Lighthouse has collaborated with the Bayt al-Thaqafa organisation in Barcelona to carry out the Yemayá Project, a participatory research project with a group of women with migration experiences, to reflect, share, analyse and explore concepts, ideas and strategies on violence(S).
Some of the objectives of the Yemayá Project have been to understand and delve deeper into the different dimensions of violence(S), detect and analyse its mechanisms, in order to be able to tackle it and find fairer and more sustainable ways of stopping it.
What is violence? What triggers it? Where does it happen? What is it like? Who is on the receiving end? Who perpetrates it?
Why does it happen? What mechanisms reinforce it? And how can it be stopped or confronted?
The Yemayá Project has been divided into two work blocks. Block I, ‘Moving (ourselves),’ consisted of forming the group of participants to begin the collective research process and start thinking about and answering questions such as these.
Through various artistic proposals, the participants were able to explore violence(s), sharing their knowledge, their ways of seeing and understanding the world, and their experiences of discrimination and violence. They received short training capsules from Lighthouse and spent most of their time researching collectively to understand violence(s). They gained a multidimensional view of violence(s) and devised tools to dismantle some of its mechanisms.
The Lighthouse methodology has enabled us to address such a complex and sensitive issue as violence in a respectful and careful manner, because it has always taken into account and embraced the particularities of the women participants, such as language challenges.
The concept of intersectionality has played a very important role throughout the project. It was important to understand that people are affected by different interconnected factors (age, gender, origin, language, legal status, skin colour, sexual orientation, religion, economic status, health, etc.) and that these can play a key role in the mechanisms of discrimination.
Furthermore, it has also been crucial to discuss violence in the plural, as there are often several forms of violence occurring at the same time, which exacerbates and/or complicates the experience. In this context, the researchers at Proyecto Yemayá have concluded that racism and sexism, above all, are behind many of the situations they experience and witness in their environment.
n Block II, ‘Involving (ourselves),’ participants looked back on all the work they had done and, together, selected the aspects that are important, urgent, and/or essential to share with the rest of society and explain to the world. In this part of the project, they also continued to reflect and create, focusing on more specific aspects, such as defending the rights of people with migration experiences and dismantling stereotypes about migrant women.
Some of the results of Project Yemayá have been transformed into physical material to promote awareness, impact and transformation, in addition to disseminating the project.
Postcards with messages of protest and/or reflection have been produced so that participants can keep them and also share them with many other people. Lighthouse will distribute some of these postcards in establishments in Barcelona with a certain sensitivity and affinity, to increase their dissemination and impact.
In addition, audiovisual material has also been created, a video that summarises the essence of the Yemayá Project and will soon be available on Lighthouse’s YouTube channel, after its premiere with the group of researchers involved in the project. You can watch it here!
The Lighthouse team would like to express our deep appreciation and gratitude to all the participants for their courage, commitment and strength in sharing their experiences and their way of seeing, understanding and inhabiting the world.
Without a doubt, their contribution is an indispensable part of the transformation towards greater social justice and sustainability.
Thank you!