Transcript
VERENA THOMAS: So we are currently working with four community based organisations in Papua New Guinea to develop materials, and do that collectively. So we have done this and in particular through the development of digital stories. We have created together 40 digital stories. These are individual stories and experiences of human rights defenders who have taken photographs and recorded their own stories, that really deal with the causes, the impacts and also the solution to sorcery related violence. So the project has a research component to better understand the different manifestations of sorcery accusation related violence; it has an advocacy component to develop these materials, to then take them out to communities and others, and this component is in line with the national Sorcery Action Plan to address this issue in PNG.
DON WISEMAN: We know there have been some very, very terrible cases of people being accused of sorcery in PNG over the last few years. So some of these first hand accounts from human rights activists - they must be pretty graphic.
VT: Of course the experiences of the human rights defenders are very intense and the impacts in the communities are as well. However when we look at the way we are creating access materials and we want to represent the issue in the media, we really want to focus on some of the solutions and some of the stories that are coming out. When we represent them for example in the digital stories we do not focus on graphic imagery, unlike as we have seen in some of the media accounts. We are more looking at the use of metaphors, story telling and other ideas to visually represent stories in a respectful way but also in a way that we can touch people in terms of understanding the impact of the issue. So we are actually looking for a response that creates empathy in the community and gets people to experience more the emotional side of what people have gone through and to understand that this is an impact to the community as a whole. So we have started, this process is now with communities through screenings of these digital stories and we are finding that it is creating a platform for these conversations. So instead of presenting these horrific and graphic images. We are trying to look in, with the community, at the different solutions they they can develop together with the community based organisations and the human rights defenders.
DW: Are you going to people and essentially saying to them, look, you have got some wrong headed ideas about sorcery, or is it more nuanced than that.
VT: Yes I think that where we distinguish very clearly is we are not saying that people do not have the right to believe. We found that human rights, individuals have a right to believe, but we distinguish between using a belief to harm another person or to justify violence. So that's a very clear message that the human rights defenders carry, to say that the law is very clear in PNG, and worldwide, that you cannot use your belief to harm another person. And we are trying to bring this information, also about the law, to the communities. But we are doing it in a way where we are sharing the stories of the human rights defenders in the first place, to say, 'look at these stories and the impact these have had on communities and individuals.' And reflect on your own community what is happening here. So it is way to start this conversation in the community and not to talk at people but to invite them to have conversations around it, and invite these reflections within communities.
