(Northern Ireland) Oral History and Conict Resolution in an Intergenerational Art Project Presented by: Jill Strauss, John

Jay College of Criminal Justice CUNY Presented at: 4th International Conference on Conict Resolution Education Date of Session: June 10, 2011

Communities of Interest project participants at the Millennium Court Arts Centre Portadown, Northern Ireland

Can I see another's woe, and not be in sorrow too?

(William Blake, Songs of Innocence: On Anothers Sorrow, 1789)

Research Questions
1. When parties in conflict are too hurt, positional, or traumatized to hear the others story can they see it and even feel empathy? I wanted to find out whether interpreting visually someone elses story would be like walking in the others shoes for the artist participants and validating for the older participants to have their stories visualized in an empathetic way by another. 2. When one party in the conflict acknowledges the others narrative or experience as valid is it easier for the other in turn, to accept the legitimacy of the first partys narrative or experience? If portrayals of both/all sides of a conflict are exhibited in the same place thereby validating at an institutional level all the truths, will it be easier for the parties involved to accept the others experience as valid as their own?

Self-Reflection Memory and Imagination Walking in the Others Shoes Multiple Perspective Taking Listening and Paraphrasing Empathy and Validation Digging Deeper Peace and Conflict Resolution Education

Storytelling and Art Making

Visual Thinking Strategies

(OH) Life History = (CR) Timeline Activity Mirroring Activity

Concentric Circles - Listening and Paraphrasing Skills

Micro-Lab Activity (OH) Deep Listening = (CR) Active Listening

Empathic Perceptions by Nuala Gallagher

Love and Loss in the Milky Way by Fred Wilson, 2005

Whenever the name Portadown came before my eyes it was nearly always bad news. from Two Lands on One Soil by Frank Wright

Banner of Hope by Gillian Davidson

Third of May 1808 Francisco de Goya

Slaughter of the Innocents I: Execution at Szydlowiec, 1942 Meyer Kirshenblat

Yesterday Today Internally Displaced Peruvian Women Third of May After Goya Kigsmill Massacre Gillian Davidson Robert Ballagh

Us and Them by Emma Buckley

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St. George's Cross St. Andrew's Cross

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St. Patrick's Cross British Union Flag

The Four Provinces of Ireland Ulster, Munster, Connaught and Leinster

Hoping for a Sunny Day by Catherine McKenny

Like an old house at night with all the lamps lit and ancestors whispering inside to understand history we have to go inside and listen to what they're saying and look at the books and the pictures on the wall and smell the smells
The God of Small Things, Roy, 1997

You Cant Put Your Arms Around a Memory by Steve Lally with Sadie Hamill

Making Memories Matter project by the European Reminiscence Network

Border Incident by Willie Doherty, 1994