MONTREAL/May 30, 2008—
http://storytelling.concordia.ca/
One of the recommendations of the recently-released Bouchard-Taylor report is that Quebecers invest effort and resources towards recording the life stories of newcomers to Quebec. In this same spirit, Concordia announced in October 2007 its project Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and other Human Rights Violations, led by Dr. Steven High and housed at Concordia’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling.
Over the next five years a team of university and community-based researchers will record life story interviews with more than 500 Montreal residents displaced by mass violence, ranging from the Holocaust to the Rwandan and Cambodian genocides, to political violence in Haiti, Latin America and South Asia.
“The Life Stories project uses oral history to explore Montrealers’ experiences and memories of violence and displacement,” said project member Callixte Kabayiza, President of the Association of Parents and Friends of Genocide Victims in Rwanda (PAGE-Rwanda). “This is a very important initiative for participating communities, and indeed for all of Quebec”.
“The debate over reasonable accommodation has sometimes relied on abstract labels such as ‘immigrant’ or ‘refugee’ or regarded particular cultural groups as though they were homogenous. Our project takes a humanistic approach. The participants define themselves,” said Dr. High. “The Life Stories project demonstrates the importance of not just studying communities, but recognizing them as partners in research.”
“The creation of a special fund by the Quebec government to support a program of interviews with a large number of immigrants would help widen the type of community-university partnerships established by the Life Stories project. This would allow all of us to more effectively contribute to the enrichment of Quebec history,” said project member Savary Chhem-Kieth, president of the Communauté Angkorienne du Canada, a Montreal-based Cambodian association.
For more information on Life Stories, please contact Luis Van Isschot at (514)848-2424 ext. 7920 or cura@alcor.concordia.ca.
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Source :
Tanya Churchmuch
Senior Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University
