Journal of Arts & Communities - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2011

In 2006 there were 9.9 million refugees worldwide, as defined by the United Nations 1951 Convention, and 32.9 million persons of concern. In a comprehensive review of settlement programmes in Australia, the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) concluded that there was an urgent need for targeted settlement assistance towards this group if they are to achieve full and active participation in society, and further research should be undertaken to track the progress of humanitarian entrants in the future (DIAC, 2009). The emotional, psychological and experiential impact of war and displacement on refugees has significant and long-lasting implications for both the individuals involved and the broader communities in which they live. Performers, theatre activists and human rights workers have for some time been interested in working with refugees. However, the category of refugee performance can be seen to create an essentialist frame from which the extrication of practice is almost impossible. The article will explore the performing of refugee representation through an examination of two examples of practice, one a small-scale theatre project in Queensland, Australia, the other a multifaceted arts project in the United Kingdom involving theatre, community photography and a combustible 25-metre sculpture. In the article, I will argue that the effort to construct a discourse about refugee performance is enmeshed in an unwavering paradox. Put simply, how may practice deal with refugee stories when the stories themselves (bureaucratic performance, personal stories as victimhood, suffering as spectacle) make an encounter with alterity more elusive?

The objective of this article is to problematize a notion of relational violence, also referred to as violence in domestic realms or relationship-based violence, drawing on its representation in the visual arts. The discussed examples illustrating the dynamics of violence include two American artists: Barbara Kruger's project organized in Glasgow in the Gallery of Modern Art in association with Amnesty International in 2005, and Bruce Nauman's video installations Anthro-Socio (1992) exhibited as part of his solo exhibition at Musee d'Art Contemporain in Montreal in 2007, and Violent Incident (1986) from the Tate Collection. Drawing on visual representation, I reflect on how different ways of narrating can either encourage or discourage our understandings of violence and the promotion of equality more generally. Framing the ways institutional power operates, here in relation to an organization of my academic role and other roles, involves a production and negotiation of meanings as well as embodiment. In such a context, reflections emerge with regard to my own positioning, concerning ambivalence about the politics of representation and the representation of the politics in the processes that are observed, analysed and showcased.

The author explains his insertion into Malawi's human rights and cultural history. In its 30 year rule from 1964 to 1994 the Malawi Congress Party regime passed a maze of anti-democratic legislation, which, backed by brutal police and paramilitary youth organisations, prevented any attempts at creation of an opposition. The demolition of free speech in public discourse, including the media, created a default space for young intellectuals to use the metaphorical power of literature and theatre to critique the political establishment. Artists found innovative ways of evading the laws and activities associated with the Malawi Censorship Board, and not a few were arrested for their activities. The three year seven month detention of poet, Jack Mapanje from 1987 to 1991 focused world attention on the struggle by Malawian democracy activists for political liberation. This culminated in the establishment of multi-party democracy in 1991–1994, which created the conditions for a more liberated, but still contested discursive field. The paper concludes with a brief analysis of this process, including a comparison with twenty-first century cultural and social struggles for democracy.

This article describes a theatre in education (TIE) programme – a fusion of theatre and process led drama work, pedagogically informed – created by Theatr Powys, a theatre in education and community theatre company based in mid Wales. The programme, entitled 'The Union of Creative Thinking', engaged participating children, from small and isolated communities in rural Wales, in a process whereby they were furnished with imaginative tools that enabled them to conceptualise and concretise in profound ways, the complexity of relationships they experience within the self, between themselves, and within their communities and the wider world. To reference the context of this article is a huge undertaking. The art form of Theatre in Education was born, developed, hard fought for, and has now all but been lost, in a post war Britain wherein the ideological control and methodological strictures applied to the business of humanely and creatively educating the young of the species, has been a constant battle ground. This particular work, devised and produced by Theatr Powys under my direction, has been influenced by a socially developed drive to integrate the work of many theatre artists and pedagogues: crucially the theoretical writings and historical practice of Vygotsky, Bruner, Friere, Heathcote, Bolton and Gillham. Theatr Powys consistently fought to stand authentically on the shoulders of the above body of theoretical work, and of more, the collective practice of so many involved in the practice of theatre and educational drama in schools and the wider community. 'The Union of Creative Thinking' discussed in this article recognised education as a process of becoming and recognised children as active seekers after truth and justice. It was squarely founded on the knowledge that young people globally, intuitively understand their lives and the values they struggle to own as intrinsically linked to the experience of all children in other, seemingly far away, corners of the world.

This case study describes a piece of emersion theatre conducted during a workshop at the World Education Forum in Ramallah, Palestine in 2010. The piece explores the relationship between three different approaches to political change: popular education; direct action and art – using the scenario of a campaign against environmental pollution. The workshop was designed to focus critically on the tensions between the three approaches with a view to understand better their contributions to radical social change. The case study describes the theoretical background as well as the insights from the workshop.

KNOWING WAYS, CRITICAL LEARNING IN PRACTICE CONFERENCE, NORTH EDINBURGH ARTS, MUIRHOUSE, EDINBURGH, 8–10 SEPTEMBER 2011