MANUAL FOR THE DISPLACED
Poetry - Visual Storytelling - Cultural Heritage - Contemporary Arts
CHAPTERS
Visual Storytelling, Spoken Word, Cultural Heritage
Manual For The Displaced I Jangan Lupa (ENG version)
JANGAN LUPA ('do not forget') refers to an integration booklet for people that came to the Netherlands after the Indonesian independence.
In a patronizing manner this booklet explains how to become a 'proper' Dutch citizen: how to clean your house, how to peel potatoes, and how to dress for the Dutch winter. Overriding people's own cultures, experiences and identities, it did not provide tools on how to deal with displacement, war trauma, or how to make your new surroundings a home. This video gives voice, sound and movement to the search for belonging, wherever you are.
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Bless the Lord, for there is food.
Pale flesh, potatoes, and
there are tricks to peel
the skin off anything.
Manual For The Displaced I My Blood
MY BLOOD voices the mixed and often contradictory histories that we literally carry in our bodies and bloodlines:
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"My blood. It bears the stench of tobacco. My veins branch out over ancient plantations.
My muscles mix calmness and violence. My blood carries children belonging to no one.
A country both won and lost. My blood is a lifeline for survival, a curse bottled in my bones."