PAUL SMITHS — Paul Smith’s College and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe are partnering to create a mobile cultural learning lab that will serve as a hub of historical information about the Akwesasne community.
The cultural learning lab will serve as a mobile meeting space and a place for tutoring and promoting the use of the Mohawk language, according to a news release from Paul Smith’s College.
Funding for the lab came from the Mohawks of Akwesasne Settlement Trust, which was approved this summer, according to the release.
The COVID-19 pandemic put the construction of the center on hold until this year, but work is underway. Paul Smith’s students are getting hands-on experience assisting in the design and construction of the mobile center, the release said.
Construction of the mobile learning lab began in August with students completing their sustainability capstone project assisting in the design and construction of the facility.
The tribe partnered with Paul Smith’s in 2020, when Akat Ransom, director of Nia’s Little Library Nook, free little libraries in Akwesasne, reached out to Deb Naybor, an assistant professor of environmental studies and sociology at Paul Smith’s, who with the help of her students worked to plan, develop and construct the mobile center.
“It will be like a tiny house filled with cultural and language materials, books, crafts, tutoring in both English and Mohawk and it includes something for all ages,” Ransom said in a statement. “It can move to local schools, community centers, powwows, and other events in order to make cultural education easily accessible.”
A sustainable design was employed as the mobile center was developed, utilizing locally sourced natural and renewed materials to create an energy efficient space that provides a place for books, drums, artwork and meetings.
“We wanted to respect traditional meeting places, such as a longhouse, while making it fit the limitations of being mobile,” Naylor said in a statement. “Our students are proud of how much we were able to do so far but we have a lot more to do. We’re hoping to add solar power and we’ll be installing a kitchenette and bookshelves.”
The learning lab’s exterior will be finished soon and next semester the interior will be completed by a new crew of students, according to the release.
Prior to this partnership, Ransom, Naybor and Naybor’s students worked together on Nia’s Little Library to create more than a dozen free tiny libraries and a small bookmobile to promote access to books in Akwesasne during the pandemic.
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