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Bring change to your community using theatre and film: The Song of the Tree FESTIVAL 2013. Why does a story deserve an online festival and how will it happen? Krista Orama and the African Movement on Working Children and Youth. Choose a creative response to life and read the Tree-zine NOW!
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theTree-zineIssue No.6 - September-October 2012
Why does a story deserve an online festival?
How do we make it happen?
Krista Orama and her empowering experience with the African Movement on Working Children and Youth.
Welcome to issue #6 of the Tree-zine!
Choose a creative response to l ife! is the slogan of our newest innovation: an
international onl ine festival. Read about The Song of the Tree FESTIVAL 201 3 and how
you can be part of it. Page 4.
Project manager Thomas Weckström explains the practical side of the festival on page 5.
Krista Orama previously worked as Coordinator of Child and Youth Participation at Plan
Finland. On page 6-7 she shares an empowering experience from when she worked
together with the African Movement on Working Children and Youth.
And on page 8 I share why The Song of the Tree story is relevant and deserves a global
initiative and an international festival.
Enjoy!
Camil la Hellberg
Artistic Director
The Tree-zine shares content related to the international initiative and online festival
based on the story The Song of the Tree. The story is used as a starting point to explore
to what extent children around the world can improve the quality of their l ives. Artists,
educators and creative individuals are invited to join and make a difference with and for
children in their community. Go to www.thesongofthetree.com to learn more.
2
3
Choose a creative response to l ife
Welcome to issue #6 of the Tree-zine!
Choose a creative response to l ife! is the slogan of our newest innovation: an
international onl ine festival. Read about The Song of the Tree FESTIVAL 201 3 and how
you can be part of it. Page 4.
Project manager Thomas Weckström explains the practical side of the festival on page 5.
Krista Orama previously worked as Coordinator of Child and Youth Participation at Plan
Finland. On page 6-7 she shares an empowering experience from when she worked
together with the African Movement on Working Children and Youth.
And on page 8 I share why The Song of the Tree story is relevant and deserves a global
initiative and an international festival.
Enjoy!
Camil la Hellberg
Artistic Director
The Tree-zine shares content related to the international initiative and online festival
based on the story The Song of the Tree. The story is used as a starting point to explore
to what extent children around the world can improve the quality of their l ives. Artists,
educators and creative individuals are invited to join and make a difference with and for
children in their community. Go to www.thesongofthetree.com to learn more.
Share your current reality and the visions for the future you want.Tell the story The Song of the Tree through your unique lens of life.Your ideas might change someone´s life for the better.
4
1. Download the script2. Make your performance3. Get it fi lmed (we wil l help you do that)4. Invite everyone you know to watch itonl ine during the festival in 201 3.The only things they have to do is toregister to the site, the festival is free!
5. Use the online discussion forums toshare your thoughts and make newfriends.
After the festival you have these options:
1. your fi lm can continue to exist on thesite and be viewed for free by anyone
2. your fi lm can be viewed against a fee tobenefit a local chi ldren´s organisation
3. your fi lm can be viewed only by thosewho have made their own version of thestory
4. you can stop showing your fi lm
Go to www.thesongofthetree.com to learn more. Let us know if you want tocreate a performance and participate with it by sending and email to [email protected]. We wil l be in touch and help you with the first steps.
The script we provide and the idea of the
story making a difference, only provide the
frame for an event. But it is your participation
that makes it a festival. To make it possible for
you all to be involved online, participating with
each other, we need a functional platform. As
you read this, preparations are taking place.
Everything shall be ready for the festival in
201 3.
After a meeting with Save the Children Finland in
June 201 2, the base for the technical structure was
formed. I t wil l be developed further to ensure a
platform that is stable, rel iable and easy to use. I t
wil l become a window to the world for the
participating groups. Filmed performances form all
over the world, based on the original script, wil l be
screened from the platform by participators around
the globe. One story told in unique ways, shared
with each other.
To build a platform like this is an interesting
challenge. As the project manager I have the
privi lege to fol low how all of this is coming together,
but I also have the responsibi l ity to see that it wil l
be done in the best possible way. Another
challenge is to make sure that the the fi lmed
material is done professionally. To ensure this and
to make the fi lming possible almost everywhere in
the world, we collaborate with local media schools.
