Transmission
Keepers teaching and performing for new audiences.
Focus — Culture, Arts & Language — Oral traditions
ORAL TRADITIONS
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve the transmission of oral tradition for the keepers, elders, and communities who hold the tradition.
Why this area
ORAL TRADITIONS
IN CONTEXT.
Oral tradition is a knowledge system with its own protocols. Ideas qualify when transmission, consent, and context are respected.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Recording
Capture with consent and community control.
Context
Keeping practice in its setting, not only on tape.
Access
Communities able to use their own recordings.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A ORAL TRADITIONS
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where the transmission of oral tradition fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — hours transmitted, learners engaged, or community access secured.
- Explains what the keepers, elders, and communities who hold the tradition do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of the transmission of oral tradition in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier recording and archiving projects did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the keepers, elders, and communities who hold the tradition, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — keepers, sessions, recordings, or learners.
- A stated measure of success — hours transmitted, learners engaged, or community access secured.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves continuity, identity, and knowledge retained for the keepers, elders, and communities who hold the tradition.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named community body, cultural association, or archive able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of the transmission of oral tradition in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the keepers, elders, and communities who hold the tradition or the community body, cultural association, or archive.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about oral traditions with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
ORAL TRADITIONS IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about the transmission of oral tradition that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.