Making wishes

When invited by ‘Blue Coat Art and Cultural Centre Liverpool’ to facilitate a workshop with the young and community members at the Rice Lane City Farm area in the city which is a ‘Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens’ since 1997 and the Government has prioritised the need to develop strategies for working with socially excluded people and with young students in danger of becoming excluded from school 9 /11 incident had happened in the U.S. two weeks before the workshop began. The incident had shaken the western world, as this time the attack was on the U.S. British Prime Minister Blair within hours of the attack had made a statement about their support to the U.S. Young and old, everyone had opinions on Britain’s support to the U.S. to fight terrorism, the earlier two generations had seen the 1st and 2nd world wars and were against any kind of war but most of the young seemed enthusiastic about the idea. The media too projected an aggressive viewpoint and a very doubtful image of the youth belonging to the faith held responsible for the attacks. Maria and Becky, two staff members at the Farm helped me understand the social set up the young and the community members belonged to.

Time spent during sessions with the people from the Rice Lane City Farm area and by discussing the possibilities of a project, what evolved from our discussions was how to create interest in speaking out our viewpoints, creative thinking that goes into making sense of the inquiry / what is found out by each participant. This engaged the participants to find ways to express - suggestions were made to interview each other (audio recorded) on the issue of 9 /11 and their understanding of the two countries approach to fight back terrorism. The decision to express her / him in a group situation encouraged them to also listen to each other’s viewpoints. This process also allowed each one to question and be questioned. The previous day’s recorded audio was played every day to see if some new questions could come up.

Based on their recorded viewpoints all the participants wrote down their wishes on paper slips to put inside small pockets, stitched and decorated by themselves with materials provided by the Rice Lane City Farm workshop assistant, Becky. Since the media all over the world highlighted the stories of the 9 /11 incidents, there was fear in people all over the world; the concept of dealing with the fear in mind and sharing their viewpoints with more people than the group alone also emerged during some of us narrating stories of terrorism in other parts of the world. How earlier people feared natural calamities and made wishes for the well-being of the humankind, earth and other living beings. Many cultures in the world have developed spiritual ways to convey positive inner feelings through simple rituals like tying threads on to the trees or through offerings- like it happens in India as well.

Interestingly the young participants, otherwise quite impatient insisted on hand stitching the pockets rather than employing short cuts like gluing the fabric. Though Becky and self had to help them from time to time, they did not want to give up. Even the farms staff, Emma, Sarah and Henna were able to take time off from farm responsibilities to allow themselves to express and experiment through such an activities. The secret wish slips inside the stitched pockets were tied on to the tree for the passersby to open the pockets, read the wish slips and take them if they liked or to add new wishes and then tie them back on to the tree.

“It was like a therapy” said Emma, Sarah and Henna. They titled the project ‘Making Wishes’ or ‘Dressing the Tree’. But in the end ‘Making Wishes’ was the one everyone agreed upon.