“Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign.
But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories
can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
-Chimamanda Ngozi Adichi
The Coalition’s 2021 Global Summit “Building Global Capacities for Inclusive Democracies,” equipped members with an understanding that discrimination is rooted in systemic inequality. Through capacity-building trainings members developed new skills to expose and combat discrimination and violence in their communities by making the connection between historical narratives and contemporary discrimination against marginalized groups, especially women, survivors, ethnic and religious minorities.
To build on this knowledge, in 2022 the Coalition’s Global Networks Department will conduct a multi-tiered global project resulting in a one-of-a-kind Sites of Conscience methodology that allows Sites of Conscience around the world to recalibrate their historical repositories to amplify marginalized voices, promote more inclusive and equitable public narratives, and mitigate discrimination and exclusion.
The project, Correcting the Record: Building Inclusive, Equitable and Engaged Societies One Narrative at a Time, will encompass three avenues of action, beginning with cross-regional peer-exchange and one-on-one mentoring that will support six Sites of Conscience in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean to build inclusive and equitable repositories; expanding to two virtual global workshops to support local documentation, oral history and storytelling projects and promote learning exchange among the Coalition’s global membership; and culminating in the development of a toolkit that will lay out the Sites of Conscience “Correcting the Record” methodology so that it can be shared with like-minded organizations seeking to correct “official” historical narratives and foster understanding and empathy toward those whose stories have been historically silenced.
Participating Sites of Conscience Members
Women’s Right Initiative (WORI), Uganda
Mentors of the “Correcting the Record: Building Inclusive, Equitable and Engaged Societies One Narrative at a Time” project are Lebo Marishane and Radhika Hettiarachchi.
Lebogang Marishane is a South African social justice activist working to advance development of African communities and increase civic engagement. She firmly believes in the strategic use of information, communications and technologies to center and amplify the voices of those that live in the margins.
Radhika Hettiarachchi is a Sri Lankan researcher, curator, and peacebuilding practitioner with over 16 years of experience working on oral history and memory, socio-economic stability, conflict transformation, and peacebuilding.
Upcoming Activities
As part of this year’s “Correcting the Record: Building Inclusive, Equitable and Engaged Societies One Narrative at a Time” global initiative, the Coalition will host a four-hour virtual capacity-building workshop, “Collecting and Centering Communities’ Voices,” on May 24, 2022, from 7:00 am to 11:00 am EDT/12:00 pm – 4:00 pm BST/1:00 pm – 5:00 pm CEST/ 2:00 pm – 6:00 pm EEST (please check your local time here). Learn more and register here.
The Coalition’s 2021 Global Summit, “Building Global Capacities for Inclusive Democracies” assisted over 185 participants in creating local programs that help communities make the connection between contemporary discrimination against marginalized groups and the exclusion of these same groups in historical narratives. For highlights from the Summit, click here; for grant outputs from 2021, please click here.
