A CONVERSATION WITH SURVIVOR’S STORIES

Throughout my long years of engagement at times of wars, I  encountered survivors who endured displacements, forced separation, and massacres. Back then, the stories informed my practice as a child protection expert.  Their stories lived with me for a while and It is only now, that I am learning how to unfold them. In my storytelling, I invite the audience to engage in a participatory process with the aspiration of exploring the challenges of going public with stories of survivors. I am especially interested in asking ethical questions revolving around telling stories of losses. What is that fine line between self-care, voyeurism, and solidarity? Where do my story stop and the stories of others start? Do I have the right to do this?

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Zeina Ismail-Allouche

An oral history/autoethnography storyteller, Zeina has worked for more than 20 years in the field of child protection especially with children forced to separate from their families. She has contributed to international initiatives to promote family strengthening aiming at preventing separation, participated in the drafting of the Guidelines for the Alternative Care for Children (2009), and established an NGO based in Lebanon to advocate for the rights to origins for the survivors who were illegally adopted from Lebanon during the wartime. She is currently a public scholar and an Individualized PHD candidate researching the life stories of individuals who have experienced transracial or intercountry adoption through a collaborative research-creation informed by Indigenous methodologies.

More information on her arts-based research