Performing for peace: mobilising cultural assets to leave the Mursi in peace with no-one left behind

民主是未完成的事业，我们争取包容的斗争既是文化的，也是政治的。需要在代表和被代表者之间建立更好的关系、教育和接触，这对每一个自称民主的国家都至关重要。在地球仪各地，高度边缘化和受污名化的少数群体的体面代表性仍然是一个挑战。要在这一议程上取得进展，两项战略必不可少。首先，正如可持续发展目标16所概述的那样，更好的综合决策和参与信息将使政治机构变得更具包容性。其次，国际研究联盟需要将公平和多利益攸关方国际伙伴关系的原则以及可持续发展目标17中所载的能力建设承诺付诸实践。该项目将通过土著戏剧和电影的创新，教育政策制定者了解特定少数群体--南奥莫的穆尔西人--的政治权利，但也包括所有被边缘化的人民，并说服他们应该和平相处，但不应该留下任何人。这个联盟由SOAS全球政党和人民研究网络和Wolkite大学的学者组成，来自南奥莫剧院公司的电影制片人和戏剧专业人士以及埃塞俄比亚南部穆尔西社区的成员，旨在：加深对高度污名化群体的理解、政治参与和代表性;倡导利用艺术深化民主和建设和平;并学习非殖民化伙伴关系。在现有的两年合作伙伴关系的基础上，这笔后续赠款将使我们能够实现穆尔西牧民和电影制片人Olisalari Olibui Tolongu和剧作家Tesfahun Haddis Hailu在短片中解释的愿景（见https：//grnpp.org/olisarali/）。埃塞俄比亚的穆尔西人正在通过合作、研究和多媒体手段，即民族志、纪录片和土著戏剧，来满足这一民主需求，以教育决策者和公众了解他们的政治挑战和解决方案。剧本已经写好，穆尔西社区的男女演员已经招募，网络已经建立，南奥莫戏剧公司准备演出和广播它的建议。这笔后续赠款将使这个联盟能够巡回演出这部戏剧，最终在阿迪斯的国家剧院演出，在大学播放录制版本，并制作一部记录这一过程的电影，在埃塞俄比亚和英国广泛播放。该团队将与决策者举行高级别对话，并通过博客，社交媒体，两篇学术文章以及埃塞俄比亚和英国的各种网站和网络交流学习。他们将与民间社会伙伴一道，推动采取更全面的办法，促进少数群体权利，与土著群体一道建设和平。面对暴力，性别不平等和种族主义的复杂和敏感的问题，在埃塞俄比亚的政治微妙的时刻是可能的，因为这个团队有在埃塞俄比亚南部，受冲突影响的国家和危险的政治环境，以及在建设和平中使用艺术的工作经验丰富。这一倡议的影响将是通过调动文化资产，更具体地说，通过使用戏剧、电影和宣传，包括政策对话、研讨会和数字媒体，重新塑造政治形象，提高一个特定的边缘化群体-埃塞俄比亚南奥莫的穆尔西人-的代表性。通过提供证据和分享关于利用文化资产与少数群体进行和平建设和非殖民化全球伙伴关系的知识，其影响将远远超出穆尔西的特定群体，扩大到任何因土地，种族，偏远和印第安人冲突而被边缘化的群体。这可能对其他团体具有巨大的价值，这些团体寻求手段，以争取和平的战略，但避免被抛在后面。

Democracy is unfinished business and our struggles to be inclusive are cultural as much as political. The need for creating better relationships, education and engagement between representatives and represented is critical to every nation claiming to be democratic. Decent representation of highly marginalised and stigmatised minority groups remains challenging around the globe. Two strategies will be indispensable to making progress on this agenda. First, as SDG 16 outlines, better information for integrated decision-making and participation will enable political institutions to become more inclusive. Secondly, international research coalitions need to put into practice the principles of equitable and multi-stakeholder international partnership as well as commitments to capacity-building contained within SDG 17. This project will innovate with indigenous theatre and film to educate policymakers about the political rights of a specific minority group - the Mursi in South Omo - but by extension all marginalised peoples and persuade them that they should be left in peace but with no one left behind.This coalition, composed of scholars from SOAS's Global Research Network on Parliaments and People and Wolkite University, film-makers and theatre professionals from the South Omo Theatre Company, and members of the Mursi community in Southern Ethiopia, aim to: deepen understanding, political engagement and representation for highly stigmatised groups; champion the use of arts in deepening democracy and peacebuilding; and learn about decolonising partnerships. Building on an existing two year partnership, this follow-on grant will enable us to fulfil the vision explained in a short film by Mursi pastoralist and film-maker Olisalari Olibui Tolongu and the playwright Tesfahun Haddis Hailu (see https://grnpp.org/olisarali/). The Mursi in Ethiopia are engaging with this democratic need through collaborative, research-based and multimedia means: ethnography, documentary film and indigenous theatre to educate policy-makers and the public about their political challenges and solutions. The play has been written, women and men of the Mursi community have been recruited as actors, the network created, and the South Omo Theatre Company poised to perform and broadcast its recommendations.This follow-on grant would enable this coalition to tour the play culminating in a performance at the National Theatre in Addis Ababa, show a recorded version in universities, and make a film documenting the process to be broadcast widely in Ethiopia and the UK. The team will hold high level dialogues with policy-makers and communicate learning through blogs, social media, two academic articles and various websites and networks in Ethiopia and the UK. With civil society partners, they will promote a more holistic approach to promotion minority rights and peacebuilding with indigenous groups. Confronting complex and sensitive issues of violence, gender inequality and racism at a delicate time in the politics of Ethiopia is possible because this team has substantial experience of working in Southern Ethiopia, conflict-affected states and risky political environments as well as the use of the arts in peacebuilding. The impact of this initiative would be to enhance the representation of a specific marginalised group - the Mursi in South Omo, Ethiopia - by mobilising cultural assets and more specifically reimaging politics through the use of theatre, film and advocacy, including policy dialogues, a symposium and digital media. By generating evidence and sharing learning about using cultural assets for peacebuliding with minority groups and decolonising global partnerships, the impact will extend far beyond the specific group of the Mursi to any group marginalised by conflict over land, ethnicity, remoteness, and indigeneity. This could be of huge value to other groups seeking means to argue for strategies to be left in peace but avoid being left behin