Diverse students share their stories
Diverse students share their stories
An exhibition created by postgraduate students from Victoria University’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences is designed to increase public awareness of refugee-background and migrant communities in Wellington.
An interdisciplinary group of students have been working on the innovative research project titled ‘Stories of Success’, as part of a Human Geography postgraduate course.
“We worked in teams involving students from countries including Bhutan, Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Cambodia, Bolivia and South Africa, to explore what success means to them”, says one of the organisers, Josh Wright.
“They created the images, and then chose the ones they wanted to share publicly.”
The students used Photovoice, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) method, which promotes research justice and helps people to ‘voice’ their experiences visually, as a way of putting their theoretical knowledge into practice.
The selected images are being exhibited at Victoria University this week, along with events for university students and the refugee-background community designed to celebrate the results of the student project as well as raise awareness about local refugee-background communities and support agencies.
“The exhibition displays participants’ photographs and words,” says Dr Sara Kindon, the course coordinator.
“In some cases, a title conveys the intended meaning and content of a participant’s image literally. In other cases, the images are more metaphorical.
“We see familiar landscapes or objects with fresh eyes as we read the photographer’s accompanying narrative.”
“The results are moving and powerful,” says course student Emma Hosking.
“They show how sometimes apparently small aspects of daily life can be significant indicators of successful resettlement and cross-cultural integration.”
The free exhibition is open to the public until Friday 26 July at Bec’s Café, Ramsey House, 8 Kelburn Parade.
A speakers event will be held at Bec’s Café for all to attend on July 24, and a special community event on July 25 is by invitation only. Please contact Jerome Cameron, email jerome.cameron@outlook.com for further details.
The exhibition will also feature at the Third International Visual Methods Conference in September which is being hosted by Victoria University and Te Papa Tongarewa (www.visualmethods.org).
The project is part of an ongoing partnership between Victoria’s School of Geography, Environment and Earth Sciences and local organisation, ChangeMakers Refugee Forum.
Victoria University offers a range of support initiatives for students from refugee backgrounds. Additional information is available on the website.