Bringing Memories in from the Margins: Inclusive Transitional Justice and Creative Memory Processes for Reconciliation in Colombia
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Bristol
Department Name: School of Modern Languages
Abstract
Over more than five decades of armed conflict in Colombia, the memories of marginalised communities and victims of conflict have been silenced or excluded from dominant accounts. These memories, and creation of spaces to acknowledge them, will be crucial to an inclusive reconciliation.
This project adopts a participatory, co-production methodology to support community members in Bajo Cauca, Florencia, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and Valledupar - some of Colombia's most marginalised municipalities - to produce creative pieces of memory work. Creating memory work means using the pain of the past to create something useful for working towards peace in the present and future. Working with a set of highly respected national partners (including the National Library of Colombia, the National Centre for Historical Memory, the Peaceful Route for Women, and the National Network of Memory Sites) the project will enable victims to develop the skills, networks, and confidence to share their memories on a national stage, including with Colombia's truth commission.
Acknowledgement of victims' experiences by the truth commission is fundamental to reconciliation in Colombia, but it will not and cannot be the only space where reconciliation takes place. Victims' memories also need to be heard and acknowledged in everyday spaces of learning about conflict and peace, including in schools and online. In partnership with the National Centre for Historical Memory, the project will train over 200 teachers to use memory work for peace education and it will produce a set of resources for use in classrooms. In partnership with the project, the National Library of Colombia will design and host a digital resource that will effectively share the creative memory work of these marginalised communities with a wide audience nationally and internationally.
We bring together an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners who share a commitment to understanding and enabling the possibilities for a more inclusive process of reconciliation in Colombia. The team of researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the University of Bristol works across the disciplines of history, education, area studies, politics, media studies, and feminism and has expertise in co-production and participatory methodologies, the use of digital technology to enhance research findings, as well of leading research projects in Colombia and Latin America focused on memory, reconciliation and education. The partnerships at the core of the project are based on existing and well-established relationships with leading organisations in Colombia working to promote memory and reconciliation at local, regional and national levels.
The project works in three strands, first memories from the margins will support between 1,000 - 10,000 people from some of the most marginalised parts of Colombia to create transformative memory works, enabling individual and community processes of reconciliation and developing lasting skills for public participation. Physical objects created by the project will remain in the local municipalities. The second, reconciliation, shares this memory work on a national scale, including with Colombia's truth commission and in the nation's schools. The final strand, lessons from Colombia's transitional justice consolidates the work in Colombia, producing lasting digital resources, and shares findings, methodologies and lessons in Colombia, the UK and internationally.
The project will contribute to a sustainable, inclusive reconciliation in Colombia. In doing so, it will also generate important knowledge about the potential for localised processes of reconciliation to be connected with formal initiatives like truth commissions and shared in schools using co-production and digital methodologies. These lessons will be valuable for global policy discussions around transitional justice and for academic debates across our disciplines.
This project adopts a participatory, co-production methodology to support community members in Bajo Cauca, Florencia, Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, and Valledupar - some of Colombia's most marginalised municipalities - to produce creative pieces of memory work. Creating memory work means using the pain of the past to create something useful for working towards peace in the present and future. Working with a set of highly respected national partners (including the National Library of Colombia, the National Centre for Historical Memory, the Peaceful Route for Women, and the National Network of Memory Sites) the project will enable victims to develop the skills, networks, and confidence to share their memories on a national stage, including with Colombia's truth commission.
Acknowledgement of victims' experiences by the truth commission is fundamental to reconciliation in Colombia, but it will not and cannot be the only space where reconciliation takes place. Victims' memories also need to be heard and acknowledged in everyday spaces of learning about conflict and peace, including in schools and online. In partnership with the National Centre for Historical Memory, the project will train over 200 teachers to use memory work for peace education and it will produce a set of resources for use in classrooms. In partnership with the project, the National Library of Colombia will design and host a digital resource that will effectively share the creative memory work of these marginalised communities with a wide audience nationally and internationally.
