With the aim of taking the game out to the street
- Kirikiño, Kar-Kabia, XAT, Kukumixo, Txipristin, Txatxilipurdi, Goñi… The Amarauna network brings together several groups that take the leisure of Euskal Herria. Despite being a different model of association, it has united beliefs in values such as Euskera, creativity or participation, among others. On 21 February, the Amarauna Festival will be held in Zarautz, which aims to strengthen the threads.
For many, the game is an activity after finishing tasks, after doing “important things”, to spend time. For some, leisure is just the time that comes after studying, the appendix to the digestive apparatus of education. “Amarauna’s goal is to make sure that leisure is education.” Irati Seijo, Usua Martinez, Julen Portillo and Oier Peñagarikano are educators of the free time groups Kar-Kabia de Lekeitio, Txipristin de Zarautz and Goñi III of the Basque Summer Colonies. They have met in Amarauna because they believe that values can be transmitted in another way, “moving away from the traditional model and through different power relations”.
Amarauna is today an independent project, but initially, five years ago, it emerged at the heart of the Urtxintxa school in Bizkaia, so that those who took the monitor courses could carry out the practices. The free time groups of Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa and Álava are integrated into the network, although they have seven territories from all over the Basque Country. “We have a direct relationship with Iparralde’s HelloLeku association, and we’ve talked to some Nafarroa groups. However, the reality they live and their needs are very different from ours.”
Values like Euskera, participation, co-education -- they are free to work each group in their own way. In Kar-kabia, for example, local knowledge is being worked on in the annual travelling camp. “Every year we travel through Euskal Herria. In the morning we walk and in the afternoon we meet with the agents and associations of the people”. Irati Seijo explained that, when they went through Zarautz, they held workshops with the people of Gaztetxe Putzuzuzulo, where they also offered them a place to sleep. If it is not in the gaztetxes, they spend nights in the camps, in the fronts or in the premises of the free time groups, but always in the corners managed by the citizens. “We have known the peoples inside, and that is what makes the colonies special.”
In the colonies, past and activities nothing is left to improvisation, as each game has a prior preparation and the issues to work stored in the back pocket. Time cannot condition it either. In the colonies of Goñi, games are prepared that can be done with good time and bad time to transmit the same values to both the sun and the refuge.
Part of a group
They ask a young person what the free time group offers and mention the words “autonomy”, “resources” and “self-esteem”, and there is a phrase they have repeated many times: “We are all one.” In villages classified in squatters, free time groups can be an oasis of new relationships, as they allow to become friends of people who know each other but have never been treated. “Young people who are ‘signposted’ for any reason in the village make new friends. We feel part of a group,” explains Seijo.
But this type of education does not enter the method “I know and you do not”, because free time is also an educational space for educators. The excitement of playing, the shrinkage of chickens by small gestures, the end-of-camp cries -- they're the same for young people and adults. The chef of the Goñi team, 70 years old, and the youngest monitor, 17, see that, in addition to the diversity of the age group, the power relationship is balanced and that is the most enriching thing. The relationship established between educators is so special that even after the colonies, the Euskal Udalekueta spend several days together, trying to prolong this “utopian world”. “In the end, for whom do we really organise all this? The children get a lot out of here, but we are perhaps more!” say the children of Amarauna.
Educating by playing, living the street
On February 21 Amarauna wants to recover the street for the game. They want to see that you can educate yourself by playing and thereby revitalize the street, along with all the neighbors and neighbors that are in it. Irrien Lagunak, Bertso Showa, tells stories, swollen... They have prepared a comprehensive programme for all approaching children, mothers, fathers and educators. The Zarautz festival will serve to publicize the project, as Amarauna, in addition to its networking, offers other services such as monitor and director courses. They also created the website Aterpeak.info, which informs the hostels, camps and fields of Euskal Herria, thanks to the information that visitors usually introduce.
The invitation to the festival is extended and those of Amarauna have touched the bells of the houses... “Are you coming to play the street?”
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