Personal reflections from New Orleans: Local to Global

As a follow up to our blog last Friday where we highlighted the incredible work being done in New Orleans with their 10,000 Bones: Local to Global event we asked Emily Gatehouse who is the Louisiana Co-Coordinator of One Million Bones to reflect on her experience helping organize the event.  Below are her reflections.  

Guest post by Emily Gatehouse Louisiana Co-Coordinator of One Million Bones

This is has truly been one of the most amazing experiences that I have ever had. It was as much a growing and learning process for the students and community members we engaged as it was for me. Personally, this was my first time coordinating anything of this scale or importance. I learned how to reach out to new community partners, how to be a guest speaker, how to manage PR, how to book guest speakers- how to coordinate an open community event. However, these important life experiences are not what I take away from our Local to Global: 10,000 Bones installation. What I take away, what I take in, is a much deeper, more compassionate connection to the incredible people of my adopted city: New Orleans.

The majority of people we engaged were at-risk students K-12. A lot of the students we talked to know and live the harsh realities of the New Orleans streets, which frequently resemble third world war-zones rather than first world neighborhoods. These students, these children, grow up with the very real fact that they could get shot walking to school, they could start dealing drugs in elementary school, they could simply follow the path that has been followed so many times before them. However, every single time we went into a school and gave our opening presentation I saw their hope, their strength and their bravery. They were able to open up and connect on a deep personal level with people they have never met, who live half way around the world, because they understand their struggles. For many kids this was their first exposure to the everyday struggles of people outside of New Orleans. For many it was their first time hearing the word genocide, or even realizing that there are ways, artistic, fun, interesting ways to help people- that not all hope is lost. I will never forget one 6th grader coming up to me saying "this is my 6th bone that means my 6th dollar". I will never forget 15 kids yelling "the bone lady is here! Are we going to make more bones?!" I will never forget the high schoolers questioning me and getting frustrated and saying "well what can I do about it". To put it simply, Claude asked me why I kept pouring so much of my time and energy into this project, my answer was simple "the kids".

 

Emily on far right wearing her OMB shirt with Devin, Ms. Janelle, Emmanuel, Brielle and Sonya (L-R).  You guys ROCK!

Following the Election...

Post by Leigh Durham

Now that election fervor has settled and President Barack Obama has been elected for a second term, we move forward and hope that our priorities here at OMB become those of the U.S. government: preventing future atrocities and utilizing our resources to put an end to ongoing conflicts. Our friends at STAND sent a post-election open letter to the Commander in Chief, outlining what must be done in order to make mass atrocity prevention a major concern of U.S. foreign policy. Their three major policy recommendations are:

• Expand the Atrocities Prevention Board, an interagency body created to detect and respond to growing threats, and allow for non-governmental actors to advise policy-makers.
• Continue to financially support successful U.S. conflict prevention programs, including U.N. peacekeeping and the State Department’s Complex Crises Fund despite repeated budget cuts on foreign assistance.
• Take a multilateral approach to peacebuilding by including key regional partners to gain a local lens when assessing crises.

Another interesting piece to consider is a report by Freedom House, released earlier this year as the candidates campaigned, titled “Ten Critical Human Rights Challenges for the Next American President.” Throughout the list, there are several points that are specifically relevant to our work, including preventing genocide and mass atrocities and providing access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, while ensuring accountability for those who commit these heinous crimes. Also necessary are regulatory measures to see that corporations are not contributing to these conflicts in their operational practices and supply chains, something that is truly critical in the DRC. 

We have great hope for the future and the role an administration can play in protecting the lives of all people, but we will also be keeping in mind that real change often occurs between elections, when the collective voice is too strong to ignore and local communities work together to create their own realities.

At Dia De Los Muertos we make bones

One Million Bones hosted bone making November 4, 2012 at the Dia De Los Muertos Marigold Parade. The parade is a celebration of remembering and honoring those who have passed. Marigolds are used throughout the festival to guide the spirits home. Attendees gather for music, dance, food, art, and visiting with family and friends.

One Million Bones was happy to be a part of one of the oldest Dia De Los Muertos activities in New Mexico.  The parade, which encompasses Albuquerque’s rich Dia De Los Muertos history and culture was a meaningful venue for us to be present at. We made bones to represent the people of the past, present and future, totaling 159!  

With the election tomorrow...

I expect most of us are feeling a bit of "campaign fatigue" by now.  With the election just hours away, all of us are hoping that people will go to the polls and exercise their right to vote.  

I'm really lucky.  My polling place is a just a short walk from my house. Often, we'll pick a beautiful sunny day during the early voting period, and my husband and I will walk over together to vote. We are grateful for our freedom to do that. But then I think about elections in countries where you may really be opening yourself to threats, intimidation or harm when you go to vote. Like the election in Libya earlier this year -- the first election in over four decades. Or the elections in Cote d'Ivoire that ended up in a violent conflict between two factions, both claiming victory, or in Congo where 24 people were killed in election violence. And then I'm grateful that I can vote in complete safety.  

It would be incredible if in the United States we would all take voting as seriously as they do in countries where a purple thumb or finger is a badge of honor. 

We're not a partisan organization, although I'd say that most of us who work here have our own, strong personal opinions. We have one hold out for election day voting but the rest of us have cast our votes already. What we hope as an organization, more than anything, is that whoever is elected tomorrow, moves the consideration of and action on the human crises and atrocities continuing across the world up on the United States' priority list. 

10,000 Bones: Local to Global

Today I want to highlight the work that is being done in New Orleans by the NOLA chapter of One Million Bones and their many community partners.

Last year when I went to New Orleans, I was amazed at how the community responded with such generosity and enthusiasm for both our mission and our approach for raising awareness about genocide and conflicts happening around the world.  While there, I met and worked with so many incredible people in the city —many of whom have continued the work of One Million Bones. Truly this blog is to honor these individuals for all they do, and how they inspire us.

One of the reasons the project had such a deep impact in this community is because New Orleans, like the south side of Chicago, like parts of Baltimore and many other places in our country, is riddled with violence.  That violence is so entrenched that it tears apart communities, families and the fabric of the societies living in them.

Last night the One Million Bones NOLA chapter and St. Anna’s Episcopal Church laid out 10,000 bones to honor victims lost to conflicts happening around the world as well as to honor victims lost to violence in the New Orleans streets.  The bones were made by students in 30 local schools, and were crafted in the context of discussions about how the local violence has affected these students.  These conversations created a space for dialogue to happen about the scale and scope of violence happening in places like Sudan, and Congo. 

Since 2007, St Anna’s Church has been compiling a list of local murder victims; to date they have over 200 names.  Each of these names was honored in the installation in a large banner exhibited behind an alter of candles. Tonight there will be a candlelight vigil during which the names will be spoken.  Tomorrow’s events will include a preview showing of Shell Shocked, a documentary on the NOLA murder rate; and a speaker line-up which includes Elane, a mother whose son was murdered, a Sudanese relief worker, and Claude Gatebuke, a Rwandan genocide survivor; and performances by the Treme choir.

As our State Coordinator in Louisiana best put it “If we strip down to our bare bones, we are exactly the same. We all have the exact same right to live and the responsibility to protect the right of others to live. Especially in New Orleans.”

Our hearts are filled with gratitude to Dana Nguyen, Emily Gatehouse, Stacy Lee and so many others working tirelessly in New Orleans, and around the country to continue this work and to their passion for healing their communities and those living far away.

You can read more about the work happening in New Orleans in this article from The Advocate.