Tales of Resilience - an arts project promoting story telling by Tonga women

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Created: Sunday, 30 March 2014 12:40

In April there will be another photography workshop for women held in Siachilaba by the Zimbabwean artists Annie Mpalume and Calvin Dondo from Harare. They will be joined by three Austrian artists who are embarking on an extensive cultural exchange highlighting the cultural resilience of the Tonga people.

For the Tales of Resilience - series they will use a custom-made radio set as an interface for storytelling. The narrative will be formed by women of the group Simonga from the Tonga community in Siachilaba. Some of these women have been traveling to Europe twice within the last few years in dramatic contrast to their lives in rural Binga.

The stories will talk about their experiences and the plight of the Tonga community over the past half century with the forced relocation due to the building of Kariba dam, the overthrow of white settler colonialism, the last years of political and social crisis in Zimbabwe, and finally their experience of and connections to Europe as well as their hopes and aspirations for the future. The outcome of this interaction will be presented as an ongoing installation in the context of HIFA 2014 at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe.

The project is done in collaboration with the Zimbabwean artists Annie Mpalume and Calvin Dondo / Harare, the Ngoma Buntibe group Simonga / Siachilaba, the National Gallery of Zimbabwe / Harare, Basilwizi Trust / Bulawayo, Pamberi Trust / Harare and Austria-Zimbabwe Friendship Association / Linz; supported by the Austrian Embassy in Pretoria and the Austrian Ministries for Cultural and Foreign Affairs.

read more on the project blog: http://talesofresilience.wordpress.com/