Exhibition starts its journey

The travelling exhibition on peace building after genocide has taken its first steps. Participating in the creation of the exhibition has been both a joy and a challenge, the team often wondering if we could pull it off, if it would be well received, if we could find a way through thorny and contested notions of peace building and reconciliation. And at the same time inspired by the stories we heard, believing that they should be given voice.

From first ideas to fabrication was a journey of over a year and a half and so excitement when the exhibition was finally shipped to Kigali, the boxes opened and the team figuring out how to put it all together, just in time for the opening of the annual commemoration of the genocide in early April.

Assembling the exhibition for the first time

Amazed at how professional and beautiful it looked

This first showing was a preview for officials attending the commemoration and other VIPs. The president viewed it and he liked  what he saw  and later it went up in the parliament for a day. The approval and appreciation from government is appreciated. The president thanked us for our contribution and shook our hands and the next day we left Rwanda.

Phil and the president

However, the stories in the exhibition are of ordinary people and the exhibition is for them. So it was a gift to be back in Rwanda this past month and to learn that during this month the exhibition would open in the small urban centre of Butare, its second community visit. It’s here for three weeks delivering day long workshops to secondary students, guided tours for schools and community organizations and because it’s right on the main street of the town there’s lots of opportunity for people to just drop by.

Phil helping put up the banner

Ready for the opening event

The preview was in a cramped space at the memorial centre so it’s a pleasure to see the exhibition for the first time in a large space.

The visitors get a guided tour

Genevieve speaks

Genevieve is the chairlady of one of the reconciled groups profiled in the exhibition. The group is near Butare and so Genevieve has come to speak about their association. Later the entire association will come for a tour of the exhibition. A group of students involved with a peace club, also profiled in the exhibition and an hour away by bus on dirt road, will come for a full day workshop. Members of both groups will also be doing public presentations, as will other peace makers living nearby.

The teachers from the Kigali Genocide Memorial will be assisted by members of a couple of local organizations who will facilitate discussions and assist with guided tours as well as organizational assistance and coordination. I had the honour to facilitate a couple of days of training with members of these groups, exploring the story telling methodology of the exhibition. How to honour that everyone has a story, how to facilitate inclusive discussions, how to tell the stories of the exhibition in a way that communicates the embedded messages. We learned together.

Here’s a few photos from the training. People are sharing stories and providing deep witness to each other.

“We don’t have to go anywhere else to make peace” says one participant. “It starts right here.”

Here, two group members are participating in a gentle process of connecting with self and other, led by a counsellor in the group.

This is what I love, people are learning together, people taking care of each other, the education team at the memorial centre taking ownership of this exhibition, people working together to bring the stories to community.

That peace is possible. A nine year old boy writes in the guest book about the need for tolerance. Another reflects that anything is possible and she can see  that peace can be attained at a high level. A man stares at a photograph of a woman with the men who killed her family and he says, "In 1994 God left Rwanda, but now I see that God has returned."