From Refuge To Freedom, Thursday 28th August 2008
This session involved a group of refugees and people seeking asylum, mainly women and from a variety of backgrounds, who meet at the Mosses Community Centre, and took place at The Met performing arts venue in the centre of Bury.
I felt this was a really interesting and strong discussion though it was difficult for various reasons. For example, the topics were emotionally difficult for the participants, travel to the venue created logistical problems (I wonder if the session would have been better at the Mosses community centre where the group normally meet?) and the sense of creating something from complex, personal and tough subject matter in such a tiny amount of time was ambitious.
From an initial stimulus from me, the group of about ten participants began by discussing the length of time they have to wait for a decision from the Home Office and the conditions of their lives and how thay can deal with it during that time. There were a range of very moving accounts along with some participants who found it too emotionally difficult to recount their feelings and experiences.
The question arose as to whether they could feel able to raise their concerns and issues, which felt impossible for fear of being penalised. Outside Manchester as a centre there are no public expressions of support, and the tone of the localities in the outer boroughs defaults to an assumed anti-refugee mentality. The possibilities of a collective voice in combination with local supporters seemed to be worthwhile, such as a well-attended demonstration or dedicated public festival (this theme was also previously mentioned by Ray Collett at the Bolton Teahouse discussion). A smaller and simpler possibility would be to create some imagery which could be displayed or distributed, and a brief workshop exercise involving photographer Miselo Kunda was squeezed in at the end (after most participants had left) to try and explore this.
The final discussion which created the theme for this was to do with dignity. The participants felt that the bigger issues were out of reach, yet there were state practices that they felt simply unnecessary and designed to undermine them as human beings, removing any sense of dignity they may have. For example, shopping vouchers restrict their shopping to just one supermarket, and mean they can not make use of good prices between different shops which should be a basic facility for people on such low incomes. To give them cash would make no difference to the Home Office (in fact may be cheaper) and would make a big difference to them. The effect is to make them feel second class or lower, and this affects their own self image and sense of worth. Another example was regular signing at a police station, making them feel criminalised. They felt raising such things could be useful beginnings to try to effect some influence, and the theme of dignity became the basis for the workshop exercise.
Despite the various difficulties, I felt that to try and develop an expression from a combination of the personal and collective experiences of the group informed by wider contexts is a valuable process and would lead to worthwhile outputs for the participants as well. Unfortunately, I have a concern that as a one-off session it may have come across to the participants as the same discussions they have had before and with no worthwhile benefit from it. Sue Arnall may well clarify this for us. When some initial images are shared with the group, they may give some ideas as to how such discussions could develop into worthwhile statements and expressions that can have some valuable influence, but of course this ideally would need further development. KC
3 comments:
It sounds like you had a lot to do in the time but it was a start and raised a lot of points that need consideration. The issue about the use of vouchers for food and having to report to police stations was something I haven't heard raised before and, unless those things are actually pointed out, their significance is easy to miss - I knew that asylum seekers received vouchers but had never really stopped to consider the implication of that.
Many, many thanks to the people who took the time to discuss this and many other issues during the forum. It may seem that they are repeating themselves and that their voices are not heard but the more support and opportunity there is for discussions like this the more understanding and awareness there will hopefully be. I hope the group saw the value in opening up the discussion to new participants and facilitators, for the reasons mentioned above, but I can see that they might also looking for opportunities to celebrate and share that positive with other people. KD
A message from Sue Arnall in response to my original post:
Dear Kooj and all
Thanks for all your hard work in organising the event last Thursday. I had some initial responses as follows;
IT was lovely to have the space to talk about things that are so personal, and I really appreciated it.
I think it was too difficult to do with strangers. We come to the Mosses every week and speak of these things with our friends. that is easier and better for me
There was nothing to entertain the older children who became difficult and wanted to be with their parents.
We would enjoy being at the Mosses for such an event.
We need to have time and space to have fun and enjoyment and not always talk about things that upset us.
This is a cross section of responses. As I wasn't there, it is hard for me to evaluate! I know the members well and I think it is probably always the case that there is a time and a place for everyone and it may not have been suitable for some of them. We have lots of different ways, at the Mosses, to encourage sharing and escape, and maybe people are more relaxed in their own place? Ont he other hand, our members have enjoyed trips to the Museaum and Art Gallery in the past, but were not being asked at those times to speak freely.
Thanks anyway for all your effort. I guess the benefit is not always clear at the time, and people may say more later? It is also important that we design activities to respond to expressed wishes, and this was not the case. Our members are constantly wanting a chance to dance and enjoy music. Maybe that would be more therapeutic for them? Sue
Dear Sue,
I really appreciate your response. It confirms hat the session would have been better at the Mosses, certainly.
On other issues, it is true that this was not a 'therapeutic' session in the fun sense, and also a 'serious' session like this may be easier for some more than others. Of course, the other difficulty I omitted in my summary was that of language, while everyone's English was in fact reasonably competent it is still not so easy discussing sensitive stuff outside your mother tongue.
I think fun and enjoyable sessions also need to take place, and sometimes interesting voices and messages can be developed unconsciously in this way. At the same time, focused discussions also need space to be allowed to take place, and some constructive output is preferable so that it does not simply end up as a talking shop even though some people do appreciate such a space for its own sake as well.
Nevertheless, you suggest expressed wishes as being music and dance - this probably could do with some provision soon if possible. It may be that if these are taking place, then some adjacent or concurrent activity with a more issue-based focus can take place more easily? The other option is to do some 'fun' creative activity that gradually leads to integrating responses to issues as a part of the activity - for example through lyrical devices, moving or still imagery, poetry, animation, collage/montage, photography, and so on.
Kooj.
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