Shifting the Paradigm of Disability through Art

Sue Austen is a multimedia installation artist whose practice is embedded in social engagement. She has a physical disability that has resulted in her using a motorized wheelchair.

Finding our way through the world is difficult, those with disabilities have even greater challenges navigating a world that is designed for those who are able-bodied. We all know that for peace to be sustainable it requires a paradigm shift in how we perceive each other: how we see and value difference. Sue Austen sees her art practice as a means of remaking one's identity and transforming preconceptions of disability by re-visioning the familiar. Rather than seeing the limitations and restrictive nature of a wheelchair, we are invited to discover through her eyes, the wheelchair as a vehicle of transformation.

Academics, researchers and practitioners in the field of arts and peace, understand that images rendered artistically can generate empathy, which in turn, makes action possible. Strategically using the arts can help to create social change by shifting preconceptions, prejudices and patterns.

Have a look. She is courageous and aims (successfully I would suggest)  to create a paradigm shift in how we see disability and ability.

Art for Social Change: A personal tale

In February 2005, I was invited  to work in the north of Sri Lanka with orphans and victims of the tsunami and twenty year war. My goal to was find way of creating art and rituals with them, that would offer ways to make sense of their experiences and to rebuild their community. During my five weeks as a guest of Tamil nuns I engaged with approximately 1000 women, children and men who had lost their families, homes and hope when the tsunami hit.

The Tamils say the Tsunami (26 December 2004) is the second disaster for them, the first being the civil war.

While there, I visited Mulliativu, a town on the Jaffna Peninsula in which 5,000 of the 25,000 souls were taken by the sea. Many of the women and nuns, who offered support and counsel to those survivors, created works of art that reflected their own personal narrative of loss.

In 2009, I was invited to submit a poem to a website that was raising awareness about global warming. My response was inspired by the painting (above) and by my experience so soon after the tsunami as it is believed that human induced global warming causes extremes and frequency in weather events such as tsunamis and flooding and continues to devastate people's loves throughout the globe.

Oh green, lush Sri Lanka -
"Teardrop of India" -
the world weeps for you, and leaves
unwanted salt-water tears
to flush away memories.

Such betrayal from Mother Ocean.
Once nurturing and generous,
a deep rumbling within her womb,
angered her to rise and lash out at your people,
for whom loss is not foreign.

Surviving Fisher-folk!
Cast your nets around her waist,
hold tightly for fear of being lost
and wail for those bodies held
deep within her grasp.    

©Sarah Dobbs 2009

Peace Makers

I've just returned from the Peace Justice Studies Association Conference in San Diego. The conference was wonderful and well attended. The women key notes speakers such as Sherri Mitchell, Almudena Berabeu and Monisha Bajaj, offered us all insights into the range of peace activism and education that is being undertaken internationally.

Four women who are participants in the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies Peace Makers program gave presentations on the work they have been doing in Uganda, India, Sri Lanka and Israel. Robi Damelin who is living and working in Israel, spoke of the work she and the Parents Circle Family Forum are doing to arrest retaliation violence between Israelis and Palestinians. She uses the arts in many instances to build friendships and partnerships between these communities. She began her talk by asking people not to fight their fight as it increases the ill feelings and violence. Very wise words indeed!

There was also a youth summit as part of the conference. Here you see them performing for the conference attendees.

Cycles of Art and Healing

I just came across a blog titled Warscapes There is an article by Melissa Smyth entitled "Cycles of Art and Healing by Syrian Refugees" in which she takes us through the experience of a young Syrian artist, Soulaf Abas , who is working with Syrian refugees along the border of Jordan.

She listens to their stories and records them through paintings and drawings (as above). In doing so she is acting as witness to the refugees broken narratives, giving them a voice, and allowing them to move beyond the silence of their suffering.

Peace Studies Conference

As I prepare to present research at conference hosted by the Peace and Justice Studies Association in San Diego, I find myself once again reflecting on the role women play in building peace and how they are the ones who suffer the most during and post conflict.

