Results and submissions : REF 2021

Fiji in the World: national heritage activated, re-appreciated and re-valued

Submitting institution: The University of East Anglia
Unit of assessment: 25 - Area Studies
Summary impact type: Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

The material heritage of Fiji is preserved in numerous museums around the world, notably in the UK, continental Europe, North America and Fiji. Since 2011, research, exhibitions and publications on these little-known collections by Professor Hooper and his UEA team have revealed their extent and significance, leading to:

Enhanced public understandings and appreciation of Fiji’s rich cultural heritage, including at the highest political and diplomatic levels in Fiji and the UK;
The raising of Fiji Museum’s national and international profile, resulting in plans for the total renovation of Fiji’s national museum;
The revival of traditional Fijian canoe-building skills, leading to inter-generational skills transfer and the display of a traditional Fijian canoe as an icon of carbon-free transport during Fiji’s Presidency of COP23 in 2017.

2. Underpinning research

Steven Hooper and his Fijian Art research team have, since 2011, examined and analysed extensive Fijian collections in over 40 museums in the UK, continental Europe, North America and Fiji ( 3.4, 3.5). This built on a previous AHRC-funded research project, Polynesian Visual Arts, and its major touring exhibition and book Pacific Encounters: Art & Divinity in Polynesia 1760-1860 (British Museum Press, University of Hawai’i Press, Te Papa Press (NZ), 2006; Musées Nationaux Paris, 2008).

A wealth of documented material was uncovered, providing crucial evidence of how Fijian objects embodied two key types of relationship: (1) gift exchange relationships among Fijians – as objects circulated among kin and between chiefdoms – and (2) exchange/trade relationships between Fijians and visitors, notably European traders, missionaries and colonialists (Britain was the colonial power 1874-1970). Internal Fijian relations were mediated and sustained by gift exchanges of a range of local products, including decorated barkcloths, mats, fibre skirts, kava bowls, weapons, canoes and whale ivory valuables. These pre-existing exchange practices in turn influenced how, in the 19th and 20th centuries, objects were deployed by eminent chiefs such as Seru Cakobau to manage relations with outsiders via strategic exchanges, diplomatic gifts and sale. This analysis challenges over-simplistic approaches that characterise ‘collecting’ in the Pacific as colonialist appropriation, as this view denies Fijians’ agency in the tactical deployment of their own products to further their interests. As evidence, analysis showed that whereas weapons and textiles were traded freely with Europeans from the early 19th century, items made of whale ivory were withheld from such exchanges until the 1870s ( 3.1, 3.2).

While this forensic research into the micro-histories of museum collections uncovered complex relationships, mediated by and embodied in objects, art-historical approaches also revealed a much more dynamic picture of Fijian creativity than previously recognised. For example, in the early 19th century craftspeople responded to the availability of metal tools by building enormous sailing canoes (over 30m long) and by developing new and more elaborate forms of chiefly regalia using increased supplies of whale teeth obtained from European traders ( 3.2). The extent of this Fijian creative adaptability and exchange-based culture has been highlighted in international exhibitions and publications ( 3.1, 3.2, 3.3).

Research on UK and other Fiji collections involved collaboration between researchers at UEA and curatorial staff at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge, which holds over 3,500 Fijian objects. The team included PI (UEA) Professor Steven Hooper, who first conducted fieldwork in Fiji in 1977; Co-Is Dr Karen Jacobs (UEA) and Dr Anita Herle (Cambridge); RAs Dr Andy Mills (UEA) and Dr Lucie Carreau (Cambridge) and Admin Assistant Ms Katrina Igglesden, a UEA PhD student of Fijian heritage. Project partners were Fiji Museum, the British Museum, National Museums Scotland, Pitt Rivers Museum University of Oxford, World Museum Liverpool, Maidstone Museum, Musée du quai Branly Paris, National Museum of Natural History/Smithsonian Institution Washington DC and Peabody Essex Museum Salem, USA ( 3.4). In 2015 and 2016 the AHRC selected project research to feature in two of their research and impact publications, and on their website ( 5.6).

Additional impact was facilitated by an AHRC/ODA Follow-on-Funding project, Fiji's Artistic Heritage: impact and engagement in Fiji ( 3.5), run by the UEA team (Hooper, Jacobs and Igglesden). This was in collaboration with Fiji Museum and the iTaukei Trust Fund Board (a Fijian cultural organisation), whose staff visited the UK for museological training and who subsequently undertook exhibition and heritage projects in Fiji.

4. Details of the impact

Among the most important impacts of the underpinning research and its dissemination via exhibitions, publications and canoe projects has been increased understanding and appreciation of Fiji’s rich cultural heritage at all levels of society, within and beyond Fiji.

Enhanced understandings and appreciation of Fiji’s cultural heritage, including at the highest political and diplomatic levels.

As research revealed the range and quality of Fijian collections, Hooper was approached to curate a large-scale exhibition of a kind not attempted before. This resulted in Fiji: Art & Life in the Pacific, co-curated with UEA colleagues at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts between 2016 and 2017 and later at Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 2019 until 2021 ( 3.3; 5.6, 5.7). Fiji’s High Commissioner to the UK, [* redacted *], served on the Fijian Art project’s Advisory Board (between 2011 and 2014) and visited UEA and Cambridge (which holds important Fijian collections). He then brought the President of Fiji (2012) and the Fiji Prime Minister (2012, 2013) on further visits hosted by project staff. He and these eminent guests had no idea of the wealth of collections in the UK and only limited knowledge of the high-quality contents of their own national museum – then a somnolent institution. [* redact *] successor as High Commissioner, [* redacted text *], accompanied the Fiji President and Her Majesty The Queen when they accepted invitations respectively to open and visit the Fiji exhibition in 2016 and 2017. He wrote:

“My predecessor [*redact*] told me of the remarkable treasures you had shown him, and how His Excellency the President and the Honourable Prime Minister had both been astonished at their extent and quality. Their visits to museums with you certainly caused them to reflect on our national collections in Fiji Museum, and how Fiji’s unique cultural heritage should be given greater prominence at home and abroad. For me, accompanying His Excellency the President and Her Majesty The Queen to your Fiji exhibition are highlights of my tenure as Fiji High Commissioner. Your work has encouraged us in the High Commission to prioritise cultural initiatives. These include the Fiji UK Culture project which you, Dr Jacobs and Dr Igglesden have so generously initiated and supported, and which is reconnecting our UK-based Fijian diaspora, especially the children, with their home culture and language” ( 5.1).

