June 29 - July 3, 2006

"Patterns of Conflict, Paths to Peace"

Coexistence International and Theatre Without Borders convene sessions at
International Peace Research Association (IPRA) Biennial Conference

How are rituals being used to facilitate reconciliation between indigenous and settler communities?

What can the fields of coexistence, theatre, and ritual learn from and contribute to each other?

What does an integrated approach to peacebuilding offer?

BACKGROUND

These are among the questions explored by CI, in partnership with Theatre Without Borders (TWB), during several sessions convened at the IPRA conference (June 28 - July 3, 2006) as part of the Arts and Peace Commission and the Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding Commission. CI and TWB also organized working sessions for an ongoing anthology project, tentatively entitled The Contributions of Theatre and Ritual to Sustainable Peace. The volume will include pieces on international theatre, cultural work, and peacebuilding.

The panels at the IPRA conference and the anthology sessions were designed to provide opportunities for practitioners and scholars in the peacebuilding and theatre fields to learn from each other and to reflect on and document their practice.

The CI-TWB delegation consisted of 19 participants, including internationally known artists, scholars and practitioners from the peacebuilding field, cultural workers, and policymakers. For a list of participants, click here. They are engaged in the theatre and arts, peacebuilding practices, and related research in Argentina, Peru, Australia, Vanuatu, Indonesia, Cambodia, India, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavia, Romania, and the United States. IPRA presentations and anthology discussions were enriched by the breadth of their knowledge - as playwrights, actors, directors, educators, facilitators, and researchers - and the depth of their many years of experience.

The panels and roundtable discussions presented by members of the delegation were of a high caliber and were well-received by IPRA conference attendees.

PANELS AND ROUNDTABLES

Space, Time, and Performance: Intersections and Dilemmas in Ceremony, Presentation, and Peace

Moderator: Cynthia Cohen, Coexistence International at Brandeis University

Polly Walker, Catherine Filloux, and Mary Ann Hunter present at the "Space, Time, and Performance" panel

Presenters:

• Catherine Filloux, Theatre Without Borders
  Performing Peace: Theatre as a means of remembering in Cambodia
• May Ann Hunter, School of English, Media Studies, and Art History, University of Queensland
  Safe Space Synergies
• Polly Walker, Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland
  Time and Conflict Transformation in Ceremony

Synopses:

• Catherine Filloux discussed how theatre in Cambodia is preserving memory and creating opportunities for people to share painful stories and engage in difficult but necessary discussion.
• Mary Ann Hunter focused on the idea of "safe space central to both peacebuilding and creative processes," and how it is developed and then nurtured among teenagers inside of a multicultural hip-hop workshhop in Australia.
• Polly Walker explained the non-linear conception of time in native ceremony, and how this construction of time, which differs from the western notion, carries the past forward in ways that facilitate healing and transformation.

Performing Peace: A Dialogue Among Scholars and Artists in the Fields of Theatre, Ritual, Coexistence, and Reconciliation

Moderator:  Jessica Berns, Coexistence International at Brandeis University

Presenters:

• Kevin Clements, Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland
  Setting the stage: Notes from theories of conflict resolution
• Kate Gardner, Community Theatre Internationale
  Reflections on BrooKenya!
• Melisse Lewine-Boskovich, Peace Child Israel
  The Power of the Procenium Arch in Arab-Jewish Youth Dialogue and Reconciliation Processes in Israel
• Roberta Levitow, Theatre Without Borders
  In search of common ground: New playwriting in Romania
• Ruth Margraff, Theatre Without Borders
  Reflections from a Culture Connect envoy playwright, Calcutta, India
• Adam McKinney, DNA Works
  Movement, Healing, Ritual, and Performance in Ghana

Synopses:

• Kevin Clements began the session by talking about three "poisons" that are at the root of violent conflict: ignorance, yearning, and jealousy, all of which exacerbate the widening gap between rich and poor. He suggested that peacemakers must deal with the attitudes, behavior, and contradictions that arise from the three "poisons" in order to implement a process that will deliver justice and peace. He reported on research that indicates that, in the aftermath of violence, communities tend to fall back into conflict in four-year cycles. He then asked what art and theatre can do to interrupt that cycle.
• Roberta Levitow discussed her experience in Romania with "citizen artists" and the way emerging theatre directors, writers, and artists are exploring pressing political and social issues in their work.
• Melisse Lewine-Boskovich spoke about the challenges and the successes of Peace Child Israel, which uses theatrical approaches and mediation techniques to bring Israeli Arab and Israeli Jewish youth together to put on their own theatrical productions.
• Ruth Margraff described the work of The Seagull Foundation in the aftermath of genocide in Gujarat, India. The Foundation engages young people in theatre as a way of cultivating critical thinking and other capacities required for living in a pluralistic democracy.
• Adam McKinney, a dancer and healer, spoke about youth-empowering dance workshops and spontaneous dance gatherings in Africa, where movement helps people to release painful memories and connect to their communities.
• Kate Gardner showed clips from BrooKenya!, an international volunteer-produced soap opera that features individuals, families, and communities from Kenya, Brooklyn, and Peru.

