CSEL friend and colleague Jennifer Verson of Migrant Artists Mutual Aid writes below on the impact attending a CSEL session on psychology and memory had on her work as an artist...
In September this year, the
Weeks Centre for Social and Policy Research, London South Bank University and
the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance, Open University hosted an international conference: Migrant
mothers caring for the future: creative interventions in making new citizens. The conference was funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council, welcoming over 70 delegates
and attendees from around the world with two days of papers, panels, keynote
speeches and performances.
As a migrant mother artist whose
work addresses issues of citizenship and belonging, I was invited to participate
in the conference. I took the opportunity to develop a new autobiographical
one-woman performance that explores the intersections between cultural
transmission and trauma.
In December 2013 I attended
CSEL Evidence into Practice training events for the voluntary sector as part of
my role as a member of Migrant Artists Mutual Aid.
The training ushered in a period
of deep reflection on how I share memories with my daughter.
Almost a year later, the
conference afforded me the opportunity to enter the public domain with an
exploration of how trauma affects cultural transmission, and to ‘perform’ some
of the adaptive strategies I use to help my daughter understand her identity.
All migrants tell stories about
their country of origin and their families of origin. In professional and
social settings we are often asked to ‘tell our stories’. Every migrant
must develop coping strategies to tell these stories, especially when the
assumption is that these should be happy stories, and the teller is
not expected to recount traumatic memory.
‘Your Grandmother’s Middle Name
was Rose’ exposed these tensions and performatively explored their intersection
with the dual representational theory of posttraumatic stress disorder that was discussed in
CSEL’s dissemination workshop.
The 45-minute performance was a
fragmented journey of songs, stories and prayers interspersed with poetry,
video and educational explanations of the Dual Representational Theory of
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. The result was a bittersweet demonstration through song
of how public narratives are used to replace personal narratives and memories
when these personal narratives are ‘irretrievable’.
As an activist working with women
seeking asylum, daily I bear witness to the implementation of Theresa May’s
pledge to 'reduce net migration' and its effects on women and mothers seeking
sanctuary who are survivors of female genital mutilation, rape, trafficking and other forms of
domestic and sexual violence. The disappearance from public discourse of
narratives that are simply too difficult affects our society in a systemic and
dangerous way. Externalised, it enables negative credibility
decisions for survivors of gender-based violence in the asylum system, as well as their
social alienation. The internalisation of this disappearance is
what I explore through live performance
‘Your Grandmother’s Middle Name was Rose’ was a symphonic journey through the mal/adaptive strategies used to tell difficult stories and transmit culture. Through this journey, I was able to bear witness to the reality that millions of stories are erased from public discourse by migrant mothers struggling with the effect that trauma has had on their autobiographical memory.
The views expressed in this guest post are the author's own. CSEL is not a campaigning organisation and does not carry out campaigning or lobbying activities.