We bring together an interdisciplinary team of researchers and practitioners who share a commitment to understanding and enabling the possibilities for a more inclusive process of reconciliation in Colombia. The team of researchers from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the University of Bristol works across the disciplines of history, education, area studies, politics, media studies, and feminism and has expertise in co-production and participatory methodologies, the use of digital technology to enhance research findings, as well of leading research projects in Colombia and Latin America focused on memory, reconciliation and education. The partnerships at the core of the project are based on existing and well-established relationships with leading organisations in Colombia working to promote memory and reconciliation at local, regional and national levels.
The project works in three strands, first memories from the margins will support between 1,000 - 10,000 people from some of the most marginalised parts of Colombia to create transformative memory works, enabling individual and community processes of reconciliation and developing lasting skills for public participation. Physical objects created by the project will remain in the local municipalities. The second, reconciliation, shares this memory work on a national scale, including with Colombia's truth commission and in the nation's schools. The final strand, lessons from Colombia's transitional justice consolidates the work in Colombia, producing lasting digital resources, and shares findings, methodologies and lessons in Colombia, the UK and internationally.
The project will contribute to a sustainable, inclusive reconciliation in Colombia. In doing so, it will also generate important knowledge about the potential for localised processes of reconciliation to be connected with formal initiatives like truth commissions and shared in schools using co-production and digital methodologies. These lessons will be valuable for global policy discussions around transitional justice and for academic debates across our disciplines.
Planned Impact
4000 characters for Impact Summary for J-es
The impact programme of this project will put memory and reconciliation at the forefront of local, national and international dialogue. It will enable groups working in marginalized municipalities and existing practitioners to learn from each other and to maximize the reach of their message by refining their methodologies and disseminating their best practices. A stronger, more networked and educated movement for memory, reconciliation and inclusive development will be better able to negotiate the difficult political future that awaits. This will contribute towards the creation of a more inclusive society with citizens who are more at ease with their fractious and violent pasts, and thereby have direct effects upon the capacity for more equitable development, the reduction of conflict and the prevention of the re-emergence of political violence. The lessons from this project will contribute with methodological reflections and know-how to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized groups by providing space for the emergence of diverse memories and inclusive narratives for critical reconciliation.
With the purpose of fostering an inclusive transition, we acknowledge how essential it is to amplify the voices from local initiatives working with marginalized populations (indigenous, women, youth, rural). These initiatives have in most cases remained isolated from one another, impeding the exchange of know-how and knowledge. As a result, their chances of having an impact in the struggles over the narratives of the war, and therefore in creating the conditions for reconciliation, have until now been very limited.
By means of its interdisciplinary approach, and by working with and through long-standing research partnerships, the project therefore aims to impact three broad groups:
Marginalized Memories: Impact will be aimed at social groups working at the local level for reconciliation in marginalized municipalities of Colombia, including in the Sierra Nevada, Cauca, Caqueta and Boyaca. We will introduce them to each other's innovative creative methodologies, in order to produce a critical space for reflection, to energize their efforts and to produce new and unexpected collaborations. By providing expertise, resources, guidance and the opportunity for networking and collaborative learning, the project will strengthen these marginalized participants in the reconciliation process.
Reconciliation: Impact will be aimed at organizations working at the national level for reconciliation in Colombia. Our partners from the Ruta Pacifica, Red de Lugares de la Memoria, Biblioteca Nacional and Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica are already some of the major participants in debates about how the historical past should be remembered as Colombia implements its peace agreements. This project will enable these institutions, and the people who work within and with them, to learn how to overcome the obstacles that prevent marginalized memories from being incorporated into centrally-directed reconciliation programmes and the educational curriculum.
Transitional Justice: Impact will be aimed at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Colombia and stakeholders in related processes elsewhere. The research will support the Colombian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in ensuring that marginalized memories are heard and acted upon. Beyond this, it is expected that the research findings will feed into future Truth and Reconciliation commissions elsewhere, sharing best practice from Colombia and establishing a model for inclusive reconciliation in post-conflict societies elsewhere in the world.
