SoA-Supported Videos Highlighted During Awards Ceremony in Madagascar
In 2020, the School of Anthropology supported a Faculty Research Grant to create a series of 22 videos highlighting the ecological knowledge and expertise of wildlife guides in Ranomafana National Park, Madagascar. The videos are in the Malagasy language (with English subtitles), and they were created collaboratively by School of Anthropology graduate students Clara Randimbiarimanana (M.A. 2021) and Arielle Liu (M.A. 2022), Professor Stacey Tecot, Centre ValBio research station staff Andry Andriamiadanarivo and Dina Andrianoely, and a Madgascar-based editing team Explorer Home Madagascar. While the videos have been used by the research station as part of their education efforts, they were shown at a very special event this summer. For the first time ever, 44 guides and support staff who have worked in the park for 15-30+ years received Médaille du Travail from the Malagasy Government. This is an enormous honor, and the first time that guides have received government recognition for their service to the country. It was a momentous event! To kick off the celebration, a selection of videos of the honorees was shown, to much laughter and applause. Luckily, students from the Laboratory for the Evolutionary Endocrinology of Primates (LEEP) were present for the event. Paige Wagstaff (B.S. 2025), Ph.D. Students Katie King (M.A. 2022), Arielle Liu (M.A. 2022), and Amit Hanadari-Levy, and Professor Stacey Tecot were all present at the ceremony.
Over 40 staff at the Centre ValBio research station received medals from the Malagasy government for their work.
Razafindraibe Dominique (left) and Telo Albert (right) were two of the honorees who told their stories on video. Telo Albert is the Mpanjaka (king) of Ambatolahy, a nearby village.
Left to right: Local guides Sanatriniaina Robeson and Naina Nirina Paul John, University of Antananarivo graduate student Rasolobera Tsiky, and LEEP students Arielle Liu, Amit Hanadari-Levy, Paige Wagstaff, and Katie King.
