migrating proverbs

migrating proverbs (2017-2019)

Altindag, Ankara, Turkey

Collaborators:

Catalina Pollak Williamson, Reem Charif (UEL/Febrik), Ela Aral (METU), Deniz Altay

Supported by:

Newton Institutional Links Grant | University of East London | Global Challenges Research Grant.

Migrating Proverbs is a participatory action research project that looks into social and cultural practices as tools for the engagement, cultural exchange, and development of social integration processes between Syrian refugees and local communities in Ankara, Turkey.

The research explores ways in which language can act as a tool for revealing the refugees experience of place, and how they negotiate their identity in a new context. This is especially relevant to refugees, where language as a social practice, enables the continuity of their journey and the sustainability of their stay: it reminds them of their past; but it is also the way in which they claim the future. More specifically, the research makes use of PROVERBS understood as dense cultural artefacts that can be exchanged, translated, represented and put into circulation to find potential commonalities between both cultures.

“ They put the nightingale in the golden cage, it still sings for its homeland ”

—

This proverb was shared by Waffa as part of the Migrating Proverbs action research project to describe her current condition in Turkey. It was then translated into its homologous version in Turkish and English. It was later transcribed and stamped into a paper napkin and stencilled into a cotton cloth tote bag by her. It was finally disseminated and shared in its napkin format in a tea-house packed with turkish men drinking tea and playing cards in Ulubey, and walked through the streets of Altındağ by Waffa who would carry her stencilled scripted bag with pride.