The specifics of how these impacts will be achieved are detailed in the separate Pathways to Impact document.
The impact programme of this project will put memory and reconciliation at the forefront of local, national and international dialogue. It will enable groups working in marginalized municipalities and existing practitioners to learn from each other and to maximize the reach of their message by refining their methodologies and disseminating their best practices. A stronger, more networked and educated movement for memory, reconciliation and inclusive development will be better able to negotiate the difficult political future that awaits. This will contribute towards the creation of a more inclusive society with citizens who are more at ease with their fractious and violent pasts, and thereby have direct effects upon the capacity for more equitable development, the reduction of conflict and the prevention of the re-emergence of political violence. The lessons from this project will contribute with methodological reflections and know-how to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized groups by providing space for the emergence of diverse memories and inclusive narratives for critical reconciliation.
With the purpose of fostering an inclusive transition, we acknowledge how essential it is to amplify the voices from local initiatives working with marginalized populations (indigenous, women, youth, rural). These initiatives have in most cases remained isolated from one another, impeding the exchange of know-how and knowledge. As a result, their chances of having an impact in the struggles over the narratives of the war, and therefore in creating the conditions for reconciliation, have until now been very limited.
By means of its interdisciplinary approach, and by working with and through long-standing research partnerships, the project therefore aims to impact three broad groups:
Marginalized Memories: Impact will be aimed at social groups working at the local level for reconciliation in marginalized municipalities of Colombia, including in the Sierra Nevada, Cauca, Caqueta and Boyaca. We will introduce them to each other's innovative creative methodologies, in order to produce a critical space for reflection, to energize their efforts and to produce new and unexpected collaborations. By providing expertise, resources, guidance and the opportunity for networking and collaborative learning, the project will strengthen these marginalized participants in the reconciliation process.
Reconciliation: Impact will be aimed at organizations working at the national level for reconciliation in Colombia. Our partners from the Ruta Pacifica, Red de Lugares de la Memoria, Biblioteca Nacional and Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica are already some of the major participants in debates about how the historical past should be remembered as Colombia implements its peace agreements. This project will enable these institutions, and the people who work within and with them, to learn how to overcome the obstacles that prevent marginalized memories from being incorporated into centrally-directed reconciliation programmes and the educational curriculum.
Transitional Justice: Impact will be aimed at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Colombia and stakeholders in related processes elsewhere. The research will support the Colombian Truth and Reconciliation Commission in ensuring that marginalized memories are heard and acted upon. Beyond this, it is expected that the research findings will feed into future Truth and Reconciliation commissions elsewhere, sharing best practice from Colombia and establishing a model for inclusive reconciliation in post-conflict societies elsewhere in the world.
The specifics of how these impacts will be achieved are detailed in the separate Pathways to Impact document.
Organisations
- University of Bristol (Lead Research Organisation)
- Peaceful Women's Route (Collaboration)
- National Library of Colombia (Collaboration, Project Partner)
- Mucha Media (Collaboration)
- Red Colombiana de Lugares de Memoria (Project Partner)
- Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres (Project Partner)
- National Center for Historical Memory (Project Partner)
Publications
Brown M
(2023)
History on the margins: truths, struggles and the bureaucratic research economy in Colombia, 2016-2023
in Rethinking History
Brown, MD
Peace Festival: Using Creative Methodologies for Unearthing Hidden War Stories
in Emotions, Space and Society
Colectivo Arhuaco De Comunicación
(2023)
Ungunamuse Translated title of the contribution: Biblioteca y casa de la memoria indígena de la Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta
Comision De La Verdad De Colombia (Grupo De Trabajo De Genero)
(2019)
Guia para el abordaje de las violaciones sexuales en la Comision de la Verdad (Guide for working with sexual crimes in the Truth Commission)
MEMPAZ
(2023)
MEMPAZ website
MUMIDAVI, Red Colombiana De Lugares De La Memoria
(2023)
Sonidos y Saberes de la Reconciliación Translated title of the contribution: Sounds and Flavours of Reconciliation