There is a Kenyan Proverb: "It is the grass under the feet of the elephant that gets destroyed in the fight". In other words, it is the innocent - the women and children - who suffer the most when there is conflict (and certainly academic research reinforces what we know instinctively). Gender-based violence does not simply become manifest in the use of sexual violence but in any restrictive form of violence towards women. These include a lack of access to education, diverse ethnic and tribal identities, gender-based issues, such as land ownership, inheritance rights, an imbalance of household roles within a patriarchal society, rituals such as female circumcision or female genital mutilation, severe poverty and many other forms of violence that target women’s identity or social and cultural roles.

When I was in Uganda, I worked with a group of women who had been displaced by the violence of the Kony insurgency. These women had escaped the violence in the North of Uganda and were now living on the grounds of Liziria, the maximum security prison in Kampala. They spoke of how they imagined peace, how they knew when they were at peace, and what they did to encourage peace with each other and with those they loved who were still far away. We sat and talked, and most importantly, listened as they shared their stories and their struggles to rebuild their lives and to create new community.

Art and Disease

Jacqueline Firkins, at University of British Columbia is involved in an interdepartmental research project "Fashioning Cancer: The Correlation between Destruction and Beauty". She designed a series of dresses that use images of growing cancer cells as the base for her fabric design. The project culminated in an auction during which the dresses were sold to raise funds for cancer research.

This is another example of using the arts to raise awareness and shift perceptions.

The Web of Peace

The web that shows our connections to one another
(Kibera Slum, Nairobi Kenya 2013)

It is astonishing to me how when we share an experience, a techniques, a story, or ourselves with someone, it can have a ripple effect that spreads far and wide. Such is the nature of peace-building.

Recently I presented my research at the International Peace Research Conference in Istanbul - you can have a look at that on my last post. What I wrote for publication and how I present my research findings are so different. When presenting I get caught up in the experiences I have had and tend to omit the references and academic jargon that is so appropriate for academic paper.

While I was at the conference, to show how we are all connected I led an activity in which we created a web - different strands of coloured raffia, held by individuals who shared their narrative and found connections with one another.  I had used this method in Kenya, both as a means of intercultural communication and to build relationships and communities that had been severed because of conflict and violence. Although I personalized the technique, I was originally been inspired to use such a technique through the work of Jennifer Ball and Carolyn Webb.

Rebecca Rovitt, Associate Professor in Theatre at University of Kansas Lawrence complimented me by using this interactive tool during her first meeting with theatre students Script Analysis class.

Presenting my Research

I was so pleased to be invited to present my research at the International Peace Research Conference in Istanbul Turkey from 11 - 15th of August. The Arts and Peace Commission was chaired by Cynthia Cohen from the USA, Kiche Magak from Kenya and Maria Elisa Pinto Garcia from Colombia and brought together 36 presenters from around the globe with approximately 550 delegates form 94 countries. 

The Plenary talks by Prof. Johan Galtung and Kevin Clements were exemplary, providing attendees with a well-rounded view of the condition of peace globally. Clements spoke of “the need to shift from carnage to creation” and that the fall of global peacefulness is largely driven by internal peacefulness. He spoke of the countries that were the most peaceful as being the countries committed to gender equality and were inclusive in their democracies. I suppose that is not surprising, but it was important to have it commented upon.

The Arts and Peace stream of the conference, of which I was a part,  was inspiring. Thanks to support of Toda Institute and the enthusiastic and ever present Olivier Urbain, the offering was vast from academic presentations to practitioners’ experiences from every continent. In his presentation on his work in Kentucky, Gerard Stropnicky spoke of the values of “Agency, Authenticity, Audacity and Accuracy” that are imbedded in the theatre and peace work he does. The presentations by Dijana Milošević, Lee Perlman, Yair Dalal, Polly Walker (and more), echoed these values and reminded me that the work of arts and peace, no matter what the art form, crosses cultural and geographic divides.

