On Sunday, 13th October 2024, our DEEP Global Circle members had a lovely meeting to catch up and share updates. The fascinating and fun bit was that while some members joined at 4 a.m. (Sunday) and were hoping to return to bed soon after, it was either Saturday night or Sunday afternoon for others. This definitely did not stop anyone from taking part in laughter and joy while yawning before starting the meeting with updates from the circles.
Alberto Gomes shared his recent talks and you can find his recorded episode with Melisa Idris here. This talk expands the professor’s view on coloniality, decoloniality, and how colonial legacies continue to influence our collective consciousness. Alberto is also very reflective in his talks as he shares his experience as an anthropologist working with Indigenous people. Future blog posts will share more details on his talks as they continue to happen worldwide.
One of our members, Jennifer Murphy, shared that she is working with her sister on a project–Teacher Barb and the Musicmakers. Their mission is ‘to create and share as much free beautiful music and puppet fun to as many children and their families as possible. To sing, move, feel, play and learn about and explore music together’. Jennifer is currently working on documenting her community work and she hopes to have a banner to represent the DEEP Network at events.
At DEEP Germany, the members Kevin Brenneman and Marisol Bock offered a workshop in collaboration with a regional foundation supporting creative educational projects called LAG Arbeit Bildung Kultur at a refugee shelter in Cologne from 16th to 20th September 2024. They conducted a one-week workshop for peace education through performing arts for children and youth. There were fourteen participants aged 11 to 17 who had lived at the shelter with their families for weeks or months. Since everyone came from different countries, there was no common language they all spoke. Yet, Kevin and Marisol still managed to communicate with everyone, particularly through improvisation theatre exercises. They engaged in playful intercultural communication means and games where no spoken language was required to bridge divides. Each day of the workshop was dedicated to a theme based on children’s rights, such as the right to equality, health, play, creative expression, and education. The workshops were well received and enjoyed by the participants and their families. Initially, some children seemed alienated and distressed but engagement improved over the days and everyone shared valuable and creative moments.
Our Asia Coordinator, Anna Suwardi, also informed us that DEEP EnGender circle has uploaded their activities and details which you can access here. The circle has agreed to facilitate fieldwork for a Master’s degree student from Ghent University. The student will be in Jambi, Indonesia, in January 2025 to work on the food security of the Indigenous Suku Anak Dalam. Last month, three EnGender members worked on a project proposal focusing on women’s movement in coastal areas in Southern Thailand and Aceh, Indonesia. The grant announcement result will be out before the end of this month so check the EnGender circle’s page for more specific news!
The DEEP Global Circle members are also working on a promising DEEP Podcast Series, coordinated by Keren Poliah, in which members of different DEEP circles can share their work, passions, views, and related academic or social topics.
The group will be holding another meeting in November so keep an eye out for our next update!
Author
Keren Poliah is our communication coordinator, DEEP Podcast Series coordinator, and project coordinator of the Decolonizing Circle. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing and is a writer from the tropical African island of Mauritius. She is currently based in Manchester (UK) at the University of Salford where she works as project manager and lecturer.