Children deal with trauma through art

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.