Here Italian singer, actress Ilaria Tucci and American musician Rik Palieri perform together at the conference.

It was great to make new connections, to hear about exciting projects and research, and to spend a few days and evenings with like-minded people. What I realized was the field of peacebuilding, and in particular Arts and Peace, is expansive! The work and research that is being undertaken world-wide is inspiring and I cannot help but think that with every small step we will slowly infiltrate those who turn to violence and shift them toward peace.  There were three films screened that reflected this innovation and the discussions that followed gave attendees an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of the innovation. As Kevin Clements said “violence is a failure of imagination”. This resonated with me and affirmed my belief that through the strategic use of the arts we can shift perception in times of conflict.

My paper is attached to this blog on a separate page titled Weaving A Web of Peace . . . 

Women Waging Peace: Inclusive Security

Before I went to Kenya last year to undertake my research I read several victim statements and transcripts or Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commissions underaken in several African countries. My aim was to inform myself with knowledge of how women were included in the process: were there women on the Commission? Were women able to provide their victim statements by having the Commission meet them in their communities? Was there space provided to ensure confidentiality or potential negative repercussions once they had disclosed? If women were not provided the chance to be a part of the process, did the Commissions' findings and recommendations address violations against women?

The result of my research is too great to discuss here but I recently came across a Rwandan politician who advocates for women's involvement in Peace processes. Aloisea Inyumba, Rwanda's first Minister of Gender and Social Affairs after the genocide. Although only 26 years old when she became Minister, she helped design the burial of 800,000 victims of the massacres. "She devised a system to care for half a million orphans. She created five tiers of local to national women’s councils that indirectly fed into the parliament, resulting in the highest percentage of women legislators in the world and making Rwanda the first country to break the 50% barrier for women’s participation".  (Retrieved from Institute on Inclusive Security ). In the video below Aloisea talks about the necessity and importance of inclusive security.

Aloisea Inyumba died of cancer in 2012 at the age of 48.

Photography, Truth and Constructed Narrative

My last post focused on the works of Rebecca Belmore, while one of my first posts was on Lily Yeh Both artists recognize the the power of art to create the foundations toward social change. Social change can begin merely by the simple awareness of oppression, prejudices, barriers and hierarchies. Raising our consciouness is the beginning and the hope is that once we are more cognizant of the need for change, we will be moved to action. Taryn Simon, provides another example in the ways in which women are acting as activists advocating for social change of many kinds. She brings into question if what we see, what we are told is real and, if it isn't real, if it is constructed or a fabrication, then what do we do?

An American photographer, she has exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, at the Venice Biennale and at the Museum of Modern Art in New York to name a few. Through her images and narratives, she awakens our curiosity about what is real in photography and narrative; what is fact and what is constructed fiction. In the following TED talk she shares two projects: one documents otherworldly locations typically kept secret from the public, the other involves haunting portraits of men convicted for crimes they did not commit.

Art and Social Change: Performance Art

Rebecca Belmore is an artist and the recipient of the 2013 Laureate, Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. Her art reflects herself as an artist, as a woman and as an Anishinaabe. Her works are filled with reference to gender-based ritual and she provides a foundation for the viewer/audience to be moved to action. What follows is a short video that I found to be provocative and insightful into the act of creating art.

Another piece, Vigil (2002), which she performed on the streets of the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver in 2002, commemorates First Nations women that were murdered or went missing off the street of Vancouver. Her work seeks to conjure remembrances of colonial oppression and to restore our public memory of those women lost and forgotten as not only women, but First Nations people.

During the performance, viewed here, the passersby participates as witness as she scrubs the street on hands and knees, lighting votive candles, and nailing a long red dress she is wearing to a telephone pole. The curatorial description of her performance goes on to describe her struggle to free herself the dress tearing from her body and "hanging in tatters from the nails, reminiscent of the tattered lives of women forced onto the streets for their survival in an alien urban environment" . . . I invite you to watch this and to follow what the artist will do next.