Active Inquiry

Divided We Fall? – Images of Oppression

11th March, 2013 - Posted by Gavin - Comments Off on Divided We Fall? – Images of Oppression

Thank you to Pinar for writing the blog post for this week’s session below:

A great start to this week’s session with ‘The Sun Shines On’ and ‘Threesome Image’ games.

Warm-up games!

Introduction to Integration and Diversity went smoothly as we started doing the Agree/Disagree statements in a straight line to see what each individual thinks about these terms.

What do Diversity and Identity mean?

Creating images of diversity and integration in different groups allowed us to see how two terms can differ from each other. Including rhythm and movement made both images more interesting as the images came alive.
Sculpting images of oppression within different groups was a fun way of understanding and seeing how each people have faced oppression in their life and were able to relate these memories with each other. Common characters such as separated groups, isolated individual, observers and victims were seen in most of the group images.

Creating images of Oppression

As the clock started ticking faster, as a whole group we looked at how different images can portray oppressed and oppressor. After a quick discussion everyone agreed on images which represented the oppressor and the oppressed. Observers and confused individuals were also added into the final image.

Group image of Oppression

The group still had some energy to play ‘Cat and Mouse’. Finishing with relaxation methods seemed like a great idea after a good session with discussions about diversity and integration moving into creating a big image of a scene that showed oppressed and oppressor.