$Embedded image$ UK-based Fijians visiting the Fiji exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre, UEA, February 2017

UK-based Fijian visitors to the exhibition were likewise astonished at the range and quality of their heritage materials, previously unknown to them. A typical response was by [* redacted text *]:

“My children and I had no idea about all these wonderful things and about our history shown in the exhibition... Thank you so much. It was a revelation and made us all proud especially myself. I come from an island where we used to build canoes, so to see the beautiful drua, and to know that Her Majesty has seen it, made me happy and a bit sad at the same time knowing that my relatives don’t built [sic] them anymore, but perhaps they will again if they know how much people admire them” ( 5.2).

Acclaim for the UEA exhibition attracted the attention of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California’s largest museum, whose Deputy Director visited Norwich and proposed that the exhibition be toured to LA. The Fiji Prime Minister accepted an invitation from Hooper to open that exhibition on 15 December 2019 and, as a consequence of COVID-19, its run has been extended until May 2021 ( 5.7).

Hooper has also advised successive UK High Commissioners to Fiji on cultural matters. Melanie Hopkins emphasised their increasing focus on culture and education and credited Hooper in a Fiji TV interview.

“I got to spend time with some of the people in the UK who really care about Fiji… People who have a particular career interest or anchor around Fiji. The one I will never forget is Professor Steven Hooper from the University of East Anglia, who has Fiji in his blood. He is the world authority on Fiji customs and traditions, and he was one of the masterminds behind the exhibition on Fiji ‘Art and Life’ that took place at the University of East Anglia in 2016” ( 5.9).

The raising of Fiji Museum’s international profile, leading to plans for the total renovation of Fiji’s national museum.

A significant aspect of the UEA and LA exhibitions was the loan of 32 rare pieces from Fiji Museum. The museum had not previously made international loans and their inclusion has significantly raised their profile at home and abroad. Museum staff members visited the UK during the AHRC-funded projects and the UEA Fiji exhibition – Fiji Museum being a project partner. During a UK visit the Fiji Prime Minister asked Hooper to prepare a plan to develop Fiji Museum and in 2016 he was appointed an Honorary Adviser to the museum. In 2017, with the Director, he undertook a comprehensive review with 18 staff that has provided a basis of the museum’s current Strategic Plan. Alongside other project initiatives undertaken at Fiji Museum, including exhibitions such as Art & the Body and Kamunaga: The Story of Tabua, the loans to the Los Angeles Fiji exhibition led to discussions in December 2019 between the owners of Fiji Water (exhibition sponsors totalling USD600,000) and Hooper, Igglesden and the Fiji Museum Board Chair and Director. These resulted in an offer from Fiji Water of USD25,000,000 to fund the total renovation of Fiji Museum, including provision for running costs to ensure sustainability. A costed proposal to transform the museum’s ability to serve the nation and overseas visitors, substantially authored by Hooper, has been submitted to Fiji Water. Covid-19 has delayed plans, but it is anticipated these works can commence in late 2021 or early 2022 and that Hooper and the UEA team will play major roles in planning and delivery. In July 2020 the Chair of the Fiji Museum Board of Trustees wrote to Hooper:

“Your research project and exhibition, with the Fiji Museum loans and other work you and your colleagues have done with the museum, has set off a chain reaction that has led to this exciting development for our national museum... the research projects that you have run, and especially the international exhibitions, have been of tremendous assistance in giving our staff professional experience... It is also excellent news that HE the President, after he opened your Fiji exhibition in Norwich and our Kamunaga exhibition here at Fiji Museum, has agreed to be official Patron of Fiji Museum” ( 5.3).

In October 2020, at Hooper’s invitation and on the 50th anniversary of Fiji’s Independence, the Directors of the British Museum, National Museums Scotland, the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology Cambridge and the Pitt Rivers Museum Oxford wrote to the Fiji Museum Director proposing collaborative MOUs and assistance with Fiji Museum’s development ( 5.10).

The revival and transfer of traditional Fijian canoe-building skills.

Hooper’s idea for a canoe to be a dramatic feature of the Fiji exhibition led him to seek out the few remaining specialists capable of building a high-quality traditional double-hulled sailing vessel. Such a canoe had not been made for decades and the builders studied the only remaining ancient example in Fiji Museum. Hooper organised the commission of an 8m canoe for exhibition, made to the highest traditional standards and without metal components. It was test sailed on Suva Harbour, was paraded on Fiji Broadcasting Corporation’s float at Fiji’s 2015 Hibiscus Festival and featured in HM The Queen’s four-day 90th birthday pageant at Windsor Castle in 2016. After being shown in the Fiji exhibition at UEA, it was then displayed at the Fiji Prime Minister’s request as an icon of carbon-free transport at the COP23 Climate Change meeting in Bonn in November 2017. The Prime Minister, as Chair of COP23, repeatedly stressed that, with respect to climate change, “We are all in the same canoe” and publicly credited Hooper when he opened the Fiji Pavilion in Bonn ( 5.5). The canoe caught the attention of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich who have installed it as a major feature of their new Pacific Encounters gallery (opened 2018). Hearing of this canoe initiative, the Director of Berlin’s Ethnologisches Museum contacted Hooper to arrange a commission for a larger 11m canoe, delivered in 2019, as a special feature for their new museum in the Humboldt Forum in Berlin. The museum is developing a VR navigation programme for use by children, who will be allowed on deck. A third (8m) canoe was commissioned by LACMA for display at the Fiji exhibition in LA. [* redacted *], Head of Mechanical Engineering at Fiji National University and canoe project manager in Fiji, wrote to Hooper:

“I can honestly say that your exhibition projects, that have enabled us to build three beautiful drua, have reinvigorated our canoe-building heritage and allowed us to hand on the skills that were dying out... I now have the confidence to think we can do an even bigger project together and build a drua like the great ones of the past... This would be a fantastic floating classroom to teach children about their proud voyaging heritage” ( 5.4).

In summary, Fiji-focused research has increased recognition of the value of Fiji’s artistic heritage at all levels in Fiji, the USA and the UK, with concomitant financial support for exhibitions, activities, skills revival and, in the near future, substantial funding for the total redevelopment of Fiji’s national museum. The three canoe commissions brought approximately GBP90,000 directly into the Fiji economy, besides approx. GBP31,000 paid by sponsors to transport the canoes to the UK, Germany and the USA. Sponsorship for the Fiji exhibitions at UEA and LA amounted to over GBP800,000 (from Fiji Water, Sainsbury Centre, LACMA, Tourism Fiji, Fiji Airways, Mundy Cruising). The additional economic impact of these exhibitions and other project-linked activities is extensive. In recognition of his contribution, Hooper was invited as guest of honour at the 2016 UK Fiji Day celebrations in Ipswich (400 guests) and in 2017 was awarded The Order of Fiji by the President of Fiji for services to culture and education, an honour usually only bestowed on Fiji citizens ( 5.1). For heritage professionals in Fiji the impact has been profound. [* redacted *], Research Officer at the iTaukei Trust Fund Board, wrote in August 2018:

“I have never really stopped talking about and sharing my experience of that UK tour... one couldn’t help but be inspired... We have never stopped sharing and implementing what we’ve learned as individuals and as institutions” ( 5.8).

