Art exhibit by Liu Scholar and PhD candidate (Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Social Justice at UBC) Beth W. Stewart. 

‘We are all the Same’
Children, War, and Humanity in Northern Uganda

Opening:
Thursday January 15, 2015 @ 5pm, Liu Institute for Global Issues, Vancouver, BC.

About Northern Uganda: 

For 20 years, the conflict between the rebel group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government forces destroyed the landscape, economy, communities, culture, relationships, and lives. And while the active conflict moved out of Northern Uganda by 2007, the legacy of war lives on in people’s everyday lives even as they actively reconstruct their world. As one frontline justice worker described to me in August 2014, “Our whole society is traumatized.”

About the collection:

Despite this difficult context, I believe that if we look and listen closely and creatively we begin to see impressive acts of resistance and resilience. This belief in human agency despite such dire constraints lies at the heart of each painting in this collection. The collection seeks to challenge our assumptions about war-affected people, and children especially, while also inviting you the viewer to bear witness to their stories and experiences.

Most of the paintings are collaborations with the children participants in the artist’s PhD research project. These are children who were born into the captivity of the LRA.

Questions, RSVP: bethwstew@gmail.com