From 18-22 February we were able to attend an Interpret Europe course in the district of Udala (Arrasate), led by Evarist March and organised by the company Bizibiziki and the Hazi collaboration.
It was an intensive training to turn participants into true promoters of the natural and cultural environment of the Basque Country. All of this is based on the principle of interpretation as a way of interacting with visitors, transforming the phenomena of our environment into stories and experiences that contribute to the sustainable development of our territory.
The Basque Country is a nation born from the land, a culture and tradition deeply rooted in our territory and the character of Basque people. This character and personality is something that can only be transmitted and conveyed to the listener from trust, through experiences, life lessons and unique details in which they must be involved.
That is what differentiates us and, through this course, we have verified that it does not make sense to fill our guides with merely objective information (since there are another thousand channels for that). What gives value to our guides, is to reveal the meaning of something that is not seen at first sight, the essence of what surrounds us that otherwise could not been known.
The tools, the techniques learnt and, above all, the use of these in the proposed exercises, have been the key to seeing that planning and interpretative criticism are essential for quality guidance: knowing our listener, the correct use of connecting tools, open questions, revelations, support material, training, talks, walks … a whole learning process of guidance that it is now our turn to put into practice, each one of us on a daily basis in order to contribute to the sustainable development of our territory.
We have lived the experience of sharing our fears as a group, of improving as a person but we have learned that our environment is unique and our culture a treasure that we need to preserve and always improve.
Ainhoa Zuazu is a consultant at Bizibiziki – a company offering various sustainable activities around the Green Way of Plazaola – and she is responsible for the management plan of the Interpretation Center of Leitzaran. Ainhoa can be contacted at: ainhoa@bizibiziki.com.
To cite this article:
Zuazu Irijalba, Ainhoa (2019) ‘Guides have to make us feel emotion and taste tradition’. In Interpret Europe Newsletter 1-2019,16.
Available online:
www.interpret-europe.net/fileadmin/Documents/publications/Newsletters/ie-newsletter_2019-1_spring.pdf