Growing Up Married: Influencing the Development of New Draft Legislation, Improved ...

Submitting institution: The University of East Anglia
Unit of assessment: 25 - Area Studies
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

According to the best available global estimate (care.org), every day 39,000 girls become child brides. The UK Government’s Forced Marriage Unit provides advice or support in around 1,300 possible cases of forced marriage each year in the UK, but many more go unreported. Eylem Atakav’s research on gender in the UK and the Middle East has influenced and advanced the UK policy debate and improved training and practice on this key human rights issue. Her research film Growing Up Married (2016) has used women’s testimonials to raise awareness of the urgency and intensity of the trauma of forced child marriage as well as the scale of the issue.

As a member of the United Kingdom’s (UK) Domestic Abuse Research Network, and through her close partnerships with influential NGO groups such as ‘Girls Not Brides’, the UEA research has brought new perspectives to the ongoing development of a new ‘Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age) Bill’, which is now awaiting a second reading in the House of Commons. It has influenced the development of more effective training programmes for the police and other frontline agencies in handling young women and families affected by or vulnerable to forced marriage. It has also given victims and survivors the confidence to come forward and use their experiences to help others.

2. Underpinning research

Eylem Atakav’s feminist film research is focussed on women, media, and the Middle East. Her ground-breaking 2012 monograph, Women and Turkish Cinema ( 3.1), foregrounds the ways in which modern Turkish cinema represents power relations in gender, cultural identity, and representation. It offers a comprehensive view of cinema’s approach to women in a country which straddles European and Middle Eastern cultural conceptions, identities, and religious values. A number of publications and public engagement activities emerge from this seminal work to raise the profile of issues of gender politics, including violence against women in the form of ‘honour’ crimes, virginity tests, forced marriage, and domestic sexual violence ( 3.2).

Her film Growing Up Married ( 3.3) offers a direct presentation of the ongoing effects of domestic violence against girls. It follows four women from Turkey as they recollect their memories of forced marriage as child brides. Atakav began interviewing women in Izmir, Turkey, who came forward to document and share their experiences. The film, Atakav’s first, shifts her existing theoretical research about representation and visibility into documentary practices of personal narrative and testimony.

First-hand knowledge of the cultural contexts within which human rights abuses occur globally is essential to mitigating and stopping future abuse. Stories of what happens to those forced to marry as children are often as invisible as the practice itself. Atakav’s academic practice amplifies the visibility of these stories; her work gives an informed and nuanced platform for understanding forced child marriage, communicating the urgency of the issues in the UK and internationally. Atakav’s article for Critical Discourse Studies, ‘ Growing Up Married: Representing Forced Marriage on Screen’ ( 3.4), reflects on the process of mediating women’s and girls’ untold stories through film whilst exploring the ways in which women articulate these experiences in retrospect. She argues that the ways in which women speak out about these experiences not only reveals issues around forced marriage, but also sheds light on the wider dynamics of domestic violence, sexual abuse, and child abuse. Atakav’s contribution to a chapter in Creative Practice Research in the Age of Neoliberal Hopelessness ( 3.5), extends this self-reflexive feminist practice to include analysis of the impact of her filmmaking and the ways in which creative practice and theory challenge the dominant forms and voices of film in the contemporary academy.

4. Details of the impact

Eylem Atakav’s work on forced marriage has highlighted the urgent need to reduce the incidence of what remains a significant human rights issue in the UK and internationally. Her work has brought this issue to a much wider audience by giving a voice to victims and survivors of forced child marriage. In doing so, Atakav has raised national and international awareness of the problem, changed police practice and training in frontline agencies, worked with UK parliamentarians to create new UK law, and enabled victims and survivors to try and influence future generations.

Enriching the Public Discourse – Awareness Raising and Promoting Debate

Since its 2016 UK premiere at London’s Phoenix Cinema, Growing Up Married has achieved an international reach, including screenings in Bangladesh, Cyprus, Japan, Turkey, and the United States. In 2017, it was featured in the 15th Dhaka International Film Festival Official Selection, at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Charlotte International Film Festival and at the Los Angeles Forum.

Consequent media coverage has widened and enriched the public debate on the reality of forced and child marriages. Reports on the film, including a 2016 article by Thomson Reuters Foundation journalist [redacted text], have been published in a range of large circulation national and international newspapers, including the New York Times, the UK Daily Mail, the Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey), The Daily Star (Lebanon), and Gulf Times (Qatar), as well as online sites such as The Huffington Post (5.1).

The film has also brought Atakav’s research to an international academic audience through screenings at universities in Japan (Graduate School, Museum of Ethnology, Osaka), Turkey (Bilkent, Istanbul Aydin), the United Kingdom (Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge, Leicester, Southampton Solent, Warwick), and the United States (Drury, San Francisco State, Walsh). After the Aydin screening, the students and staff commented “it was very valuable […] to share this film with the young people who could lead the changes in the society” (5.2).

The Phi Beta Delta Association of International Scholars have awarded a medal of honour and lifetime membership for Atakav’s work on Growing Up Married.

Enabling Victims and Survivors to Speak Out – Greater Confidence, Advocacy, and Education

Through her documentary work, Atakav has increased the confidence and willingness of victims and survivors to come forward and educate the next generation. [redacted text] two of the interviewees in Growing Up Married, describe how taking part in the documentary has given them a unique opportunity to integrate their experiences of forced marriage into their life narratives and speak to a wider audience:

“After talking [to you], I felt like my confidence was restored and I felt so happy to have shared it. It is comforting to speak out. Those were things that I haven’t spoken about before […] it helped me come to terms with what happened” (5.3).

“I thought it was time to tell someone about my life […] I am glad lots of people will watch the film and hear about my experience…” (5.4).

[redacted text] felt that documenting and voicing her trauma had the potential to effect wider understanding and lead to changed perception of the practice: “if my story can change one person’s idea about forced marriage […] then I will be even happier” noting that “education” was the key to a reduction in forced marriage (5.4).

The impact of these brave women’s testimonials is acknowledged by [redacted text] from Drury University (USA). [redacted text] who first saw the film at a 2017 NAFSA Association of International Educators’ seminar, now includes Atakav’s film in her syllabus due to its relevance locally and internationally:

“our state legislature was discussing the minimum age for marriage – discourses about which many of the students [before they viewed the film] […] had been previously unaware and found shocking” (5.5)

“[The film] helped my students move beyond legislation to visualising the human people – girls and women – whose lives were being profoundly affected by policies in which they had no voice [ … and they gained] a deeper appreciation for the power of personal narrative” (5.5).