Theatre and Peace in the Context of Violence

Moderator:  Roberta Levitow, Theatre Without Borders

Presenters: 

• Daniel Banks, Department of Undergraduate Drama, Tisch School of the Arts, New York University
  Youth Leading Youth:  Using Hip-Hop Theatre as a Tool for Peacebuilding in Ghana and South Africa
• Erik Ehn, School of Theater, California Institute of the Arts
  Other Outcomes
• Dijana Milosevic, Dah Theatre Research Center
  Voice of the Artist in Dark Times
• Roberto Varea, University of San Francisco
  "Yuyanapaq / To Remember":  Memory, Theater, and Reconciliation in Peru

Synopses:

• Daniel Banks showed images of the intercultural exchange between American hip-hop theatre students and young African hip-hop artists in South Africa and Ghana, where hip-hop functions as a means of empowerment, expression, and political agency.
• Erik Ehn asserted a "blood relationship" between theatre and peace making, starting with an allegory from biblical literature, and ending with the challenge "there is no justice without theatre." He discussed the significance of the act of witnessing in Rwanda, where he leads an American and Rwandan exchange on the role of theatre in the aftermath of genocide.
• Dijana Milosevic described how theatre in her native Serbia prevents people from slipping into denial of the recent ethnic violence, and how, in this way, even painful theatre can become part of the process of health, "as when alcohol is applied to a wound."
• Roberto Varea discussed theatre and theatricality as a vehicle for creating awareness, restoring civic engagement, and calling for social action in Latin America, focusing on companies and projects in Peru and Argentina.

In addition to the three sessions that featured the contributions of theatre and ritual to building peace, CI also convened a panel about the importance of integrated approaches to peacebuilding:

A Complementary Approach to Coexistence

Moderator: Jessica Berns, Coexistence International at Brandeis University

Discussant:  Luc Reychler, Secretary-General, International Peace Research Association

Presenters:

Dijana Milosevic answers questions from the audience at the "Complementary Approach to Coexistence" panel

• Jessica Berns, Coexistence International at Brandeis University
  The Coexistence Field
• Kevin Clements, Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Queensland
  An Integrated Approach to Peacebuilding: Case Studies from Asia and Asia Pacific
• Mari Fitzduff, MA Program in Coexistence and Conflict, Brandeis University
  Considering a Coexistence Index
• Dijana Milosevic, Dah Theatre Research Center
  Some Thoughts on Theatre During the Milosevic Dictatorship
• Rob Ricigliano, Institute of World Affairs, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee
  Holistic Peacebuilding

Synopses:

• Jessica Berns started the session with a detailed description of the work of Coexistence International and its emphasis on building networks and bridges between those working directly on coexistence and those in related fields whose work touches on intergroup relations.
• Rob Ricigliano discussed his studies of how top-down peacebuilding (the most widely used model) is failing, and proposed a more holistic model which he illustrated based on his recent work in Iraq.
• Dijana Milosevic told stories of three months of highly theatrical protests, during which everyday Serbian people protested the dictatorial government of Slobodan Milosevic.  She noted that the language of theater possesses color, energy, and emotion.
• Kevin Clements reflected on how the language used by peacebuilders frequently and unconsciously incorporates metaphors of war and domination, and then, in lieu of his prepared presentation, he told stories of peacemaking attempts in Malaysia and how his own thinking on peacemaking was being shaped and transformed by his engagement with theatre artists at this very conference.
• Mari Fitzduff shared with the group a proposed model of a Coexistence Index that could be used the measure the state of coexistence in a particular country.

KEY CONNECTIONS AND CONCERNS

Throughout the IPRA conference, in both formal and informal discussions, converation focused on several elements of the interface among theatre, ritual, and peacebuilding.  All three domains emphasize the importance of certain qualities of presence - states of calm alertness and engaged detachment that allow for explorations of the new and for possibilities of transformation. Good theatre, compelling ceremony, and effective peacebuilding practice share this interest in nourishing particular qualities of presence; this shared interest can become the basis for collaboration and reciprocal learning among the fields.

Several ideas for collaboration on practical levels also emerged. Peacebuilders saw that artists have tools to help address communities' needs to tell stories, heal wounds, and imagine better futures. At the same time, peacebuilders might be able to help artists build audiences and extend the impact of their work. Community-based peacebuilding groups might be able to sustain conversations and relationships that are intiatied by shorter-term theatrical initiatives.

CI-TWB delegates and members of our audiences also engaged themes of inclusiveness and power dynamics. We challenged each other to remain aware of the question of voice: whose voices are being privileged? Who is the writer and who is being written about? We also considered the influence of the global distribution of power on artistic expression and on culture: which regions have the most influence on global expression? When is "cultural sharing" more appropriately described as appropriation or imposition? We came to recognize that in many instance, harmful and helpful dynamics are combined within a single initiative.

We also identified a tension - hopefully a creative tension - between the freedom required for excellent artistic expression, and the purposefulness required of sustained peacebuilding work. How can these two impulses be brought into the service of more powerful art and a more peaceful world?

On the whole, the artists, cultural workers, and peacebuilders who participated in the IPRA sessions reported that the lively debates and cross-fertilization of ideas were energizing and supportive. The peacebuilding scholars and practitioners found new sources of inspiration, new ideas for their practice, and new questions to consider. The artists and cultural workers found support and validation for their work. They were also challenged to document their work more thoroughly, to think creatively about how to extend its impact, and to consider developing collaborations with coexistence practitioners and institutions.

For more information on the conference or IPRA, please visit their webpage.