From the Northern scars to the Arts
By Shanika Sriyananda
Lara with her team |
It is all about a new life in the Wanni. The sun shone brightly while
people were rebuilding their lives. It is above his school that birds
fly freely where there are no thundering explosions of deadly bombs or
shooting to force them into hiding. Children are back in schools, which
were abandoned for many years.This is how 10-year-old Pandiyan of
Mallavi Tamil Maha Vidyalaya put his feelings about peace in his drawing
displayed at a unique exhibition held in Colombo recently.
“We are happy as there is no fighting anymore. We can play and study
unlike those days”, Pandiyan, who said he ran away with his parents a
few years back to save their lives said.
He ended up at a welfare centre for displaced people, the little boy
had no hopes of ever going back to school.
“During the conflict some of my friends got killed and some were
wounded. We always lived in fear and my parents had to hide us as LTTE
terrorists were trying to snatch us and use us to fight”, Pandiyan
recalled the days between death and life.It is a surprise for the boy to
reach Colombo and enjoy life in Colombo for two days.
“I am happy to learn about collage which I didn’t know earlier. “I
want to do more paintings and continue learning”, he said. Pandiyan
dreams of becoming a doctor, someday. P. Janani, S. Priyatharshani and
J. Sanusan are grade seven students of Mallavi Tamil Maha Vidyalaya and
over 200 students displayed their artistic talents in art and
photography at an exhibition by the Cartwheel Initiative of New York,
USA.
The team consists of artists and professionals, much respected in
their fields. They conducted easy-to-learn, hands-on photography, visual
art and music workshops over a period of 10 days for three schools in
the Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts.
Patricia A. Butenis, US Ambassador
“I want to do more paintings and continue learning”, Pandiyan
said |
Introducing the children to new coping tools, provide each child with
a voice to their emotions to help restore their self-confidence, renew
their sense of potential for the future, and reinvigorate their joy for
living in post-conflict Sri Lanka to support them with ultimately
transcending the physical and emotional impact of conflict through
understanding, adjusting and healing.
The Cartwheel Trust whose Trustees are Afghar Mohideen and Praveen
Dassenaike of United Holidays, Sri Lanka and Ashok Sinha from the USA,
has collaborated with Manori Unambuwe who has been promoting
psychosocial activities and social integration projects in the North to
bring a team of eight artists and educators from the US to conduct
easy-to-learn, hands-on photography, visual art, collage making and
music workshops.
These workshops took place in three psychosocial centres named
‘Happiness Centres’ established in several schools in Vavuniya,
Mullaitivu and Kilinochchi Districts in northern Sri Lanka. The chosen
schools were Mallavi Central College, Mallavi, Pandiyankulam GTMS in
Thunukkai and Poonekary Maha Vidyalam in Pooneryn. These Happiness
Centres recognise the importance of the arts as a therapeutic medium for
children to readjust and rebuild their lives in a post-conflict
environment.The project is being enthusiastically supported by the Zonal
Education offices and the Sri Lanka Army who is actively engaged at
grassroots level rehabilitation and development activities and
recognises the benefits from psychosocial activities as integral to
lasting peace.“
My hope was that the children will be able to see their world
differently through their art, whether it be the lens of a camera or the
strokes of a paint brush. When I conceived this project, I didn’t know
what to expect, although, I was confident that we could unleash the
hidden potential of these children if they were given a chance.
We don’t expect to change their world over a course of a few days,
all we want to do is to show the world that like any other child, these
children also have the potential to make great things happen,” Ashok
Sinha,Co-founder of Cartwheel Initiative said.
Ashok, who has worked in more than thirty countries on various
freelance assignments, said as one child in a workshop at Mallavi aptly
put “We want others to know that growing up in the Wanni has its own
inherent hardships, especially because of the war, however, we want to
learn and we want to succeed, and despite all the hardships we face
everyday, we come to school, attend class and want to succeed in life.
We want to erase memories of the horrors of war and create new ones...
seeing the world through art is different from the world we see every
day with our eyes - our hope is that we can look forward to the positive
things in life and look forward rather than look back in the past.”
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Ashok Sinha |
Manori |
A select group of 60 children and accompanying teachers travelled to
Colombo for two-days and took part to exhibit their hidden skills in art
and photography were put on display. Lara J. Kisielewska, who has a
degree in Graphic Communications Management and Technology at New York
University and working toward a masters’ degree in Magazine Publication
Management, who taught Collage art said they were not aware of the
technique until they take part in the Collage workshop.”Lots of students
were interested in painting but didn’t know about this form as they have
not done it before. We did lots of painting techniques which they never
painted before. We used tooth brushes or charcoal and it’s interesting
for them to let think differently. When they finished it, we cut the
painting and made into collage. At the beginning they didn’t want to cut
their paintings as they love them”, she said.Lara said the kids in her
group learned the technique well and she was really stunted by their
products.Ashok, an award winning photographer who won several awards
including the BBC award, while touring around Sri Lanka was amazed by
the stunning natural beauty and also saw the impact of the prolonged
conflict which ended two years back.
It immediately made him wonder about the children he encountered in
the battle-scarred communities and the unthinkable trauma they must have
gone through having witnessed the horrors of war first hand.He decided
that there must be a way that he could use his creative talents to help
these children.”I was in Sri Lanka last year and what I have saw during
my visit to the North had an effect on me. I was always thinking what
and how I could contribute something for these children. I see a
different world through my camera and I decided to share my artistic
skills with children so they might use them to see the world
differently.
“The project gave them their lost childhood back a little bit and we
wanted to teach them new skills and also some positive ideas”, Ashok
said recalling how the children who for the first time saw a
sophisticated camera rally around him and how they were surprised to see
their images in the camera screen.
“We are leaving some cameras with the schools and we hope to have a
dialogue with the children until we come back. There is a message from
these children. ‘All of them want the world to hear that living in Wanni
is not so easy.
With lives torn apart by the conflict they want the world to know
that they are picking up with life slowly forgetting their bitter past.
They also want the world to know that there is beautiful place call
Wanni in the North of Sri Lanka and children in that part of the world
are standing on their own feet erasing the deadly and bitter memories
that hurt them barely two and half years ago”, Ashok said.
Pix: Nissanka Wijeratne |