Influencing Cross-Sector Improvements in Prevention and Safeguarding Training

Growing up Married has proved a valuable resource to inform and train UK public services and charities. The film has raised awareness and changed the content of the training provided by frontline agencies in the East of England (including Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk County Council, and the NHS). Atakav has spoken at domestic violence and abuse services events, and at public and institutional screenings since the film’s release. Through these, she has reached practitioners from the Leeway Domestic Violence and Abuse Services (which supports over 9,000 adults, children, and young people experiencing domestic abuse every year), the Pandora Project (which supports vulnerable women and children affected by domestic abuse), and St Giles Trust (which supports people held back by poverty, exploitation, and abuse in London and across the UK).

Since 2016, and using her film as a training resource, Atakav has run sessions for:

Honour Based Abuse, Female Genital Mutilation, and Forced Marriage Multiagency Strategy Group (Norfolk Constabulary Headquarters; ongoing sessions since 2016: approx. 180 attendees).
NHS Norwich Community Conversation Group and Norfolk Constabulary (2017: 30 attendees).
Designated Safeguarding Children Team (Norfolk and Waveney), NHS doctors and nurses, and Looked After Children Named Professionals (2017: approx. 30 attendees).
Domestic Abuse Champions training, Norfolk County Council (2019: approx. 50 attendees).

[redacted text] from the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (Norfolk) acknowledged the importance of Atakav’s research and its influence on police understanding and practice:

“[Atakav] remains an important member of the Domestic Abuse Partners Forum [… her research is] a compelling argument for the need to prevent and eradicate this practice [… and] informed our Strategic Plan by championing, influencing and offering visual content to deliver the group’s key message” (5.6).

“[Atakav] has had significant […] impact on the training content of Norfolk Constabulary and its partners […] domestic abuse service providers will feel empowered to be able to provide support as they will have a good level of knowledge in this type of abuse […] our practice has changed” (5.6).

The Norfolk Constabulary Safeguarding Development Officer described Growing Up Married as “invaluable” in prompting police to recognise that forced marriage happens in Norfolk, reminding “agencies and the community [ … that] the Constabulary can implement prevention and disruption options to manage perpetrators of this abuse” (5.7).

Helping to Catalyse the UK Policy Debate, Including Influencing the Development of a New Bill

Atakav’s innovative approach to research, outreach, and awareness has had a catalytic effect upon the national policy debate around forced and child marriage. The ability of Growing Up Married to make such real-life stories accessible has allowed Atakav to forge new relationships with national and international institutions to put a process of change in motion.

Atakav is a member of the Steering Group of the UK Domestic Abuse Research Network, and has worked in partnership with the NGO community, including the Iranian and Kurdish Women’s Rights Organisation (IKRWO) and ‘Girls Not Brides’ (the most influential global non-governmental organisation). Building these relationships has allowed Atakav to use her research to assist the key UK non-governmental groups who advocate for legislative change by providing rigorous evidence to governmental agencies and committees.

In 2019, as part of her involvement in these organisations, Atakav screened sequences from Growing Up Married at a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Population, Development, and Reproductive Health. This group includes in its membership [redacted text redacted text redacted text redacted text redacted text redacted text redacted text] as well as key NGOs (such as IKRWO, ‘Girls Not Brides’, Independent Yemen Group, Karma Nirvana, and the UK Says No More campaign). The film was screened as part of the APPG discussion of the private member’s bill, ‘Marriage and Civil Partnerships (Minimum Age)’, which is aimed at criminalising child marriage and no longer allowing marriage between the ages of 16 and 18 with parental consent.

[redacted text] (Vice-chair of the APPG) noted that Atakav was “the only academic representative invited to the meeting” and that her research was a “central contribution to our discussions about the need for legislative change” (5.8).

“Prof Atakav has been influential and poignant in demonstrating the vital need to eliminate this very harmful and shocking practice […] it is vital to use academic research such as this research film to instigate change” (5.8).

[redacted text] (Co-chair of the APPG, author of the private member’s bill) noted:

“The film gives an insight into the lasting effects child marriage has […] Prof Eylem Atakav’s research is welcome [ … it] brings an important new academic understanding around women, gender politics, and the media” (5.9).

[redacted text] (Co-chair of the APPG, who led the September 2019 briefing), echoed her colleagues:

“Her contribution enabled members of the APPG on PDRH to better and more fully understand the long-lasting legacy of child marriage […] Academic research like Atakav's strengthens the work of the APPG […] and its commitment to legislate against the issue of child marriage” (5.10).

[redacted text] private members’ bill offers the most potent parliamentary route to legislate around this issue, particularly at a time when the government’s attention has been focused on issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. As [redacted text] asserts, “The Bill is vitally important in the prevention of children (predominantly girls) being coerced into early marriage, and thus removing their opportunities in life” (5.10). The bill was read in the House of Lords on 27 January 2020 and re-introduced to the House of Commons [redacted text] on 6 October 2020. The second reading of the Bill in the House of Commons is now awaited. Atakav’s research has had a clear and demonstrable impact on the shaping of the bill as it was prepared and presented to both Houses of Parliament.

Recovering and Returning Stolen Histories through digital archives: America’s campaign ...

Submitting institution: The University of East Anglia
Unit of assessment: 25 - Area Studies
Summary impact type: Cultural
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

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1. Summary of the impact

Between 1879 and 1918, thousands of Native American children were transported from their homes across the United States (US) to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania (PA). Carlisle’s mission was to re-educate them in preparation for assimilation and American citizenship. The school’s motto was “Kill the Indian, save the man”. The history of Carlisle, the focus of prize-winning research by Professor Jacqueline Fear-Segal, is largely based on records held in the National Archives, Washington DC. These are relatively inaccessible to Native communities and little known amongst the wider American public.

Fear-Segal, with colleagues at Dickinson College PA, digitised the Carlisle records, creating the Carlisle Indian School Digital Research Center. This ever-growing resource holds over 20,000 student records, images and publications, and has impacted upon three key constituencies:

Native American individuals and communities who have learned about the hidden and untold histories of their ancestors, leading to deeply personal discoveries of lost relatives, often with dramatic impact. [* redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text *]
Native and non-Native teachers and students across North America have acquired new understanding of the history of the US government’s educational campaign, through workshops, a Teachers’ Institute and innovative lesson plans.
The general public has greater awareness of the impact of Indian boarding schools in North America, which has been deepened through conferences and media coverage.