Rodeemos El Dialogo
(2023)
To be history (and make it)
Rodeemos El Dialogo
(2023)
Guía de pedagogía para la construcción de paz: la verdad como bien público
Rodeemos El Dialogo
(2023)
A teaching guide for peacebuilding: truth as a public good
Truth Commission
(2022)
Hay Futuro si hay verdad - the Report of the Colombian Truth Commission
Wilson G
(2020)
Non-verbal communication, emotions, and tensions in co-production: Reflections on researching memory and social change in Peru and Colombia
in Emotion, Space and Society
Title | El Arte no se rinde carajo |
Description | This exhibition in Cali, Colombia, in May 2022, brought together artworks produced by the MEMPAZ partners, and displayed them in the centre of a popular neighbourhood. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2022 |
Impact | People came together and talked about the armed conflict, contemporary politics and the diversity of Colombia's history and future. |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VyjQaU2IbA |
Title | Entre memorias e historias Podcast |
Description | Eight 45 minute episodes of a podcast, Entre Memorias e Historias, released on Spotify, Youtube, itunes and so on, discussing themes of history, memory and politics. |
Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
Year Produced | 2021 |
Impact | It has built networks between the NGO Rodeemos el Dialogo, the PI and presenter Professor Matthew Brown, and the interviewees from around Colombia. |
URL | https://anchor.fm/red-podcast |
Title | MEMPAZ Old Market Assembly Gig |
Description | Participants in MEMPAZ joined with local musicians Luisa Santiago and band for this incredible one-night only performance at the Old Market Assembly in Bristol. Over 200 people danced, sang and shared memories. |
Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | This event brought people together to talk about memory and reconciliation. It resulted in new attendees going to other MEMPAZ events, and learning about the other aspects of the project and Colombian history. |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C08nZO1wF0 |
Title | Musica para el alma |
Description | 5 songs about reconciliation, produced in Valledupar, Colombia as part of the MEMPAZ project. Available online, on CD and on memory sticks distributed in Colombia. |
Type Of Art | Composition/Score |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | Sharing music makes the world a better place. |
URL | https://soundcloud.com/mempaz/01-reconciliacion-paseo-autor?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshar... |
Title | Peace Festival Film |
Description | It is a film about the project. |
Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
Year Produced | 2018 |
Impact | It disseminated the research findings, and encouraged participation in the follow-on project. |
URL | https://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2018/april/peace-festival.html |
Title | Sonidos y Saberes de la Reconciliación Translated title of the contribution: Sounds and Flavours of Reconciliation |
Description | This is an amazing bilingual comic book telling the stories of our partners on the project. One, with beautiful and compelling graphic illustrations, tells the story of using food and cooking to achieve reconciliation in societies in damaged by armed conflict. The other narrates the production of music by survivors of the armed conflict, writing and performing songs around the theme of reconciliation. Do click on the link - it is a beautiful piece of work. |
Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | Our participant organizations in Colombia told us that they had been re-energized by this project. People listening to the music have been motivated to seek out moments of reconciliation in their own lives. |
URL | https://mempaz.com/resources/default/SSR_completo-min.pdf |
Title | Ungunamuse |
Description | This was an exhibition of the images from the photobook produced by Colectivo Arhuaco de Comunicaciones, detailing the construction of the Indigenous Library in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. The exhibition was held at Bristol City Council chambers on 22-24 March 2023. The launch event was attended by 50 people, and another 150 people attended during the week. |
Type Of Art | Artistic/Creative Exhibition |
Year Produced | 2023 |
Impact | These are detailed by our Arhuaco partners in the book. It strengthened the skills and capacity of young Arhuaco creative producers, facilitating new collaborations and building a greater sense of belonging, history and community. It is a beautiful piece of work - do click on the link and look at it. Participants who attended the exhibition said that it gave them insight into a different worldview. Several participants got in touch asking to visit the library in real life. |
URL | https://mempaz.com/resources/default/Libro-Ungunamuse-min.pdf |
