Migrating Heritage: lived realities of conflict and forced displacement

When addressing justice-related issues, scholars in the domain of human rights continue to emphasize the written or spoken word. As such, they reveal the prevailing assumption of an accessible verbal narrative about experiences of harm. This assumption has limitations when considering the lived realities of vulnerable groups, such as displaced people who are coping with trauma and ongoing violence, which often defy expression in merely verbal language. Moreover, speaking freely or telling a coherent story about lived injustices is often extremely challenging and painful, and may require other modes of expressing. In Shatila, a refugee camp in the south of Beirut, the language of embroidery has been present since it was established in 1949, originally to host Palestinian refugees. It is a gendered activity and daily practice rooted in the rich textile tradition in the region. Since the outbreak of the conflict in neighboring Syria and the influx of Syrian refugees, embroidery practices in the camp have witnessed a revival. Consequently, this cultural heritage has acquired several, often new and co-existing functions, such as providing livelihoods, a strategy to cope with trauma or memorializing past experiences of harm. Furthermore, rooted in lived – and material– reality, it can be argued that embroidery is a truth-seeking practice, as it deals with the notion of truth in bringing to bear lived realities while simultaneously imagining a more just future. In doing so, the ‘non-linearity of making’ collapses time and foregrounds a multi-layered perspective. This can be literal, e.g. by stitching the future onto the past, or more conceptually, e.g. where shapes receive different meaning through the use of color. At the same time, the performative character offers a space to slow down, reflect, interact, and imagine practitioners lived realities. Although the notion of 'truth' is not moored explicitly, the practitioners offer a multi-layered and multi-vocal narrative of injustices that could otherwise remain unseen and unheard.