An intergral part of the project, in addition to capturing the oral history and 3D portraits, is the the outreach with schools and youth groups.
We worked with outreach officers from Rhondda Heritage Park and Big Pit.
For this portion of the project, we focus in ex-miners from the Rhondda. We are working with Hafod Primary School, Maerdy Primary School, Parc Primary School and ACE Cardiff.
We introduce the children to their coal heritage, through the use and introduction of archive photographs from their community. We show them all the things that are no longer here; the mines and all their associated buildings and machinery and the coal tips. We introduce them to a collection of coal-mining objects, lamps, lumps of coal, helmets, tommy box (lunch box) etc. We remind the learners that Welsh coal mining and the power it provided was a driver for the industrial revolution in the UK and around the world, as the coal was some of the best quality coal available and in high demand.
We look at remnants of their coal mining heritage; the terraced houses that they live in, the remaining buildings and most importantly their relatives. We reinforce the fact that the children themselves are mostly the decendants of coal miners, who came to Wales, from England and abroad, in the 19th/ 20th Century looking for work. Over-all we attempt to re-inforce a sene of pride in their comunity and the huge contribution it made to the development of Wales & the UK .