2. Underpinning research

Fear-Segal’s prize-winning historical monograph, White Man’s Club (3.1), argues that with the founding of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1879-1918), government officials embarked on an ambitious experimental campaign to destroy all manifestations of Indigenous cultures via a programme of educational genocide. They worked to rapidly re-educate Indigenous children in the language, behaviour, values and religion of white society, in preparation for assimilation and American citizenship. To achieve this, they transported thousands of Native American children from their homes across the US to a military-style boarding school in PA; Carlisle’s mission was, “Kill the Indian, save the man”. During its near forty-year existence, the school enrolled almost 10,000 children from every US Native nation, and beyond. Fear-Segal’s research demonstrates how this institution created the template for the federal Indian School system, established across the US, and later Canada, so affecting every Native American and First Nation community.

Her introduction to Carlisle Indian Industrial School: site of indigenous histories, memories and reclamations (3.3) locates Carlisle within its wider historical and international context; the macro-history. Her chapter 11 is a micro-history, showing how fragments from the archive can be pieced together to tell the story of two Apache children who were captured in Texas and deported to Carlisle in the late nineteenth century. These children’s descendant family only learned what happened to their ancestors when contacted by Fear-Segal (3.2; 3.3). Her writing sets the rigorous research standard for this innovative, multi-vocal collection, incorporating the perspectives and voices of scholars, poets, activists and Native American descendants of students. It stands as the published legacy of the 2012 Carlisle symposium she co-organised.

Fear-Segal’s research is deeply rooted in the physical site of the Indian School. She links the campus design, with its “panopticon” bandstand at the centre, directly to the surveillance that was inseparable from the school’s mission of educational genocide (3.1). Her carefully reconstructed historical and contemporary maps (3.6) enable modern-day visitors to make informed visits to the site and its cemetery, to see and understand the campus within its historical context. Her chapter on the school cemetery (3.3) provides clear particulars on its removal and recreation, as well as the misnaming and misplacing of children’s graves during this process; [* redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text *]

In meticulous analysis of the photographic archive (3.4; 3.5) Fear-Segal reveals these Carlisle photographs to be more than simple portraits of “progress” in the well-established reform tradition of before/after images; they are visual portrayals of the myth of “the vanishing Indian”. Indigenous elimination made realistically convincing through the medium of photography subtly legitimated seizure of tribal homelands; non-existent peoples did not need lands.

Fear-Segal’s research on Carlisle in the National Archives, Washington DC, gave her insider knowledge of sources and an understanding of their significance to many Indigenous individuals and families who remained uncertain about who in their community was transported to Carlisle. Information about how school life was lived by their ancestors − what names they were given, who ran away, who died, who was buried there and who survived to return home − has, until recently, remained in the archives, relatively inaccessible to Native communities. Mainstream American society knew little of the Indian boarding school established in Carlisle to eradicate Indigenous cultures, or the system of Indian industrial schools across North America for which it provided the template. The impact of this work has been to begin to reveal and address this injustice.

4. Details of the impact

Establishment of the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (CISDRC) and the Carlisle Journeys Conferences

The 2012 Carlisle Indian Industrial School symposium, which was underpinned by Fear-Segal’s research and co-organised by Fear-Segal with [* redacted text *], demonstrated intense interest in the untold histories of those who attended Indian boarding schools during the 19^th and 20^th centuries. It brought over 290 delegates to Carlisle, including over 150 Native Americans from 36 tribes. Native and non-Native scholars, leaders, artists and community members shared their work, concerns and perspectives on the Carlisle Indian School at the symposium. This motivated Fear-Segal and [***] to open up the archives to a wider audience. A successful bid to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, collaborating with [* redacted text * redacted text * reda] Dickinson College, followed (USD700,000), to fund the digitisation of the Carlisle records and the creation of the Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center (CISDRC) (5.2). The grant enabled 17,738 surviving Carlisle student records, 3,491 images and 1,726 publications to be scanned and placed online (as of 11/12/20), for access by descendant communities, researchers and teachers (5.3).

The CISDRC has surpassed 450,000 total individual visits since the project began and more than 3,000,000 page views (5.2) and continues to expand its primary resources to include newspapers and documents held in other repositories, with plans to offer individuals the ability to contribute their own digitized photos, documents, oral histories and other personal materials to the online collection. According to Michael Oberg in Native America: A History (2017), “The Carlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center is digital humanities at its best” (5.9). Links to the site are given in a very wide range of educational sources, including: Indian Pueblo Center; Ohio’s Yesterdays; Navajo Preparatory Library School website; American Yawp Reader. The project has also inspired the digitisation of other boarding school archives, mostly notably of Sherman and Genoa, and the creation of a national database. [* redacted text *], the Director of the Genoa Indian School Digital Reconciliation Project writes that “the CISDRC was a model” for their Genoa project and applauds that “the CISDRC is working closely with the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in their efforts to create a national database of all boarding school records” (5.4).

[* redacted *], Director of Carlisle’s local historical society (CCHS) explains that in response to “the highly successful 2012 Carlisle Symposium”, he “initiated a series of biennial Carlisle Journey conferences … to continue the Symposium’s productive engagement” with a widening audience (5.4). In 2013, Fear-Segal helped create the new Carlisle Journeys Committee, which organised biennial conferences at the CCHS (2014; 2016; 2018). These drew 122 attendees in total (54 with Native connections), to discover and discuss boarding school histories. A native Nez Perce delegate attending in 2018 wrote about how the conference had changed her understanding of the “Beginning of cultural genocide ... the thinking behind the policies” enabling her to “ retell the story with [a] new voice of healing” (5.8).

Establishment of the CISDRC, along with the biennial Carlisle Journeys Conferences, has led to impact on three key constituencies: 1) Native American individuals and communities; 2) Native and non-Native teachers and students; 3) Members of the general public.

1) Impact on Native American individuals and communities

Personal discoveries of lost relatives

The Carlisle Journeys conferences offered Native Americans the opportunity to learn about the untold histories of their ancestors in the very place where many of their life stories unfolded. [*redacted text *], an Omaha Native American delegate, invited to speak at the 2018 conference, described how, “It was important in my own journey of understanding who I was, and where I descend from ... Being there offered me the opportunity to walk in [my relatives’] footsteps and understand what life must have been like for [them] ... It really drove home the pain, trauma, and strength of my ancestors. Visiting the cemetery was an especially powerful experience; to see so many head stones” (5.5).

In addition to experiencing a distinctly personal journey while contributing to the conference itself, [*****] was introduced to the CISDRC for the first time during her visit to Carlisle, which she called an “invaluable resource for research into my lineage. It captured the stories of my ancestors in a way that allowed me to reimagine their lived experiences”. As an illustration of this, she recounted how she “learned from the letters … that I had a Great-Grandmother that died at Genoa Indian School. I would never have known that if those letters were not accessible to me through the Carlisle digital archives” (5.5).

