who grew up in New York City could question a Quechua child in Peru who was raised to honor and pray to the spirits of the forests, mountains and lakes?"
It was questions like these that prompted internationally acclaimed photographer and author, Phil Borges, to begin his quest for a way to fill in the gap in education that, for the most part, leaves our children, and those of other nations, bereft of cross-cultural understanding. As an advocate for the welfare of indigenous and tribal people around the world for more than 25 years, Phil was acutely aware of the chasm that was widening between our country and much of the rest of the world. Building on his professional background, he sought to find a way to work within school systems to ameliorate the problems that arise globally from the lack of cross-cultural understanding and replace it with respect and compassion.
Bridges To Understanding was founded two years ago and is based on the belief that breaking through preconceived ideas about ourselves and each other can lead to a healthier global community, one that will honor and respect diversity rather than associate difference with fear. Bridges is an online classroom program that provides a platform for cross-cultural exchange. Working with young people, the program:
Middle school students have been identified to be the ideal age at which to benefit most from participating in the program, having the necessary communication skills while, at the same time, still being malleable in their core beliefs of themselves and others.
Students create visual stories about themselves and their communities and share them via the Internet. Schools are partnered, one each from an indigenous community and an urban American community. Implementing an engaging curriculum in the classroom provides a hands-on cultural learning experience that teaches multi-media storytelling and documentary skills. Bridges' trained mentors instruct the teachers and students on the use of digital photographic equipment and audio flash equipment, as well as navigation of the Internet. The school partnerships allow participants to gain deeper understanding of ways in which culture effects relationships, family, tradition and the environment in which we live.
The visual stories are shared on the Bridges website, its platform for equal exchange. Thus far, four indigenous and four urban communities have been paired: Navajo Nation in Arizona with Walter Reed Middle School in Los Angeles; Arctic Village School, Alaska with Exploris Middle School in Raleigh; Ollantaytambo Middle School in Peru with Hamilton Middle School in Seattle; and Tibetan Children's Village School in Dharmsala, India with Spring Street School in Friday Harbor, WA.
The indigenous schools were chosen for their strength of cultural traditions, and the urban schools for their commitment to an international curriculum. The results of the program thus far have exceeded expectations. The children have become very engaged in creating digital stories and sharing them online with their distant partner schools. Perhaps the efficacy of the program is best reflected in the feelings of its participants:
"I haven't seen any Tibetan photographer doing a story on Tibet. I believe if some Tibetan could do a story on Tibet, he knows what's happening. He feels it. That's how it should be done. It is my wish that one of my (Bridges) students, even one of them, becomes a good photographer and does a story on Tibet. I would consider it my mission accomplished. That is my dream actually." Lhawang Tenzin, Bridges instructor at the Tibetan Children's Village in Dharmsala, India.
"When people have conflicts a lot of time it is due to culture. When you don't know another's culture, when you don't see them as you, then that can cause conflict. If we could just all learn about each other and talk out our problems and differences, that could stop war and killing." Bert, Evergreen Middle School student, Seattle, WA.
"Bridges is like a tool. We are teaching the kids how to use the machines to show the world the beauty that we have here. At the same time, we are trying to strengthen this culture, return again to the past. We can build the future as well." Kenner Cornejo, Bridges mentor in Ollantaytambo, Peru.
"The kids in Peru don't understand why we are not all having threesomes and running around in negligees, like in the soap operas, because they think that's what we're like…and it's not. It's deceiving is what it is." Nikki, Hamilton Middle School student, Seattle, WA.
Bridges, it's working.
For over 25 years Phil Borges has been visiting and documenting indigenous and tribal cultures around the world. Through his projects, he strives to promote and preserve cultural diversity by creating a heightened understanding among cultural and ethnic groups. His images tap deeply into the human spirit of his subjects, whose warm and honest faces peer out from colorless and spectacular landscapes.
Currently Phil is developing a program called Bridges to Understanding. Bridges is an on-line classroom program connecting children from indigenous and tribal cultures with their contemporaries in North America for the purpose of exploring and preserving cultural diversity. The Bridges curriculum guides students as they examine their own culture and explore the lives of children with beliefs and customs very different from their own. The Bridges website is www.Bridgesweb.org.
Phil's exhibit and award-winning book, Tibetan Portrait: The Power of Compassion, focused on the people of Tibet, marginalized by the Chinese occupation of their homeland. "With direct, uncompromising gazes, his subjects, old and young, stare back with a wisdom and strength that seems born of suffering," writes the Washington Post. In 1998 he joined Amnesty International to present Enduring Spirit, an exhibit and book celebrating the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Phil recently hosted three television documentaries for Discovery and National Geographic as a part of his current project Spirit of Place. This current series explores selected indigenous cultures that still maintain a spiritual dialogue with the natural world. The exhibit and upcoming book focuses on these animistic cultures and especially their shamans who mediate the connection with the world of spirit.
Photographs by Phil Borges have been collected and exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide. His award winning books have been published in four languages and in 1998 he was presented the Photo Media Magazine "Photoperson of the Year" award. Phil teaches and lectures internationally and is co-founder of Blue Earth Alliance, a 501c3 that sponsors photographic projects focusing on endangered cultures and threatened environments. Phil graduated from UCSF as a Regents Scholar in 1969. He practiced Orthodontics in Northern California for 18years prior to his second career as a photographer. He lives with his family in Seattle.
For more information about Phil Borges please visit his website at www.philborges.com. For more information about the Bridges' program for your school or to become a mentor or supporter, visit www.Bridgesweb.org, or call Phil Borges at (206) 275-2318.
© September 2003 New Horizons for Learning
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