acknowledgments

Credits

This project is a collaboration between the Historical Memory Commission of the Center of Memory of Colombia and the University of British Columbia.

General coordination: Pilar Riaño-Alcalá, University of British Columbia and Colombian Commission of Historical Memory

Project coordination and translation from Spanish to English: Sara Koopman

Website concept and design: Lex Milton

Funding:

This project was generously supported by a grant from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Swiss Government. Support was also received for the May 2010 workshop from the Faculty of Arts HSS Symposium Grants and the School of Social Work at the University of British Columbia.

Workshop participants:

Burundi: Fr. Emmanuel Ntakarutimana, Centre Ubuntu

Canada: Paulette Regan, Director of research for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC)

Brenda Ireland, TRC, developing a community narratives toolkit for the Commission

Samaya Jardey, TRC Community Liason, historian of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society

Sharon Thira, former Executive Director of the Indian Residential Schools Survivors Society. Now Program Director for Kloshe Tillicum, an Aboriginal Health Research Centre, UBC.

Cynthia Milton, University of Montreal

Alison Crosby, York University

Erin Baines, University of British Columbia

Sunera Thobani, University of British Columbia

Colombia: Jesús Abad Colorado and Maria Luisa Moreno, members of the Colombian Historical Memory Commission

Croatia: Vesna Terselic , Documenta, Center for Dealing with the Past

El Salvador: Victor Manuel Perez, Human Rights Ombudsman’s office, Coordinator of the National Search Commission for Children Disappeared during the War

Guatemala: Brenda Pineda, Human Rights office of the Archbishopric, Historical Memory Unit

Indonesia: Mugiyanto,  IKOHI, Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared

Peru: Rosa Lía  Chauca, President of the Network for Children and Families of Peru

South Africa: Catherine Kennedy, South African History Archives, former TRC investigator

Uganda: Moses Chrispus Okello, Refugee Law Project, Makerere University, Kampala

Michael Otim, International Center for Transitional Justice, Uganda Program

Zimbabwe: Farai  Maguwu, Center for Research and Development

Acknowledgments

The production of Remembering and Narrating the Conflict benefited from the wise contributions and generous support of a great group of people. This material is the product of their collective input and enthusiasm with the project.

Thanks to the team of the Historical Memory Commission of Colombia who produced and generously shared the initial resource material and took the initiative to see the material translated and adapted to be used in other parts of the world.

Special thanks to Mo Blekker who supported this project intellectually, financially and provided contacts and advice.

Thanks to the School of Social Work, the Liu Institute for Global Issues, and the Faculty of Arts at the University of British Columbia for logistical and financial support.

Our special acknowledgment to the many memory practitioners and experts who provided thoughtful and creative comments.  As well as those who participated in the workshop, listed above, we also received feedback and contributions from:

Colombia: Martha Nubia Bello and Maria Emma Wills, Colombian Historical Memory Commission

 

El Salvador: Gloria Guzman, Hegoa y Mujeres por la Dignidad y la Vida

Kashmir: Rita Machanda, South Asia Forum for Human Rights

Kosovo: Nora Ahmetaj, Centre for Research, Documentation and Publication

Liberia: Mark Marvey, Naymote, and Aaron Weah, International Center for Transitional Justice

Palestine: Sami Adwan, Peace Research Institute in the Middle East

Sri Lanka: Malathi de Alwis, International Centre for Ethnic Studies

Uganda: Ketty Anyeko, Justice and Reconciliation Project, and Chris Dolan, Refugee Law Project

United States: Brinton Lykes, Boston College

Thanks to the team of students who provided their feedback, enthusiasm, support and work during the workshop “Dialogues on Memory: Strategies for reconstructing memories in conflict and post conflict zones”: Katherine Fobear, Julie Okot Bitek, Laura Lee, Lara Rosenoff, Beth Stewart, and Anastasia Shesterinina. Our special thanks to interpreters Veronika Miralles, Steve Stewart and Sara Koopman.