It is these very personal stories, revealed through the digital archive, that lie at the heart of this project. [* redacted text *, the Kiowa Pulitzer Prize winning poet and writer, who has an enduring commitment to Carlisle noted: “This archive … is going to be indispensable to people who are interested in Carlisle, and everyone should be interested in Carlisle” (5.5). Carlisle closed in 1918, when Americans’ belief in the capacity of Indigenous Americans to assimilate was faltering. The 2018 conference marked the 100^th anniversary of this closure, [* redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text *].

Fear-Segal’s long-standing relationship with the CCHS and her research in their photographic archive (3.5), instigated the opening of the largest holding of Carlisle photographic images to on-line viewing on the CISDRC. [* redacted text *] wrote: “Jacqueline’s expertise and research integrity convinced me to allow the Cumberland County Historical Society’s extensive photographic collection to be digitized and included in the CISDRC database” (5.4). These photographs enable family members to both see and crucially, to share images of their student ancestors, often for the first time. [*****], after posting links to the photographs on social media, recorded how “Many people were reduced to tears at seeing the faces of their long-lost relatives/ancestors. With the photographs and accompanying [information] in the student files, they saw their own faces and were able to read the stories of their beginnings. Although heart breaking, for many this offered a glimpse into the ancestral trauma and memory that we all carry” (5.5).

The repatriation of buried children to traditional homelands

The CISDRC team has specifically assembled data on the sensitive topic of the Indian School Cemetery (5.3). [* redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text *

2) Impact on Native and non-Native teachers and students

New perspectives in school and college curricular

Native and non-Native teachers and students across North America have acquired new awareness of the historical government educational campaign and the impact upon the lives of the individual Native students who were its subjects. In particular, teachers, students and curriculums have been impacted in the following ways:

In 2016, Fear-Segal and [***] ran pilot workshops at seven reservation schools in New Mexico and Arizona, to increase awareness and extend use of the CISDRC’s digital resource by Native schools and communities (5.2). Further workshops, supported by a National Historical Publications and Record Commission (NHPRC) grant, were organised in more than 18 separate communities, making direct contact with 557 community members, 355 students, and 62 teachers (5.7, pp.5-10 ). All workshops screened “The Lost Ones” film to introduce Carlisle (3.2).
The CISDRC team, supported by the NHPRC grant, organised a week-long Teachers’ Institute at Dickinson College in 2017, attended by 20 Native and non-Native teachers from across the USA, with Fear-Segal’s White Man’s Club (3.1; 5.2) distributed as the main reading (5.7, p.21 ). [* redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text * redacted text *]
Lesson Plans were created to increase the visibility and impact of the online resource and raise awareness of this lost part of Native American histories (5.2), for which Fear-Segal’s research was key (3.3; 3.5). The 250 Teaching Toolkits (created with NHPRC support) were distributed to schools across the USA, free on request (5.7, pp.3-4 ). Teachers reported the influence on their teaching of the toolkits, lesson plans and other materials provided online by the CISDRC, with one teacher describing the extract on the CISDRC from Fear-Segal & Rose’s (eds.) Carlisle Indian Industrial School: Indigenous Histories, Memories and Reclamations (3.3) as “the essential text to begin any lesson on Indian boarding schools” (5.2).

3) Widening public awareness of Indian boarding schools

The contribution of the CISDRC to wider public awareness of how Indian boarding schools inform contemporary issues, like Native adoptions, was noted in the New York Times in 2019 (5.1). Non-Natives participating in events in Carlisle report a new understanding of shared histories leading to healing. For instance, one non-Native delegate at the 2014 conference wrote that: “It has opened my eyes … I want to educate myself as much as possible about Native peoples’ history, so that I can then educate my children” (5.8). Broad and growing public awareness is garnering support for the recent (September 2020) Congressional Bill (H.R. 8420), introduced by Representative Debra Haaland (Laguna Pueblo) and Senator Elizabeth Warren, to establish a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policy in the United States, to address what Haaland calls “the traumatic history of genocide and forced assimilation by the federal government” (5.10).

Using arts-based approaches to strengthen the resilience of displaced marginalised ...

Submitting institution: The University of East Anglia
Unit of assessment: 25 - Area Studies
Summary impact type: Societal
Is this case study continued from a case study submitted in 2014?: No

Download case study PDF

1. Summary of the impact

In Colombia, millions of people displaced by violent conflict over the past fifty years face new risks in the areas where they have resettled, such as flooding, landslides and fire. Our team worked alongside resettled people to get their stories, in their own voices and artistic styles, to wider audiences, thereby strengthening awareness of displaced people’s experiences, abilities and needs. Our collaborative, arts-based approach to knowledge-exchange built relations of trust with Indigenous and traditionally marginalised groups and helped generate new support networks and community-driven initiatives. The success of this work also influenced government policy, informing the development of inclusive institutional programmes aimed at strengthening local capacity to manage and reduce risk in marginalised settlements.

2. Underpinning research

Over five decades of armed conflict in Colombia have resulted in one of the world’s largest populations of internally displaced people. As of February 2020, the Unit for Attention and Reparation of Victims (UARIV) had recorded almost eight million people internally displaced by violence, 16% of the country’s current population ( unidadvictimas.gov.co). The 2016 agreement between the Colombian government and the FARC (The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) was an important step towards attaining peace, but many Colombians displaced by violence from their predominantly rural homes and livelihoods now face new forms of risk, such as flooding, landslides and fire, in the urban spaces where they have mostly resettled.

Our research analysed how people displaced by armed conflict become exposed to greater risk from environmental hazards. Colombia is highly vulnerable to earthquakes and volcanic eruption, and flooding and landslides caused by intense rainfall are an annual occurrence. According to the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD), around twenty million people were affected by disasters in Colombia between 2000 and 2019 ( portal.gestiondelriesgo.gov.co), many of them in areas inhabited by internally displaced people.

The research project ‘Moving with Risk’, funded by the ESRC, and the follow-on project ‘The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction’, funded by the AHRC, were a continuous interdisciplinary collaboration between; humanities, social science and natural science scholars at the University of East Anglia (UEA); psychologists and community-arts practitioners from the Psychosocial Institute for Disaster Risk Management at the Universidad de Manizales, Colombia; the Colombian Red Cross; the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) of the government of Colombia; the disaster risk management units of three local government departments in Colombia, and; Colombian Human Rights organisation, DeJusticia. Co-creation and collaboration with local communities were at the heart of both projects. Our team engaged directly with 429 individuals which gave us a much wider reach across all four case study sites, located in marginalised settlements in Cazucá, Soacha, an urban working-class district of the Metropolitan Area of Bogotá, in the city of Manizales, Caldas, some 300 kilometres west of Bogotá, and in two sites adjacent to Pereira, Risaralda, 35km south-west of Manizales. With populations of approximately four million, 400,000 and 500,000 respectively, these are regions where 30−60% of land is prone to flooding and landslide, and where overcrowding creates fire hazards.

