Smiles for Genocide Survivors Drawing & Painting
Umucyo Nyanza (‘Nyanza Light’) is a social enterprise based in the Nyanza district of Rwanda’s Southern Province of 14 women – 7 genocide survivors and 7 wives of genocide perpetrators. The group chose the name themselves, and came together through the shared purpose of reconciliation, strengthening relationships and meeting economic need. As we all know, these things take time; since 2014, they have been involved in a range of training, including trauma healing, forgiveness and truth telling.
In August this year, Arts Lab’s Sara Downham-Lotto was invited to spend a few hours with the group. Bringing along her portable box of art materials and equipment, the idea was to do some drawing and painting together – a first for all 14 women. Given the enormity of their lived experiences through and recovery from trauma, Sara wasn’t convinced that Umucyo Nyanza would respond positively to the activity, or, indeed, that it would serve any purpose. But it did.
After a couple of hours collaboratively playing with pattern and colour, together, they concluded that the activity:
- provided a rare opportunity to temporarily dispense with responsibilities of daily life, to enjoy being in the moment and to have fun. Play brought surprise and laughter and bonded the group through a collective trust in the process. The ladies were pleasantly surprised and proud of the outcome of what they had created. It was agreed that our lives too often tend to be consumed by ‘shoulds’ and ‘shouldn’ts’, goals and objectives, and tedious tasks of daily survival.
- gave permission to explore and experiment with individual pattern-making and choice of colour, again, instilling a sense of achievement. As trained experts in creating beautiful clothes and artefacts out of Kitenge fabric, this activity provided fresh approaches to thinking about pattern and design.
- instilled a sense of collective optimism and hope through the process of deconstructing and reconstructing artwork – a metaphor for life. Whilst life can be torn apart by traumatic events and circumstances, we have the choice to put it back together again – slowly and intentionally. The outcome can be an enriched and resilient existence, even better than before.
What’s next with the artwork?
With permission from the Umucyo Nyanza ladies, Sara is taking their finished piece away (now in 14 pieces). Back in her UK studio, she will reconstruct and rework their art and send a poster version to Nyanza for them to hang on the wall of their workplace.
For more images, go to project page ->
