Working with Refugees and asylum seekers at Oasis “Pot of Good Vibes Project.
Dec 2015 – March 2016
The project had an extension with us winning an award from the “Pears Foundation” enabling myself and Tracy to continue for a further 12 weeks. Within that time we have tried different foods from Iran, Gambia, Jerusalem, Ethiopia and many more countries. We’ve had many fun conversations and heard songs from the homelands of the participants and also sung a lot of songs together. We also wrote another song “Just think About Today – (Pot of Good Vibes)”. Throughout the project we also had Tina who is on placement from University and has spent much time in Africa, also Judie and Terry from local choirs.
We also decided to split the session as we realized that many of the women were not able to join us in the afternoon – either as they felt uncomfortable with the majority of participants being men – r they just could make it due to child care issues.
The afternoon part of the session continued to be surprising each week with different people coming in and adding their music – fun and really enjoying the “escapism” of the sessions. I did many weekly evaluations.
Over time we had one regular participant – Barra of Gambia. He was a young man in his early twenties? Really lovely and encouraging – he understood from the start what we were trying to do – people didn’t always “get it” as music is often seen as more for “professionals” in some countries – this was evident with some Eritrean musicians who, I think, found it difficult to be jointly making music with ‘untutored’ people!
Many people got past this open way of working as they could see the value in what we were doing – that of bridging barriers – integration – community development, creative development as well as pure fun
One week we had 5 Sudanese men and they sang their songs with such joy it was a real pleasure to hear them.
Sometimes we wouldn’t see regular participants again and we would hear that they had been moved – gradually we realized that this may not have been by choice and some were moved on after a month in one center to another city. When this actually happened to our lovely Barra – from Gambia – actually on the day of our final event we were quite upset – and Barra really didn’t want to go and was upset – but really didn’t have a choice!
It’s very strange as a huge part of mine and Tracy’s job as community artists is to build community and yet these people were just settling – actually inputting in positive ways to their communities (Barra had joined the local wheelchair basket ball club – as well as adding so much to our sessions) – and then they were torn away from us and their new communities. I worry about people’s spirits being broken down after such a lot of effort and trauma has gone into their journeys to the Uk in the first place – they are no longer with their support networks and families back home due to it not being bearable to live there – or even being life threatening – and yet we are not allowing them to have a moments peace or to feel human or even that it is worthwhile adding to their community as they will not be staying long enough to reap the rewards!
Anyway along the way on the project several people said how they would love to learn the guitar. After thinking about this a while I realized that people may have guitars they no longer needed and so did a call out and have been donated 6 guitars from people in Barry, Cardiff and Newport so far! Some of them need a little repairs and one choir member even donated £25 to help with repairs!
I’m hoping to somehow bring the guitars into the sessions in a small manageable way when I begin again for the summer term – without losing the fun and the equal participation we had built up with the participants before.
The morning session was with the women’s group which had built up to quite a large group of between 20 and 30 women with the help of Ruth who is the coordinator of the women’s group. She manages the group in such an efficient – warm and informative way for the women.
Due to this being a larger group there wasn’t as much chance to chat but we did sing a lot and add percussion and call and response as well as hearing songs from various individuals.
The group amazed me by being confident enough to perform for International Women’s Day at the local community centre – the Star Centre in Splott. I’ve written about that in my blog for International women’s day though.
Big thanks to Tracy Pallant for being a “rock” of support form me and all involved – and for Alex Bowen for continuing to support us via Valley and Vale Community Arts.
Photos courtesy of Amy Peckham