Description | The process of establishing the truth about the armed conflict in Colombia is not an easy one. Our partners, involved in the production of historical memory among the country's most marginalized communities, are under considerable stress and have many obstacles to overcome. Our project, working together in horizontal ways with a strong ethics of co-production, has had a major impact of which we are very proud. International collaboration with the implementation of the peace accords in Colombia was welcomed by our partners, We worked directly with the Truth Commission in Colombia, and our work was woven into their final report, published in July 2022. Through 2022-2023 were were able to disseminate our findings and outputs in Colombia, the UK and globally through our website mempaz.com. We have demonstrated that marginalized peoples have been able to produce work that reveals the extent of the harms of the armed conflict, and the resilience and creativity of the people most affected by it. |
Exploitation Route | The many project outcomes outline the potential ways these findings can be taken forward. This includes our policy guides on the use of teaching resources and peacebuilding, our recipe books for working with migrants who have been forcibly displaced by violence, our photobook on using film and photography to build a library and document its history, and the songs that tell stories of reconciliation. Our co-authored article in Rethinking History sets out a series of ways in which UK institutions might learn from the ethics of co-production and horizontal ways of working pioneered in this project. |
Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Creative Economy Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Education Environment Leisure Activities including Sports Recreation and Tourism Government Democracy and Justice Culture Heritage Museums and Collections Security and Diplomacy |
URL | https://mempaz.com/ |
Description | This project had a direct impact upon the workings of the Truth Commission (CEV) in Colombia, in particular the Gender Working Group, with whom we established a close working relationship around their collection of testimonies. We were explicitly thanked in the publication of the Truth Commission report in July 2022, and invited to its launch event. We organized the UK launch of the Truth Commission report in Bristol. At the grassroots level, our partners through the National Library, Ruta Pacifica, Rodeemos el Dialogo and the Red de Lugares de Memoria have all reported strengthened local capacity for memory and truth processes, as a direct result of our project. The Truth Commissioners have expressed their enormous gratitude for our ongoing support and input into their research. In 2023, the final year of this project, we hosted many events and publishing books, articles, films, podcasts, workshops and written texts. In 2023 the PI was appointed as chair of the University of Bristol Research Ethics Committee, with the aim of using these findings to inform the reform of research ethics approval and processes in line with the horizontal and transparent workings of this project. |
First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
Sector | Creative Economy,Education,Environment,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
Impact Types | Cultural Societal Policy & public services |
Description | CEV |
Geographic Reach | South America |
Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
Description | Influenced pedagogy strategy of the Colombian truth commission |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Participation in a guidance/advisory committee |
Description | PRAXIS Report Transforming Conflict and Displacement through Arts and Humanities |
Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
Policy Influence Type | Contribution to new or Improved professional practice |
Impact | These are all detailed in the PRAXIS report. |
URL | https://changingthestory.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/110/2021/12/University-of-Leeds-PRAXIS... |
Description | Bringing Memories in from the Margins |
Amount | £150,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2022 |
End | 04/2023 |
Description | Education, Justice and Memory Network (EDJAM) |
Amount | £1,999,980 (GBP) |
Funding ID | AH/T007842/1 |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2020 |
End | 03/2024 |
Description | Global Challenges Research Fund Pump-Priming Call |
Amount | £50,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2018 |
End | 07/2018 |
Description | Truth on the Margins: Bringing Memories to Support Transitional Justice in Colombia |
Amount | £149,950 (GBP) |
Funding ID | AH/V012436/1 |
Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2021 |
End | 08/2022 |
Description | University of Bristol Global Impact Acceleration Account |
Amount | £20,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Bristol |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2018 |
End | 03/2019 |
Title | Video Guide on Co-Production Methods |
Description | With Quipu we developed new ways of working across our team globally. We produced a Video Guide, at the request of the AHRC, to explain how we did this and what lessons might be adopted by other teams contemplating similar research questions. |
Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - human |
Year Produced | 2020 |
Provided To Others? | Yes |
Impact | Just published in spring 2020. |
URL | https://youtu.be/PfSIVsB0qo4 |
Description | Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia |
Organisation | National Library of Colombia |
Country | Colombia |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We worked together to co-design the Peace Festival and its dissemination activities. In 2017/18 we worked together to design the Bringing Memories in from the Margins. Since then we have been working together on the project. |
Collaborator Contribution | We worked together to co-design the Peace Festival and its dissemination activities. The Biblioteca Nacional organized, as part of this project, a workshop in the Montes de Maria region of Colombia discussing the role of libraries in bringing peace. In 2018/19 the BNC is working to deliver one strand of the MEMPAZ project, in the Sierra Nevada region. |
Impact | Montes de Maria workshop, involving history and social science. Full details elsewhere on form. Preliminary outputs from the MEMPAZ project were collected at a meeting in Colombia in October 2019, and we are in the process of research data analysis at the time of writing. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Muchamedia |
Organisation | Mucha Media |
Sector | Private |
PI Contribution | This collaboration was inspired by MEMPAZ and continued in parallel throughout the funded period. It was financed by internal Bristol resources and Chilean funding. Publications are forthcoming. |
Collaborator Contribution | Muchamedia is a Chilean multimedia documentary company. We produced podcasts, films and texts together. |
Impact | El estallido de las cosas podcast |
Start Year | 2020 |
Description | Ruta Pacifica |
Organisation | Peaceful Women's Route |
Country | Colombia |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | Ruta were the partners on the Peace Festival. We have worked to disseminate their work on the Truth Commission in Colombia. We have worked together to design the MEMPAZ project. We are working with Ruta to coordinate work with the Truth Commission (2019). |
Collaborator Contribution | Their presence and networks enabled the participation of a great diversity of organizations in the event. Their director and two colleagues attended the Peace Festival, running workshop sessions and providing valuable experience. In April 2018 Alejandra Miller Restrepo, from Ruta, visited Bristol as part of a GCRF event. She is now one of Colombia's Truth Commissioners, and has been central to the coordination of MEMPAZ with the Truth Commission, and to enabling the closer integration of MEMPAZ activities with AHRC-funded commissioned research with the Truth Commission on Gender, Truth and the Making of History. |
Impact | The Truth Commission began its operations in coordination with our team in February 2019, so are beginning to take place. Full reporting will be listed for the next round of Researchfish. We will be meeting in Colombia in June 2019 to assess progress so far. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Ruta Pacifica de las Mujeres |
Organisation | Peaceful Women's Route |
Country | Colombia |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
PI Contribution | This partnership results from the ongoing collaboration between Maria Teresa Pinto (MEMPAZ CoInvestigator) and Ruta Pacifica. Thanks to their existing relationship, Ruta Pacifica has been a key partner for both MEMPAZ and 'Transitional Justice as Education', shaping project directions and leading activities. |
Collaborator Contribution | Transitional Justice as Education: Ruta Pacifica have played a key role in shaping the project and its objectives and in organising project activities in Colombia. MEMPAZ: Ruta Pacifica leads memory work in Antioquia, working with women in the communities of Caceres and Caucasia, both of which have been very affected by conflict and violence, to produce memory work using theatre. |
Impact | All outputs reported in MEMPAZ and 'Transitional Justice as Education' |
Start Year | 2019 |
Description | Civil society and the truth commission's gender working group - closed discussion |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
Results and Impact | In July 2019, Representatives from leading women's rights and LGTBQI+ civil society organisations in Colombia met with members of the Colombian truth commission's gender working group, and with MEMPAZ team members, Maria Tersesa Pinto OCampo, Martin Suarez, Fabio Lopez and Matthew Brown to discuss the approach and strategies of the gender working group and to ensure a broad coalition of support for it from across civil society. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