We provide the media schools opportunities to
have meaningful multi-camera production
exercises. We also offer a channel for them to
compare their own work with other media schools
and with students around the world, to discuss
online about different implementations and make
professional contacts. This is something that I
personally would have wanted to engage in when I
was studying media. A project where I learn
professional ski l ls while I engage in something
meaningful in dialogue with others.
Late 201 3 may sti l l be far away, but this festival is
not done over night. I f you are either a
representative for a media school, a representative
for a group, an educator, an artist or just someone
who got inspired and wants to to take part in the
first international onl ine The Song of the Tree
FESTIVAL, take action now! Contact us at
[email protected] and let us know
about yourself.
Thomas Weckström
Project Manager
Film and media schools can directlycontact us by dropping a line [email protected]
5
Share your current reality and the visions for the future you want.Tell the story The Song of the Tree through your unique lens of life.Your ideas might change someone´s life for the better.
6
A couple of years ago I had the chance to work
together with the African Movement for
Working Children and Youth (AMWCY).
The movement was born in 1 994 in the Ivory
Coast. Children and youth who were working as
mechanics, housemaids, vendors or such, felt that
their rights were not adequately protected. While
the efforts on promoting children’s rights focused
on education or child protection in more general
terms, the labour movement focused on adults;
working children were effectively trapped in a
protection gap in between. So, a bunch of them sat
down and defined twelve rights that were to
constitute the basis for their struggle against
exploitation and the worst forms of child labour:
The right to learn how to read and write;
The right to be taught a trade;
The right to remain in their vi l lage (no migration);
The right to rest when sick;
The right to work in a safe environment;
The right to l ight and l imited work;
The right to be listened to;
The right to leisure;
The right to healthcare;
The right to self-expression and to get organised;
The right to legal aid
The Song of the Tree FESTIVAL offers a
chance for children to give a voice to what
they want us to know about their l ife. There
are many different experiences around the
world that deserve to be shared and Krista
Orama, who previously worked as Coordinator
of Child and Youth Participation at Plan
Finland, shares an empowering experience
from when she worked together with the
African Movement on Working Children and
Youth. Krista has continued to work in the field
of human rights and contributes to the Tree-
zine regularly.
The essence ofyouth partnership
Go to www.thesongofthetree.com to learn more. Let us know if you want tocreate a performance and participate with it by sending and email to [email protected]. We wil l be in touch and help you with the first steps.
The movement grew with impressive speed, first in
West Africa and later to other parts of the continent.
Today, it has more than 1 00.000 registered
members from 22 countries. In its current form, the
AMWCY aims to improve the rights and working
conditions of working children across Africa,
providing counsell ing and training and running
campaigns at the local, national and regional levels.
The force of the movement l ies first and foremost in
grass-root, community based activism – the
AMWCY has remained to be a child-led movement
of working children and youth for working children
and youth. In my view, an absolutely fantastic
example of how ownership of a cause is exactly
where it is supposed to be: in the hands of the
concerned people themselves.
As can be guessed, a movement led by children
and promoting the labour rights of children finds
itself in a position in which it constantly has to
defend its position. As an example, the International
Labour Organisation (ILO) cooperates with the
AMWCY mostly in relation to questions of child
migration – not as an organisation with expertise on
the question of working children as such. At
international forums, the movement often lacks
recognition, often due to the tendency to question
the legitimacy of uninvited political engagement by
children and youth.
7
European governments are hesitant to support the
movement with the motivation that they do not want
to support work of children: “chi ldren should play
and go to school, not work”. My advise to these
governments would be to l isten to what the
movement actual ly has to say.
Because what the critics fai l to see is that the
movement’s objectives are ful ly in l ine with the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child, which
recognises in article 32 the right of the child to be
protected from economic exploitation and from
performing any work that is l ikely to be hazardous
or to interfere with the child's education, or to be
harmful to the child's health or development. The
Convention further establishes the obligation on
States parties to provide appropriate regulation of
the hours and conditions of employment.
In this very spirit, proud of being able to contribute
to their societies, the members of the AMWCY call
for l ight, age-appropriate work with reasonable
working hours and salary, and for the possibi l ity to
go to school alongside work. And they achieve
results. Indeed, in 201 0, 84.3% of the working
children and youth participating in the movement
responded that since they are got involved in the
AMWCY, they work fewer hours and less hard.
One of the key objectives of the AMWCY is to
establish partnerships with other civi l society actors
to strengthen solidarity and gain the respect of both
local populations and governments. In doing this,
the movement seeks to partner with other children
and youth around the world – similar movements in
Asia and Latin America, but also other kinds of
organisations.
