Beyond Narratives and Self-representations: Knowledge Production of Refugee Youths Making Art and Literature in Southeast Asia

Type

Single Panel

Schedule

Session 2
Tue 11:30-13:00 REC A1.04

Conveners

Akino Tahir RDI Urban Refugee
Realisa Darathea Masardi Universitas Gadjah Mada

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Papers

Paradigm Shift on Arts: The influence of Indonesia’ cultural norms to Refugees’ Artmaking Realisa Masardi Universitas Gadjah Mada
Researchers have focused on the role of arts in providing opportunity for the youth to put meaning in their situation which became the inspiration in making arts (Clacherty 2019). Some other researchers have argues how creating arts have given opportunity to young refugees to bring narration beyond the narration of victimhood (Boyden 2023) and also to give some collaboration space among the refugee youths (Campion and Dieckmann 2023). This presentation will highlight the process of self-discovery or self-making that happens inside the mind of young refugee who decided to become artists during their waiting time in transit. The experience of mobility obtained by the young people has allowed them encountering multicultural settings and learning new norms and values in the new places they reside. This experience may lead the youth to compare the cultures and norm from their country of origin and the transit/ destination countries and this comparison can impede self-reflection which result in some paradigm shifts for the youth. Thus, this study focuses on looking at paradigm shift when refugees making art which allows us to discuss the refugees’ ideas and knowledge production. The study attempts to answer two questions: (1). What is the process by which young refugee women create artworks?; (2). Which cultural influences of the transit country (i.e. Indonesia) impact the perspectives and art-making processes of young refugee women?
Ethical discussions concerning publicising arts of young refugees in Southeast Asia: Case of Fugee’s art initiatives in Malaysia Aireen Grace Andal Airlangga University
This piece aims to create a space for dialogue on the ethical complexities surrounding the publicising arts created by young refugees. I examine the art initiatives by Fugee, a Kuala Lumpur-based non-profit organisation championing refugee education and employability, to ground the following questions: 1) How to ensure that artworks produced by young refugees are not romanticised and avoids creating a “trauma economy” when publicised? 2) What institutional agenda is being fed by using young refugees’ artworks? 3) How to avoid sensationalising refugee arts in other mainstream media platforms? 4) What are the stakes in terms of ownership of publicised and archived arts/stories of young refugees?

By discussing these ethical questions, I hope to unpack the tensions between empowerment and exploitation, voice and voyeurism, and agency and appropriation, and how Fugee’s initiatives provide solutions for these questions. This presentation argues that truly amplifying refugee youths’ voices requires a grounded understanding of the power dynamics at play and a commitment to ethical knowledge production. By moving beyond simplistic narratives and self-representations, this piece hopes to discuss ways towards inclusive and equitable spaces for refugee youths to share their arts and stories, and shape their own futures.
A Reflection Note: On podcast production and beyond as a communication tool on youth displacement and empowerment Akino Tahir Resilience Development Initiative (RDI)
As of October 2023, there are about 3 million podcast worldwide, with about half a billion listeners in the world. First came out in 2004, podcast rapidly gains popularity not just because it is convenient for listeners but also because its ability to “time and place shift”, giving content creators the freedom to create and distribute contents more freely, practically without the restrictions of traditional terrestrial radio (AM/FM). Based on the author’s personal experience working with youth refugees to develop podcast on displacement, this session will explore podcast as a medium of communication and beyond, a process for self expression and finding voices for the producers and content creators, and an advocacy tool to convey information and messages to the public on displacement issues. As the involved youth then take upon themselves to create their own podcast to further explore the issue, the session will also share their reflection on using podcast to shape their individual and collective narrative on youth and displacement.

Show Paper Abstracts

Abstract

Young refugees have been represented by media and even researchers with a certain stereotypical narrative(s), either as “traumatized victims” or “aspiring young people”. In these representations, their experiences and stories are often reduced to “pre-flight, flight, post flight narratives” (Clacherty 2019). Seen as “traumatized victims”, they are often introduced to arts as “healing methods” where they are situated to reproduce the suffering narratives. On the other hand, various programs use art as “an empowering tools” for the young refugees. Here, the youths often focus on narratives which showcase their ability and creative capacity as young people.

This panel seeks to explore more complex and multilayered knowledge production of young refugees in creating arts and literatures. It will explore their relationship with arts, their experience in the process of creating arts, their reflections on the issues they “discuss” in their arts, as well as the transformation of their ideas reflected on their arts.

This panel invites academics, NGO workers, or individuals working or collaborating with young refugee artists in Southeast Asia to share their reflection on how they analyse and represent the refugee artists’ narratives in arts. The forms of refugee arts that will be discussed in this panel are open, such as visual arts, literature, dance, or music.