Description | Colombia Week (October 2019) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In October 2019, the University of Bristol hosted 'Colombia Week 2019: Truth, Memory and Diaspora: The Seeds of Peace in Colombia' The description of the event is below. It was very attended, with all event registration pages selling out. Colombia week helped to build a strong community in and beyond Bristol supporting the peace process in Colombia and raised awareness about the ongoing work of both MEMPAZ and 'Transitional Justice as Education'. Colombia is at a crucial crossroads in the implementation of its peace accord. This week of events offers a vital opportunity to reflect upon the innovations of and challenges for Colombia's truth commission and the legacies of the country's long tradition of research in historical memory. Guests include Carlos Beristain, Truth Commissioner; Gonzalo Sanchez, Former Director of the National Centre for Historical Memory; and Alejandra Coll, Gender Working Group, Truth Commission. Programme Wed 16 October: What does it mean to be a feminist and learning truth commission? (with Alejandra Coll - CEV Gender Working Group - and Ana Cristina Navarro - CEV Pedagogy Director) Thu 17 October: Memory, truth and the challenges for peace in Colombia (with Gonzalo Sanchez, former director the National Centre for Historical Memory) Fri 18 October: The Truth Commission and the Colombian Diaspora (with Carlos Beristain, Truth Commissioner, CEV, and members of the UK testimony collection team) Sat 19 October: El Testigo (Film Screening with comments from the Director) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
URL | http://bristol.ac.uk/education/events/2019/bristol-colombia-week-2019-truth-memory-and-diaspora-the-... |
Description | Engagement activities on MEMPAZ |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The MEMPAZ project is a multi-site, multi-disciplinary investigation of processes of memory production in Colombia. Its activities began in October 2018. We have our first physical meeting of all the partners (including the Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia, Ruta Pacifica, etc) in June 2019. We have asked our partners to provide updates on progress at this encounter. We therefore do not have all the detail to submit here as to what has happened in terms of engagement, given that the entire project is based around and justified by engaging with marginalized communities on the periphery of Colombian political life. We will be able to provide a fuller list of activities so far in March 2020, and have some sense of the impact achieved, most obviously with the CEV but also at grassroots level, by March 2021. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018,2019 |
Description | Hosting the visit of Truth Commissioner Alejandra Miller at MShed, Bristol |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | 12 Colombians from across Bristol and the South-West attended to learn about the Truth Commission's report. 15 policymakers, academics and practitioners from across the UK learned from the event and participated in a networking event the next day, which created new plans for further collaborations in support of the dissemination of the Truth Commission's findings. 70 people attended in person and 10 online. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | http://www.bristol.ac.uk/arts/events/2022/november/the-report-of-the-colombian-truth-commission.html |
Description | MEMPAZ website |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The MEMPAZ website presents the research of our collaborators in the form of video, audio, photography, and text. It launched in March 2023. It showcases all of the wonderful outputs and impacts of the project. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023,2024 |
URL | https://mempaz.com/ |
Description | Memories from the Margins week of public events in Bristol 20-24 March 2023 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | This was a big week of events to engage the general public in Bristol and the south-west region with the findings of the Bringing Memories in from the Margins and the Truth on the Margins project. It included 6 events - 1. a gig of Colombian-Bristollian music at the Old Assembly venue, with 200 participants from the Bristol music and Latin American scenes dancing until 1.30am 2. a theatre performance from victims of gender violence in Antioquia, Colombia, coordinated by Ruta Pacifica, attended by 60 people at the Bristol Improv theatre and bringing most of them to tears; 3. a gala celebration at the Station venue, attended by a 100 people, beginning with a ritual dance and song led by our Arhuaco partners and ending with a lots of hugs, presentations and smiling; 4. a film screening at the Watershed cinema of the interactive MEMPAZ documentary produced by the Universidad Nacional de Colombia; 5. a cookery workshop at the Station led by our partners MUMIDAVI, cooking traditional Colombian dishes which brought memories of forced internal displacement; 6. a photographic exhibition of the Arhuaco photobook, held at the headquarters of Bristol City Council, attended by 200 people over 2 days. Participants informed us that the impact of these events was substantial in changing people's understanding of the impact of armed conflict in Colombia and around the world. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOC62tjIS-E&t=3s |