Findings: For people facing the immediate risk of violence, displacement was the primary survival strategy, but it allowed for little consideration of environmental hazards (3.5). People resettled in ‘at-risk’ areas often prefer to remain in their new spaces rather than move yet again (3.5 and teocripsi.com/ojs/index.php/TCP/article/view/308). Despite not having effective formal channels for communal disaster risk reduction actions, displaced people are keen to work in broader coalitions mediated by academics to manage risk in their places of resettlement (3.2, 3.3). Our interdisciplinary research demonstrated the potential to further strengthen existing capacity through arts-based approaches, which helped break down issues of distrust and stigma for Indigenous and marginalised communities (3.1, 3.3, 3.4).

The following outputs were co-designed and co-produced with participating communities:

Resumen de Actividades Investigativas 2017−2018 (Summary of Research Activities 2017−2018). This booklet details the arts-based methodologies and artistic outputs in each case study site. It includes a DVD containing a film of all the artistic outputs of ‘Moving with Risk’: three theatrical plays written and performed by communities in Cazucá and Pereira, two dances created and performed by Indigenous women in two sites in Pereira, a story book written and illustrated by communities in Pereira, and a mural co-designed and painted by community in Manizales, now on public display in the library of Universidad de Manizales.
Metodología de IdentificArte (Methodology of ‘Moving with Risk’). This film details the arts-based methodologies used in ‘Moving with Risk’.
Cuidando Ando Mi Territorio: Prácticas comunitarias en gestión del riesgo de desastres ( Looking After My Environment: Community Practice for Disaster Risk Management), 2020 . This book on disaster risk management is written and illustrated by communities in Pereira.
Online toolkit detailing our arts-based methodologies in both interdisciplinary projects. (Submitted to national and local government disaster risk management departments for approval for hosting; delayed due to pandemic but will be available post COVID-19).
Two exhibits in the World Bank/Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery online exhibition, The Art of Resilience. These are: Resilients, which captures the personal stories of how families have coped with forced relocation, and IdentificArte: Movilizándonos con el riesgo, a theatrical play written and performed by community for ‘Moving with Risk’ project.

3. References to the research

‘Telling it in our own Way’: Doing Music-Enhanced Interviews with People Displaced by Violence in Colombia, Marsh, H., Armijos, M. T. and Few, R.

New Area Studies, 2020, 1(1), pp.132–164.

Available at newareastudies.com/articles/abstract/32/ and held on file at UEA.

‘Indigenous engagement, research partnerships, and knowledge mobilisation’ (report for Indigenous Engagement Programme funded by the AHRC), Armijos, T., López Getial, A., and Ramírez Loaza, V.

2019. Held on file at UEA and available at; webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20200601114551/https://www.ukri.org/news/esrc-ahrc-gcrf-indigenous-engagement-programme/related-content/moving-with-risk-teresa-burneo/

COVID 19 Crisis: Lessons for Recovery. What can we learn from existing research on the long-term aspects of disaster risk and recovery?

Few, R., Chhotray, V., Tebboth, M., Forster, J., White, C. Armijos, T., Shelton, C.

The British Academy, London, 2020. Held on file at UEA and available at; thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/covid-19-crisis-lessons-recovery/

‘Connecting with Emotions: Exploring the Arts and Valid Research with Displaced

Communities in Colombia’, Franklin, J.

Sentio, ( SeNSS), 2019, 1, pp.69−70. Held on file at UEA and available at;

sentiojournal.uk/issues/issue-1-validity/

School of International Development Research Briefing 14,

Ramirez, V., Amijos, T., Few, R.

DEV Research Briefing 15 (May) University of East Anglia, Norwich, 2019. Held on file at UEA and available at; Moving with Risk: Forced Displacement and Vulnerability to Hazards in Colombia,

Grants

Project: Moving with Risk – Follow on Funding. The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction: an arts-based approach to strengthening community and institutional capacity in Colombia. (PI) Hazel Marsh. Funder: AHRC follow-on funding. Grant value: GBP91,221.00. Project dates: 2019−2020.

Project: Moving with Risk: forced displacement and vulnerability to hazards in Colombia.

(PI) Roger Few.

Funder: GCRF ESRC/AHRC. Grant value: GBP247,819. Project dates: 2016−2018

4. Details of the impact

Our projects, and the methodologies used to ensure the widest ownership of them, have played a key role in shifting perceptions, practices and policies both inside and outside of resettled marginalised communities in Colombia. The progression of work from impact-oriented research and engagement in ‘Moving with Risk’ to research-informed engagement for impact in ‘The Art of Disaster Risk Reduction’ has enabled us to build collaboratively a momentum of change in communities and in the institutions that represent them, and make policies that affect them. First, by creating spaces that enable healing from trauma, the projects have enhanced the psychosocial wellbeing of some of the most disadvantaged social groups in the country. Second, our facilitation of cultural expression in communities facing major ongoing risks has strengthened solidarity and directly enabled the emergence of new networks of neighbour-to-neighbour organisation, which have provided crucial support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Third, our project opened up mechanisms for the participation of hitherto marginalised groups in decision-making on disaster risk reduction. Fourth, the project has demonstrated how government agencies can recognise, respect and work with the capacities of marginalised social groups. Finally, our project is having direct influence on the design of policies and practices affecting at-risk communities, thus contributing to the creation of safer environments for disadvantaged social groups.

Impact on community practice. For socially and politically marginalised people who have suffered enormous loss and trauma as well as the disempowering effects of violence and displacement, traditional social science interviews can re-open wounds and cause extreme distress. In our research, conversations about music chosen by participants for its personal significance, and subsequent arts-based workshops, produced channels of community-led expression which generated trust, created new social networks, and opened spaces for communities in twenty-eight neighbourhoods across four municipalities to articulate their capacities, experiences, priorities, feelings and needs to us, to each other and to key stakeholders. We also used the arts to raise community members’ awareness of state services available to them, leading to changes in practice at the community level. Testimonies from participating communities were collected in four case study sites: the city of Manizales in Caldas; the settlements of Caimalito and Esperanza Galicia near the city of Pereira in Risaralda; and Cazucá in the municipality of Soacha, Cundinamarca, just south of Bogotá. All quotations are translated into English from the original Spanish and to ensure anonymity pseudonyms have been used. Testimonies from participating communities indicate that our research:

Enabled healing from trauma: ‘[The music conversation] helped me a lot, after you came here … I went to [the hospital] … and asked for an appointment and then spoke to a doctor and he told me, “You have this and that” … I felt a lot better afterwards … if you hadn’t come, I don’t know, I’d just be here depressed’ (‘Elena’, Caimalito, S1, p. 2).
Increased confidence and self-esteem: ‘The project … allowed me to recognise … my capacities and talents’ (‘Dolores’, Esperanza Galicia, S2, p. 6).
Built trust and collaboration between neighbourhoods, communities and institutions, strengthening community capacity to take ownership of disaster risk management: ‘relationships [with the institutions] improved’ (‘Juan’, Pereira, S3a, p.5). ‘[The project] brought together a good team of leaders from the neighbourhoods. With this group we’re incentivised to do a lot more work’ (‘Pedro’, Cazucá, S3b, p.16). This has helped communities to deal with the current pandemic: ‘Living through the pandemic … we’re applying everything we’ve learned through [the project]’ (‘Antonio’, Manizales, S3c, p.20).
Raised awareness of legal aspects of disaster risk reduction in informal settlements: ‘now we know exactly which institutions to go to according to the requirements we may have, we’re not so lost’ (‘Susana’, Manizales, S4, p.7).

