A translation of concerns from and to Colombia

I have been very fortunate to be part of a short project that was developed in collaboration with Universidad de Ibague, Colombia, and Royal Holloway (my current employer in the UK).  

The project aimed at identifying issues recently experienced by two communities in the region of Tolima, giving them the opportunity to represent and reflect on these issues using photos and videos.  

Their testimonials are very moving.  With the help of artists and designers, community participants were able to communicate snippets of their daily lives.  Presenting these to others in their localities also gave the latter a sense of rediscovering who they are and what they do, something that was also made possible due to their experiences of being in lock-down during the year 2021. 

I was particularly impressed by the amount of work and dedication put by people.  One could get the feeling that this project was very important for them, and that they did their best.  They taught me how important it is to develop trust between collaborators and how we need to let other ideas inform our projects.  I 

There are several possibilities to move forward and continue helping these communities.  From my perspective, as researchers in the developed world we need to be able to translate these and other communities concerns in what we think are global issues.  Post-conflict and violence, rural marginalisation and lack of representation could be some of the themes that we could start to translate from and to these communities: some of these happen in the UK, only by different names.  

In the developed world, there is concern with climate change and corona viruses.  Communities know about these, and have adapted as best as they can to deal with them.  Our translations need to include a better understanding of communities' creativity and what has positively emerged.   

If we could accept that there is much to learn between all of us, perhaps our world would not be as chaotic as we think it is.  

Thank you all for being part of this project, and for inviting me.