“A woman named Muna carries a goose across the border between Syria and Jordan. She has ju
“A woman named Muna carries a goose across the border between Syria and Jordan. She has just watched soldiers execute four of her children, ransack her home, burn her land, and slaughter her animals … ‘I brought my goose because it’s the only family I have left,” she explains.’” “She and the refugees are equally as helpless in the face of their losses. 'I’m going to listen to you for the next hour, and when you cry I’m going to cry with you, and I’m going to hug you, and I’m not going to pretend I can change anything. I’m just going to sit and listen.’” "Participation in this project of memory sustenance allows us to begin to combat the numbers that have constrained our understanding of human suffering. By acknowledging the dynamism of the individual, we can refuse to allow a statistic or an image to transform a person into a symbol and reject the representative control of forces that have already physically subjugated the body." Melissa Smyth for warscapes on art and healing among refugees Paintings: Through a Bullet Hole, 6x8 and Hanging In There 18x14 -- source link
#art therapy#refugees#syrian refugees#jordan#memory#human suffering#individual