UNDERSTANDING INCLUSION & DIVERSITY
Then we would ask people to divide into groups to work on these questions. We think of the groups we work with like river water, following ancient wisdom – let the river flow in whatever direction it’s going and use its energy and power without disturbing its natural course. Asking participants to put initials next to the questions on which they wish to work, brings about groups of people who are motivated, choosing to work on particular questions. The method we chose to use to tackle and develop responses to these questions was to ask groups to produce a short input (5 minutes) on the chosen question, in as creative a way as possible, presenting group insights for other participants. The presentations could be in the form of theatre, a poster, a song or any other creative method – the main thing is to communicate so that other participants get an idea of what has been discussed and developed in the different working groups. And not only does everyone stay awake, they also gain real inspiration for their work! Some examples One group prepared a question and answer panel show, in which one member was the “presenter” and all other members the “panellists”. Each panellist took on the role of a fictitious person and, one by one, presented themselves to the audience (everybody else was the audience). Before beginning their introductions, the presenter explained that one of the panellists was HIV positive, and it was the audience’s task to guess who (by voting at the end). After introducing themselves, the panellists answer audience questions. At the end, the audience votes and then the HIV panellist declares him/herself. The panellists’ characters are based on stereotypes and the purpose of the activity is to demonstrate how prejudice works in society. Another group used the initials of their names to develop the acronym, “ASSUME” and made a presentation about prejudice – “Do Not ASSUME Anything about Anyone”. One group, exploring questions around integration, used bowls of water, pebbles and petals. In response to a statement, each person in the group had to place a pebble in the bowl if the statement represented a negative aspect of integration or a petal if it represented a positive aspect. Pebbles sink and petals float, so the symbolic representation was very powerful. Yet another group simply led a brainstorm with the whole group on the question of the personal barriers involved in inter-cultural communication: “being hurt”, “extraordinary situations”, “shock”, “being embarrassed” and “creating the spare time to spend together” were some of the responses.
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