Revisiting peace makers

As blog readers know, a big project we’ve been working on the past year has been a travelling exhibition on the themes of ‘peace making after genocide.’ Some of our field visits, collecting peace making stories from communities, have been profiled in earlier blogs and many of you have also made a donation to support this project to completion.

We came back to Kigali in January to support the completion of this exhibition, and it’s been an exciting time. The exhibition will be fabricated by the end of March and this means we’ve been busy with final details of narrative, photography, design, and production decisions. We’ve also been showing printouts of the panels to staff at the memorial and to community organizations and incorporating feedback.  We have also been travelling around the country, showing the peace maker groups how we at the memorial centre have told and portrayed their story and seeking their consents.  

It has been humbling and rewarding to show them this work and to witness their response. They are pleased. They have also been sharing with us what they have been doing since we last met, how they are continuing to bring change to their communities together. Here are a few photographs from some of these consent visits. 

In the west, a large turnout to see how their story was portrayed. 

Recently, this strong group of survivors and ex-prisoners has reached out to those who have suffered in mixed marriages and have not felt they belonged anywhere. These new group members gave some testimony, and how, having joined the association, they felt they had a home. 

Members of a school peace club studying the portrayal of their story

These students in the far south of Rwanda  took a small donation given them in appreciation for their contribution and started an economic project, buying goats. Now they have quadrupled their capital. 

Members of a woman's group in the north-east meet in the house of a sick group member. One of the memorial centre's teachers is holding up their panel. 

These women felt their story had been told just as they had told it to us. They were so pleased, one woman said, we will sign twice!! This was rewarding, because their words had gone from Kinyarwanda to non-professional English translation, to being edited in English and translated back in Kinyarwanda!

Villagers from Musambira Sector looking at  the exhibition

In this photo, the director of the memorial centre is showing a group of reconciled villagers who have just completed sigining all the consents, examples of other peace makers profiled in the exhibition. They want to meet them all! These villagers are so inspiring we decided on the way back to Kigali to bring them to speak at an event at the memorial centre at the end of March. 

Women in an association near Kigali deep in contemplation

We are making one more field trip this week, to the north near the border with DRC to gain consents on two other stories. Then we are finished with this. But while north, we are also looking  at a possible site for hosting the exhibition!