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1. 1 2021-04-22T17:14:13-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram 79c90f81cbadbcee036c97b91365eec227a9fa16 Grace Acan on storytelling, healing, and justice Sarah York-Bertram 3 Annotation: Grace Acan on storytelling among survivors and learning what justice means for survivors. Transcript (by Patricia Trudel): "[I]n the process of sharing I was getting healed, I was hum, it gave me the chance to, to share with others who had similar issues, and I picked the courage to also talk about it with others, hum like, so hum I mean it's not only my problem as it is being stated here like it’s here: it is about me and any other girl who went and had the same situation. So, this, when we shared for about a year, and women started getting courage, they were like: 'okay, I am not the only one'. If I (pause) if she went through that much, and I guess went through this small, so she has the reason to live: 'why not me?'. So, this give a lot of women a lot of courage as well to move on and now they are moving well. So, after the project, we’re like (pause): 'will it end here just listening to each other? What can we do together, to change our lives?' Because we cannot keep on saying: 'give me, do this for me', we can do something ourselves. So together with Evelyn and two other, we co-founded Women's Advocacy Network, all in pursuit of justice for women affected by war and their children. So there was several issues that were affecting them, like health issues, socially they were not accepted, and economically they had issues. That's why today I would like to say in terms of justice (pause) according to my analysis, and interactions with those affected by war who I represent here today, justice to the women I represent is (pause) dealing with their needs that are affecting them. Is it economic needs? Is it social needs? Do they need acceptance? Do they need medical support? That is justice to them. Do they need support for their children at school? That is justice to them." plain 2022-07-19T12:53:38-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram 79c90f81cbadbcee036c97b91365eec227a9fa16

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• 1 2020-06-09T19:02:50-04:00 "Ododo Wa" means "Our Stories" 97 Page: contains an introduction to Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War. It covers the background of the exhibit and its development and features annotated photos and audio recordings in English and Acholi. plain 4880 2022-05-26T14:50:46-04:00 Sarah York-Bertram; Zhi Ming Sim
  "Ododo Wa" means "our stories" in the Acholi language of northern Uganda. 
  
  On 23 October 2019 the Canadian Museum for Human Rights (CMHR) launched the "Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War / Filles en temps de guerre" exhibit. It focuses on girls' experiences in war and the issues of abduction for forced marriage in conflict situations. It centres the stories of two girls, Grace Acan and Evelyn Amony, who were abducted by the Lord's Resistance Army. Acan and Amony, co-founders of the Women's Advocacy Network, are now grown women, mothers, researchers, activists, and authors. They survived years in captivity, escaped to freedom, and now they advocate for justice and reparations for survivors of conflict-related forced marriage and sexual violence.
  
  Ododo Wa started as a storytelling group hosted by the Justice and Reconciliation Project for survivors in northern Uganda. In the storytelling group, survivors worked together and shared their experiences following their return from captivity.
  
  Sharing experiences with other survivors was a healing process that led to the development of the Women's Advocacy Network.
  
  Advocacy work surrounding the making of Ododo Wa as a community initiative contributes and engages with the global grassroots and judiciary network in support of survivors of conjugal slavery.
  
  Swipe through the timeline below to know more about community led advocacy milestones and engagements.
  
  
  
  
  The Ododo Wa exhibit came together after years of collaboration between curator Isabelle Masson, Grace Acan, Evelyn Amony, Conjugal Slavery in War (CSiW )project coordinator Véronique Bourget, and CSiW project director Dr. Annie Bunting.       
  
  
  
  Dr. Bunting explains that the exhibit has a long history and took years to develop. It began when Isabelle Masson came to Toronto and met with CSiW partners. That is when they started the process and began to grapple with “how to communicate the complexity and the urgency of the issues around reintegration for women, men, boys and girls who had been abducted in conflict situations, not just in Uganda, but also in Liberia, northern Nigeria, in Eastern Congo, and in Rwanda during the genocide” (Bunting, 2019).
  
  
  
  
  Dr. Bunting and Grace Acan had previously met in 2011 in Freetown at the special court for Sierra Leone during a conference about abduction for forced marriage in conflict situations. “We were looking at the different situations in our partner countries and trying to have a sense of how international law and national reparations programs might respond to the needs of survivors in post-conflict situations" (Bunting, 2019). Evelyn Amony was also involved with organizing for peace and justice in east Africa as she held an essential role as a facilitator for discussions at the Juba peace talks which took place in South Sudan from 2006-2008. Acan and Amony both work now as researchers. Acan works as an archivist and researcher with Refugee Law Project. Amony is the chairperson of the Women's Advocacy Network and is involved in child tracing research.
  
  Acan and Amony explain that the storytelling group hosted by the Justice and Reconciliation Project helped them process what they had been through and they each decided to write memoirs about their experiences. Their memoirs, which are available to purchase, were also foundational to the development of the exhibit. Dr. Bunting adds that the storytelling group, which was the space where drawings featured in the exhibit were created, was not “initially intended to be a public display of their stories. It was meant to be part of a healing process” (Bunting, 2019). Acan and Amony, who were both involved with the creation of the drawings, agreed with and supported the inclusion of the drawings in the exhibit. As Bunting explains,

  “we've learned through their stories, reintegration in a post-conflict situation needs to respond to all of those complexities of the experiences of what happened during conflict and if we're not attentive to that, those programs will fail. If we don't actually pay attention to the hierarchies and the complex relationships that took place during war, then our post-conflict programs will not work” (Bunting, 2019).

  
  It is through a survivor-centred lens that the fullness and complexities of conflict, transitional justice, and reintegration come into view.       
  
  A traveling version of the exhibit, titled "Ododo Wa: Ododo pa anyira ikare me lweny," launched in Uganda in December 2019. The traveling exhibit, supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection Grant, was developed to facilitate community dialogues about justice, reparations, and the needs of survivors, their families, and communities in their local, regional, and national contexts.
  
  Follow the journey of the traveling exhibit through the StoryMap.
  
  Sources:
  • Quotes and audio recordings featured on this page are drawn from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights' "Ododo Wa: Stories of Girls in War" exhibit launch, held 23 October, 2019. If you are interested in reviewing the transcripts, please email your request to csiwproj@yorku.ca. 
  • The TimelineJS featured on this page was developed by York University PhD student and CSiW Graduate Assistant Zhi Ming Sim.