Design + Restorative Justice research and practice
“The recognition of humanity in the other is the beginning of dialogue”
- The Encounter of the Encounters
The Encounter of the Encounters
Co-facilitator with this international restorative circle group using co-creation, making and gifting to promote dialogue.
Participants share the harmful effects of political violence and the commitment to prevent its reoccurrence - as those who resorted to violence and those who were harmed by it.
24/ Elastic, book, spiral and sun-rays
During October 2019 I attended a workshop about restorative justice in cases of terrorism/ political violence. The workshop took place in Donostia-San Sebastián in the Basque Country, Spain. It was during this that the Encounter of the Encounters group was formed.
This artwork was my personal response to the workshop and encapsulates four visual images (elastic, book, spiral and sunrays) I gathered from the dialogues we shared. It included 24 pieces of handmade paper which were then gifted to the group members.
Elastic (life goes on but something is stuck in the moment of the crime)
Book (living history, our story)
Spiral (important years within personal timelines/ things can go up as well as down)
Sunrays (colours of the sun and light, darkness into light).
I created the artwork from my handwritten notes and drawings from the workshop. These were shredded, soaked in water, liquidised, and re-formed into sheets of paper. Each piece was 13 x 10cm, small enough to be placed in the palm of a hand. A fine piece of pale blue elastic was trapped within each sheet. This signified a pulling back to the time of the killing and a pulling forward into the present - life goes on but something is stuck in the moment of the crime and act of terror.
The paper was printed with a double spiral (important years within personal timelines/ things can go up as well as down) in colours representing darkness and light (sunrays). The double spiral was based on the Maori ‘Takarangi’; a representation of the creativity and innovation that happens in the space between chaos and stability (Tapsell & Woods, 2010).
When we could not meet during the COVID-19 pandemic each of the group members was sent one of the 24 pieces as a gift accompanied by a postcard (as pictured). The postcard asked about their thoughts on receiving the gift, requested a photo of where they had placed it and a few sentences about their choice of place.
Participants had placed their artworks in intimate places:
- by photographs of murdered loved ones
- by pictures of children
- in special places in people’s homes - places of contemplation and motivation
- in significant places in people’s workspaces/ offices
- on graves of friends and loved ones
Most agreed that the gift offered a tangibility and enabled a positive connection beyond the time of the encounter. Whilst this was not a formal piece of research, these responses were similar to my PhD findings - that connections and solidarities are enhanced through the making and gifting of things and that the gift offers a tangibility to the restorative justice process.
When we next met as a group in 2022, participants brought the gifted pieces with them. These were placed in a circle as part of a public event (as pictured). Read more about this project on the European Forum for Restorative Justice's website here.
The Encounter of the Encounters is a collaborative project involving the Universidad del País Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (University of the Basque Country), Donostia-San Sebastián, Spain and the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Catholic University of the Sacred Heart), Milan, Italy.
