Ørecomm

Centre for Communication and Glocal Change

New Report: Sharing of Stories Creates Dialogue

by Ulrica on 2014 January 9 16:03

Women Stories Newsletter FINAL[3]
Photo: Linnea Svensson Arbab
On 2 December 2013, more than 60 women gathered to share life stories and discuss experiences of being an immigrant woman in Malmö, Sweden. All part of the project “One Hundred Years With Immigrant Women In Malmö,” run by Malmö museum and the network Feminist Dialog in cooperation with researchers, including Ørecomm member Anders Høg-Hansen, from the Living Archives project at Malmö University.

The collaboration deals with central issues relating to public memory and archiving. One such issue is the tension/difference between collecting for storing and exhibiting and then on the other hand: a sharing of stories and experiences to create dialogue, movement and change.

Reporting back to those participating, and those who are just interested to be informed, is an important part of the process and movement. As a first step the project group compiled a newsletter in the form of a report from the workshop.

Parvin Ardalan, the initiator of the project, introduced the workshop:

Women Stories Newsletter FINAL[2]
Photo: Linnea Svensson Arbab
“This project is a small step towards re-reading, re-writing and re-thinking the history of immigrant women in Malmö. Who are the immigrant women? What do they want to say? How do they identify themselves and how are they identified by others? How did they come to Malmö and how did they live here? What did they do? How did the society behave towards them? Which memories do they carry within; from the past and until now? What role have they played in building the city of Malmö?”

She continued:

“The aim of this project – which really is a movement and a process – is to document stories by interviewing, collecting life stories, holding seminars and workshops, organizing exhibitions etc. With the participant’s tales we would like to question and explore responses and answers to promote a collective discussion with and about immigrant women in Malmö.”

In addition to introductions from Parvin Ardalan and several other speakers, participants were invited to express and discuss their own memories and ideas in small groups.

The newsletter, containing quotes, summaries and pictures of the outcomes from the workshop in the form of a report, can be downloaded in English as well as in Swedish.

This text was originally published here.

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