PEACE FESTIVAL: Sharing Creative Methodologies for Unearthing Hidden War Stories for Peace

Wars and conflicts shape societies worldwide. In the last two decades, Latin America's truth and reconciliation projects, and its attempts at transitional justice, have often been used as model for states just entering their own post-conflict scenarios. Latin Americanist scholarship has shown, however, that the voices of marginalized peoples have too often been absent from official 'truths'. Creative methodologies have been adopted in order to integrate the voices of women, indigenous people, young people and rural residents into discussions about the history of wars.

In order to foster an inclusive transition, we start from the premise that it is essential to amplify voices from such local initiatives working with marginalized populations (indigenous, women, youth, rural). While existing initiatives have been important they 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 in order to achieve reconciliation and peacebuilding, can be limited.

This project proposes to tackle these challenges by creating a space for dialogue across methodologies, actors and countries regarding the methodological challenges and possibilities, the alternative narratives that subvert the already established accounts of the war and the strategies for the preservation of these non-official stories.

We are an interdisciplinary team: the PI is Professor Matthew Brown, a historian of Latin America based in the School of Modern Languages, and the CI is Dr Karen Tucker a political scientist based in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies. The RAs are Goya Wilson, a Peruvian researcher who has recently completed a PhD on memory in the Graduate School of Education at UoB; and Maria-Teresa Pinto, a Colombian researcher who is working on a doctoral thesis - supervised by the CI - on historical memory in the Colombian peace process. Our diverse backgrounds are fused together in this project, which aims to bring to bear the extraordinary moment taking place right now in the Colombian peace process, to compare it with the Peruvian experience, and to share experiences and innovations globally.

We will identify outstanding examples of projects in Peru and Colombia that have been able to amplify the voices of marginalized peoples, and to incorporate their stories into historical memory. Projects such as:-

Colombia:
1) Ruta Pacifica.
2) Hijas e hijos por la Identidad y la Justicia contra el Olvido y el Silencio (Daughters & sons for Identity & Justice against Oblivion & Silence)..
3) National Movement of Victims of State Crimes (MOVICE).
4) Association of Indigenous Councils Nasa Çxhãçxha.
5) Peace Village of San José de Apartadó (Comunidad de Paz de San José de Apartadó)

Peru:
1) Lugar de la Memoria, la Tolerancia y la Inclusión Social (LUM).
2) Movimiento Ciudadano Para Que No Se Repita (PQNSR).
3) Coordinadora Regional de Organizaciones de Victimas de la Violencia Politica en Ayacucho (CORAVIP)
4) Coordinadora Contra la Impunidad (CCI).
5) H.I.J.O.S. de Peru (a.k.a. HIJXS).

We will bring participants from those projects into dialogue by means of a three-day Peace Festival, to be held in Cartagena de Indias, in Colombia. Participants will present their own project, learn about other complementary projects, and discuss how to overcome the challenges that face their work and the endeavours of projects like them.

We will analyse the discussions from the Peace Festival, and disseminate our findings through academic articles, traditional press and broadcast media, and through social media. The lessons learned will help Colombians and Peruvians to identify marginalized voices, and to incorporate their stories into post-conflict societies.

Beyond the specific histories and transitions of Colombia and Peru, the project will be of great interest to a wider audience. At the international level, many countries are undergoing their own struggles over truth regarding their wars and transitions. Latin America's truth and reconciliation projects, and its attempts at transitional justice, are often used as a model for states just entering post-conflict scenarios. The lessons from this project will contribute with methodological reflections and know-how to facilitate the empowerment of marginalized groups by providing a platform for the emergence of diverse stories and inclusive narratives for critical peacebuilding.

With the purpose of fostering an inclusive transition, we acknowledge how essential it is to amplify the voices from such local initiatives working with marginalized populations (indigenous, women, youth, rural). While these initiatives are important they 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 in order to achieve reconciliation and peacebuilding are very limited.

The project will impact four broad groups: .

1. Innovative social and cultural groups working for peace in Colombia and Peru. We will bring together unconnected practitioners from across Colombia and Peru, and to expose them to each other's innovative creative methodologies, in order to energize their efforts and produce new and unexpected collaborations. . By providing resources and the opportunity for networking and collaborative learning, the project will strengthen this strand of the peace processes in both countries.

2. Politicians and peace negotiators in Colombia. Through its dissemination plans and media coverage the project will give a boost to the peace processes in Colombia, by drawing national and international attention to amazing projects that tend to receive little press attention.

3. Politicians and civil society in Peru. Colombia is on the verge of ending its fifty-year civil war, but Peru is still teetering on the brink as it moves away from its own armed conflict. This project will take advantage of the Colombian situation to provide a boost to beleaguered Peruvian producers, and use this moment of hope and experimentation in Colombia to inform the actions of Peruvians still dealing with the legacies of their own peace.

4. Library and archive groups in Colombia. Through the collaboration with the National Library of Colombia, the project will promote the capacity building of the participatory initiatives in terms of methodological knowledge, narrative emergence and strategies for the preservation of these new memories that emphasise the need to narrate the conflict from the traditional excluded sectors. This will strengthen the institutions that work with history and memory, through the leadership of the National Library.