Art-Based Methods for Gender Justice
A Visual Politics Blog
Reflecting on a recent workshop on Testimonies for Gender Justice, we highlight three potentials of art-based methods to visualise conflict: 1) humanising diverse experiences of conflict; 2) offering therapeutic ways of depicting trauma; 3) narrating the stories of individuals while maintaining their anonymity.
Film still from 'Journey', directed by and with permission from Visakesa Chandrasekaram.
By Bronte Bratton and Pathiranage Dona Subodha Dilhari
30 September 2024
The Australian National University’s (ANU) Gender Institute hosted Testimonies for Gender Justice, a two-day series of events exploring arts-based methods for feminist research in conflict sites, with a particular focus on the Sri Lankan conflict.
Reflecting on the events, we distil three insights arising from the workshop and associated film screenings.
Film can visualise memory and trauma in ways that humanise diverse experiences of conflict
It is widely understood that visuals are important in communicating stories. In many ways, people connect more readily to stories conveyed visually than those that are simply written or verbally communicated. So, how do we visualise conflict-related trauma? And perhaps even more challenging, how can we visualise trauma in ways that honour and humanise both sides of conflict?
In a film-making masterclass with the prominent Sri Lankan director Visakesa Chandrasekaram, we discussed the cinematic interpretation of trauma.
A key insight from this masterclass was that film has the power to humanise; it can visualise individual stories and, in turn, can create new social narratives.
This potential was illustrated by a screening of two of Visakesa Chandrasekaram’s narrative films. ‘Paangshu’ (2018) follows a Sinhalese mother as she searches and seeks justice for her son abducted by paramilitary forces during the 1988-89 insurgency in Sri Lanka. A companion film to ‘Paangshu, ‘Munnel’ (2023) narrates the story of a former Tamil Tiger militant as he returns home after years of military detention.
Babanona (Nita Fernando) in a scene from 'Paangshu', directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram.
These films are striking because they each humanise a different perspective of the Sri Lankan conflict. ‘Paangshu’ follows a Sinhalese perspective but echoes the experiences of many Tamil mothers whose sons were taken during the conflict.
Reviews of Munnel see the film as a thought-provoking cinematic interpretation of Sri Lanka’s post-war consciousness through the eyes of the Tamil people. Both films offer space for those whose stories have been pushed out of mainstream discourses, as discussed in a review by Dinidu Karunanayake.
Rudran (Sivakumar Lingeswaran) in a scene from 'Munnel', directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram.
Chandrasekaram’s two films provide viewers with the opportunity to inhabit different points of view in a way that helps rehumanise both sides of the Sri Lankan conflict. This is one of the key potentials of film: to bring out multiple perspectives. In this context, film can generate empathy and understanding and has the potential to contribute to peacebuilding and reconciliation.
Art-based methods can promote therapeutic ways of visualising conflict-related trauma
Facilitated by a team of academics and artists from the Gender, Justice and Security Hub, the workshop shared insights from a two-year project that used art-based methods to understand how the Sri Lankan civil war affected women. A key part of this approach revolved around five women collaborating with a team of theatre practitioners and academics to share their stories of surviving the conflict.
Playback Theatre was the principal method employed to facilitate recovery and healing after conflict. This form of participatory theatre creates shared meaning through interactive performances where both performers and the audience are active participants in the process. Generally, an audience member volunteers to share a personal story and then watches as performers recreate the scene through improvisation, dance, music and voice
There is a long history of using playback theatre as a conflict resolution practice around the world, from Palestine to Afghanistan and South Africa. There is also a long history of employing theatre for peacebuilding processes in Sri Lanka, as exemplified through a book by Nilanjana Premaratna on Theatre for Peacebuilding and other scholarly works on transitional justice in Sri Lanka.
In the context of the present project, five women recounted their stories and, in response, the theatre practitioners intuitively performed these stories back. They used movement, sound and dialogue. Active listening and witnessing were an integral part of how stories were reinterpreted and performed. This was followed by a process of reflection where stories and the way they were performed were constantly negotiated in response to the women’s interventions and aspirations.
Here are photographs from a series of workshops held with the theatre practitioners, facilitated by Ruhanie Perera.
The formal legal process of giving testimony, especially in cases of sexual violence, can often re-traumatise victims. Using arts to facilitate giving testimony and storytelling can reimagine this process in a way that foregrounds care, permission and collaboration. The collaboration between the women and theatre practitioners was built upon reciprocity: the women gifted their stories, and the theatre practitioners returned a gift through their performances.
This supportive approach towards collaborative storytelling and inquiry meant that women felt more comfortable and willing to give their testimony. The aim here was to focus not only on memories of trauma, but also, and primarily, on what justice, resistance, safety, hope, dreams, love and longing looks like in these women’s lives. And it was the very nature of artistic approaches that made this therapeutic engagement possible.
Art-based methods can visualise stories of conflict-affected individuals while protecting their identities.
We have noted the healing potential of the arts, but playback theatre and film can also facilitate storytelling that respects anonymity. In the project, the women were active participants in the storytelling process, but it was the theatre practitioners that ultimately performed their stories. These performances were captured in the film “Journey” and video installation “Now You Must Bear Witness”, both directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram..
Such theatre and film techniques enabled the women to share their experiences with audiences while remaining anonymous. This was paramount for their safety and dignity. In humanitarian communication, there are several instances where revealing someone’s identity could be detrimental to their safety. Yet, it is important for such stories to be told and visualised. In the film and video installation, the women are never filmed or identified. We watch as the theatre practitioners enact and embody the women’s experiences through monologues, dance, movement, folklore and music. The following images are scenes from ‘Journey’ where we can see the theatre practitioners performing the five women’s stories.
Here are some film stills from 'Journey', directed by Visakesa Chandrasekaram. All of them reproduced with permission.
This approach to visualising testimonies of conflict and violence has the potential to solve a longstanding ethical issue in humanitarian visuals: how to connect audiences to human stories while protecting the identities and dignity of those people whose stories are being shared. In watching the film, we were able to witness these women’s stories through performance art. The audience could do so even though the women themselves were never filmed or identified. This form of anonymous storytelling did not prevent us, the audience, from connecting and empathising with the stories narrated.
Bronte and Subodha attended this event as part of their involvement in the ARC Linkage project on Visualising Humanitarian Crises. We thank Professor Kirsten Ainley, the ANU Gender Institute and Gender, Justice and Security Hub for organising and funding this important series of events. We also thank the workshop facilitators; Professor Neloufer de Mel, Dr Visakesa Chandrasekaram, Ruhanie Perera, Kamala Vasuki, and Ranitha Gnanarajah, as well as the fantastic fellow participants that we learned alongside.
Bronte Bratton is a Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion Officer for the Pacific Labour Facility at the consultancy firm Palladium. She previously worked as a Senior Research Officer on UQ’s Visualising Humanitarian Crises Project and is involved in a number of collaborative projects, including one that that examines the Australian Red Cross's shift towards strength-based forms of humanitarian communication and another that investigates the ethics of using AI to visualise humanitarian issues. She holds a BA in International Relations and Gender Studies, and a Bachelor of Social Science, specialising in Development.
Pathiranage Dona Subodha Dilhari is a doctoral candidate at the University of Queensland. She works on the politics of visualising humanitarian crises in Sri Lanka, focusing on alternative ways of ethical storytelling. Subodha holds a Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Development and has a visiting affiliation with the University of Colombo. She has an extensive background as a development practitioner, having worked with DFAT, USAID as well as national and international NGOs in Sri Lanka, Maldives and other parts of Asia.