Credits for the original Spanish version “Recordar y Narrar el Conflicto”

 

Coordinator of the Historical Memory Commission – Gonzalo Sánchez Gómez

General coordinator – Pilar Riaño Alcalá Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

Research and production Gender and Memory – María Emma Wills Obregón, Associate Professor, University of los Andes

Research and production, Psychosocial Accompaniment Martha Nubia Bello, Associate Professor, National University of Colombia

Research and production assistants – Lina Gómez, Viviana Quintero

Principal  Investigators – Álvaro Camacho, Andrés Suárez, Fernán González. SJ, Iván Orozco, Jesús Abad Colorado, León Valencia, María Victoria Uribe, María Emma Wills, Martha Nubia Bello, Pilar Gaitán, Pilar Riaño, Rodrigo Uprimny, Tatiana Rincón, Nubia Herrera, Patricia Linares Prieto, César Caballero,Teófilo Vásquez

Research Assistants – Ángela Olaya, Camilo Vargas, Diego Quiroga,Gina Cabarcas, Lina Díaz, Lina Quejada, Luis Carlos Sánchez, María Luisa Moreno, Paula Andrea Rodríguez, Ronald Villamil, Viviana Quintero, Vladimir Melo, William Mancera

Coordinator’s assistants – Natalia Rey, Andrés Elasmar

Public impact and dissemination – Paula Ila, Jack Melamed

Project Management , Administrative Coordinator – Ana Lyda Campo

Administrative assistants – Paola Rojas Diana Marcela Gil

Photography – Soraya Hoyos, Jesús Abad Colorado

Workshops and photography assistant – María Luisa Moreno

Editorial Production/ Editing – Marcela Giraldo

Concept, design, layout and web design –  Fotoletras Inc.

Acknowledgments in original Spanish version

 

The development of these tools for reconstructing historical memory was made possible by the financial and institutional support of:

 

•  Presidential Agency for Social Action and International Cooperation

•  Swedish Agency for International Development (ASDI)

•  United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

•  United States Institute of Peace (USIP).

 

Our thanks to the organizations that joined us in these activities for their generosity and enthusiasm with which they offered their innumerable contributions. In particular we express our appreciation to:

  • Corporacion Maria Cano, María Cano Community Development Corporation (Montería)
  • Fundación del Sinú, Sinú Foundation (Montería)
  • Colectivo de Comunicaciones Montes de María Línea 21, Communications Collective of Montes de María Line 21
  • La Asociación COMFE Narrar para Vivir, The COMFE Association Telling to Live
  • Mujer y Futuro, Women and Future, Barranquilla Office
  • Liga Internacional de Mujeres porla Paz y la Libertad, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Cartagena office
  • Red de Empoderamiento de las mujeres de Cartagena y Bolivar, The Women’s Empowerment Network of Cartagena and Bolívar
  • Fundación para el Desarollo Humano Comunitario, (FUNDEHUMAC), The Foundation for Community Human Development, Santa Marta.
  • Asociación de Mujeres del Magdalena, The Women’s Association of Magdalena
  • Organización Wayuumunsurat Mujeres Tejiendo Paz, Wayuumunsurat Organization, Women Weaving Peace.

 

Nationally, several networks provided suggestions and regional contacts. In particular, we express our gratitude to:

 

  • Iniciativas de Mujeres Colombianas por la Paz, Colombian Women’s Initiatives for Peace
  • Ruta Pacífica de Mujeres, Women’s Peaceful Way
  • Corporación Humanas, The Humanas Community Development Corporation.

 

We received insightful comments on the content of this material from a group of experts on memory and gender issues, including memory workers in the Caribbean region. We thank:

 

  • María Eugenia Vásquez, The Women and Future Organization (Corporación Mujer y Futuro)
  • Luz Piedad Caicedo, The Humanas Organization
  • Carlos Beristaín, member and coauthor of REMHI in Guatemala.  Advisor to the Paraguayan Truth Commission and consultant to the Inter-American Human Rights Institute
  • Pau Pérez, Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Expert in psycho-social work with experience in Mexico, El Salvador and Chile
  • Ronald Solís, Coordinator of the Reconciliation Area of the Office of Human
  • Rights of the Archbishopric of Guatemala
  • Félix Reátegui, Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission
  • Kimberly Theidon, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, and Executive Director of the Praxis Institute for Social Justice
  • Clemencia Rodriguez, Associate Professor, University of Oklahoma and expert in community media for peace
  • María Angélica Garzón, María Eugenia Lora and Soraya Bayuelo of the Montes de María Communications Collective

 

The opinions set forth in this toolkit are not necessarily those of the Colombian Historical Memory Commission, the Swiss government, nor of the other ,, ,networks and organizations listed. Nevertheless, the merits and wisdom of this material would not have been achieved without their contributions and critiques.  To all of them and to the participants of the workshops, the victims who generously shared with us their memories and thoughts, our deepest thanks.