Impact on government policy and practice. For the Colombian Red Cross and government at regional and national levels, the community-led artistic outputs, presentations and performances touched the emotions profoundly and prompted change. The arts enabled stakeholders to view people displaced by violence beyond the legal category of ‘victim’ and allowed them to access the human stories behind the statistics. This produced new and inclusive institutional initiatives designed to bring community voices into decision-making. In the quotations below, all names are pseudonyms. The letters ‘CRC’ indicate representative of the Colombian Red Cross, ‘NG’ national government representative, and ‘LG’ local government. Testimonies from government and the Colombian Red Cross evidence our institutional impact through:

Transformed perceptions and understandings. Civil servants were moved to new understandings of the lived experiences and human consequences of displacement, leading to greater recognition of local non-technical forms of knowledge and a commitment to deepen and extend collaborations with affected communities: ‘now we have a different perception … and it’s not going to be difficult to be able to work together and carry on doing activities’ (Miguel, LG, Pereira, S5a, p.4). Civil servants also stated that the projects enabled them to see how, through art, ‘you can reach the communities better’ (Cristina, CRC, Pereira, S5b, p.8). This is significant because institutions usually find access to ‘vulnerable’ communities is ‘complicated’: ‘I discovered that doing these kinds of [arts-based] activities, the community gets closer and “gives” more, believes [in the institutions] more, there’s more empathy and more trust in what [we do]’ (Cristina, CRC, Pereira, S5b, p.8). Art, a specialised professional from the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) of the government of Colombia stated, ‘offers the possibility of people not only enjoying themselves but of learning things, and not only learning but identifying their own potential … [their potential] perhaps hasn’t been identified before’ (S6b).

Raised status of local knowledge. As a result of our work, the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management (UNGRD) of the government of Colombia has paid community members to formally present their artistic outputs at official events, raising the status of previously marginalised forms of local knowledge. UNGRD has indicated that community activities will now be a formal part of the government’s annual disaster risk reduction month every year. Community-led theatrical performances created and produced for our research were included in the national government’s ‘Month of Disaster Risk Reduction’ formal activities in Bogotá, 19 October 2018 (S7a).

Translated extract: ‘‘Innovative Tools to Strengthen Community Resilience’, in which the UNGRD, the Universidad de Manizales and the UEA, UK, generated space for discussion about the importance of, and ways to, advance and strengthen processes of community ownership of disaster risk management … communities … had the opportunity to show, through theatre, how they are taking ownership of disaster risk management in order to create community resilience’.

Helped shape a more inclusive approach. As a direct result of our research, the government has recognised the need to include community voices in ongoing policy debates. Our research has stimulated new government initiatives: ours is one of three projects (and the only non-governmental project) that the Colombian government has selected to incorporate into a new ‘National Strategy for Community Resilience (COMUNGERD)’. UNGRD has asked the project team to provide input on diversity and inclusion, which is being used for the development of new policy on disaster risk reduction to better target Indigenous and other marginalised social groups including low-income households, women and disabled and older people. In a letter dated 1 November 2019, the subdirector of UNGRD of the government of Colombia stated: ‘Your ideas … are a significant contribution for different public, private and community bodies that are part of the National System for Disaster Risk Management to join efforts for the strengthening of the community aspects of disaster risk management, which is vital for our country’ (S7b).

Changed institutional practice. Representatives of the UNGRD of the Colombian government have stated that our projects have influenced their approach to working with internally displaced people who face environmental hazards in their places of resettlement and helped civil servants to recognise and value the knowledge of marginalised communities. A specialised professional from UNGRD wrote on 13 March 2019: ‘In Colombia, apart from what you have done, I am not aware of any other studies that explore how displaced communities have developed their own capacities and measures to improve their safety’ (S6a). Government representatives stated that, as a result of our projects, their focus has become more collaborative and horizontal: ‘we started saying … let’s work with the community, build with them and let them tell us what they want, let them start telling us what disaster risk management is … let’s learn from them’ (Sofía, LG, Manizales, S8b, p.4). Civil servants recognised that the projects’ arts-based approach generates ‘greater impact’: ‘as professionals, we assume when we go into the communities to build capacity that [they] have no knowledge of the topic … the [projects] … started from the premise that the communities do know, they just don’t know the technical language’ (Anita, CRC, Cazucá, S8a, p.1). Civil servants have started ‘building together’ with the communities and state that changing their methods has resulted in ‘more participation’ (Sofía, LG, Manizales, S8b, pp. 4-5). A specialised professional from UNGRD stated that the national government aims to make these changes permanent: ‘we have to look for mechanisms to make these processes sustainable … that’s why at the UNGRD we’re trying to implement the Strategy for Community Resilience [COMUNGERD], which aims to recognise [processes started via the project]’ and ‘seeks to recognise processes, give them visibility and integrate them into a network so that [the project work] continues’ (S6a).

Media reporting that has raised awareness more generally. Government support for the project stated in a newspaper article reporting on community arts presentations, 3 October 2018. Translated extract: ‘[Through the arts activities] The government and municipality of Pereira want to approach all communities about the mitigation of risk … to get to know them, to reach out to them … this allows … a means of promoting equality, inclusivity and respect for the other within an increasingly diverse society. Activities of this type allow risk mitigation throughout the length and breadth of the municipality. On this occasion [Indigenous communities performed], and through these processes the strategy will grow and expand to more communities and will keep reaching for the objective of guaranteeing safety and saving lives’ (S9).

Impact on teaching and scholarship. The Psychosocial Institute for Disaster Risk Management at the Universidad de Manizales, Colombia, is incorporating our arts-based methodologies in the institute’s post-graduate courses. The director of the institute states ‘Without doubt, these … projects allow the strengthening of the scientific community in the area of education’ (S10).

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