Children deal with trauma through art

By Mehru Jaffer

JAKARTA (JP): What can one say about children who have not met the same fate as their parents but have lived instead to see the their father's head chopped off and paraded on a pole, and their mother raped and murdered before their eyes?

That they will grow up refusing to do what has been done to them? That is the only hope of all decent human beings who do not believe in violence.

In the meanwhile, some concerned adults continue to work especially with those children who are victims of conflict, providing them with facilities to talk about their inner most feelings in a creative way.

These adults are not able to stop the many wars raging around the world today but they have succeeded in bringing at least a handful of marginalized children from different ethnic groups a little closer to each other.

This is obvious at a photography exhibition at the Central Atrium of the Mal Taman Anggrek where an entry by thirteen-year old Anisa shows two men standing shoulder to shoulder to each other. Behind them is a sign that says that they live in peace and harmony, despite the different ethnic community they belong to.

One of the men in the photograph is a Malay and the other a Madurese from West Kalimantan.

In a little request below the exhibit Anisa appeals to the leaders of both the Melayu, Malay, and the Madurese, the two warring ethnic groups to make peace with each other.

In his photograph Bakri, 13, captures another boy not much younger than him who holds a placard that says, We love peace between tribes, nations and religions. In other exhibits children and toddlers are shown at play and often their toys are swords and guns.

There are exhibits of street life of elderly men and women at work and at rest and of child prostitutes, along with shots of the raging fires of hatred that threaten to engulf both humans and their natural habitat forever.

The exhibition sponsored by The British Council is part of the Voices of The Next Generation project which encourages children to express themselves through theatre performances, story telling, coloring and drawing competitions, including discussions amongst teenagers.

"The idea is to let these children know that their voice is important. I want to create a safe environment where children feel free to express themselves and where children are sure that their voice will be respected," said Jonathan Perugia from the Indonesian charity A Child's Eye.

A few years ago Jonathan worked with street children, and the children of scavengers in Jakarta. He organized workshops with games and music that helped youngsters at first to get to know each other. Then the basics of photographic technique were taught to them in a light-hearted way. The young photographers were later let loose into the city and encouraged to open their eyes to the world around them before they clicked the shot of their choice.

Although the idea is not to make professional photographers of participating children it was a joyful moment when two were chosen for a course in photo journalism by the Antara news agency.

The organizers will be only too pleased if other sponsors come forth to help children realize all their creative dreams. Those workshops proved that even children from a city that is not involved in war can benefit.

"If the workshops work as a therapy for children and help them to heal that is fine but the intention remains to provide an opportunity to children at all times to express their feelings and to help build self-esteem, self-knowledge and self-respect even as they have fun," repeated Jonathan.

With the dream of opening up communication between people of different ethnic groups in Kalimantan the organizers went last October to work with children in refugee camps there. Jonathan was told that he could never get Malay children to come together with the Madurese. He persisted and worked with 62 children of Malay, Dayak, Chinese and Madurese origins who had experienced conflict in some way or another.

At first they were all nervous and held age-old prejudices perpetuated by adults, which prevented them from being friendly, but little-by-little everyone opened up to each other. The result is the photo exhibition, a joint effort by children from different communities and religions. Hopefully it will raise international, national, local and government awareness of the bloody situation in Kalimantan and its terrible effects, especially upon children.

The exhibition remains open till 26 March. Further inquiries at telephone number 2524115.