Plan Finland’s Children’s Board is a long-term
partner of the movement. Three members of the
AMWCY visited Finland in 2009. Some months
after the visit, the Children’s Board had the chance
to meet the Finnish president of that time, Tarja
Halonen. In its speech to Ms. Halonen, the
Children’s Board said that cooperation between
youth groups is important as it facil itates the
possibi l ities of children and youth around the world
to be heard. The Children’s Board felt that
cooperation with the movement gave valuable new
views on the everyday life of children in developing
countries and perspective to one’s own life.
Prior to the visit of the AMWCY members in
Finland, most adults who participated in the
organisation of this encounter had little hope for
any good interaction between these two groups.
How on earth would mainstream school-going
Finnish teenagers understand the reality of working
children and youth whose reality and struggles look
quite different?
Answer: quite well . The Finnish youth had no
problem understanding what delegates at most
international conferences do not: for the African
children and youth, to work is to be taken seriously.
The core message of the AMWCY is similar to that
of most young persons in most parts of the world:
they want to be heard, l istened to, taken into
account. They want us to realise that they are the
experts of their own realities.
"The core message of the AMWCY is similar to that ofmost young persons in most parts of the world: theywant to be heard, listened to, taken into account."
8
One story. A global initiative. And now an
online international festival being planned
for 201 3. Why? Why are we focusing on this
particular story? I was asking myself this very
question when The Song of the Tree story
begun to take form many years ago. What is
so special about this story?
The main goal when I set out on what became
the start of The Song of the Tree for me, was
to find out what we humans share on the
deepest level and how we can connect with
each other from that place. The initial frame of
the story was created during a collaboration
between artists from Finland and South Africa
who came together to figure out what common
story we could tel l . What do we share? In the
process I was forced to look at how I was
defining myself and others, what beliefs were
governing my thought patters and thus the
possibi l ities I saw, the actions I was taking and
the results I was getting. The story kept on
asking me to re-think things I thought I had
"figured out" and be open to new ways of
looking at l ife. I was longing for answers and I
had to open up to them, each day in new ways.
The story was offering a frame for my quest.
The wil l ingness in me to open up to myself and
others was the pace of the story revealing itself
to me. I found that the story had a life and a
mission of its own and that the questions it was
bringing forth were relevant to others too. We
all recognize a longing to be seen, heard and
respected - as we are.
This is why we are focusing on this particular
story and why it feels relevant to create a
global initiative around it and an international
onl ine festival. Various interpretations of the
story through the lens of different people open
up a channel for communication and the
universal aspects create a base for connection
and understanding. The story discusses the
human experience, represented by the
characters Ella, Zongi, Esther, Gogo and
Lenny. El la is a child who thinks that she is a
dog. She is longing to be a real chi ld, to
connect with others and to enjoy l ife. Zongi and
Esther offer one extreme approach to l ife
through persistent resistance, confl ict seeking
and blame. Gogo and Lenny offer the other
extreme of the spectrum in their trust and
allowing of l ife to take shape in the direction of
one´s heart, through infinite creativity, Both
experiences remind Ella about who she truly is
and about the possibi l ities beyond her current
reality. How she can live the l ife she came here
to l ive and use her creativity to change her
reality. For the better. All of us seem to be
faced with these circumstances. Life as a
continuous journey, contrast as a way to define
what we prefer, our emotions as the guidel ine
to being in l ine with our heart´s desire and
creativity as the way to bring our desires into
reality in ways that inspires ourselves and
benefits others. That is why we want to see
what this universal process in the form of a
story looks l ike, when expressed in different
parts of the world. I t feels relevant and it offers
a choice to respond to l ife in a creative way.
Starting from where you are.
Camil la Hellberg
Artistic director
camil [email protected]
You can read my blog at www.thetreeinme.wordpress.comwhere I share insights and lessons learned from my journeywith The Song of the Tree.
Why This Story?
9
This is an excerpt from The Song of the Tree story. El la is a child who thinks that she is a dog.
One dark night after she has been deeply hurt by Esther and Zongi, she meets two magical
friends, Gogo and Lenny. They ask her what she would want most in l ife and that they can help
her get it. Whatever it is. El la says that she wants to be a real chi ld but that it is impossible
because she is a dog. Gogo and Lenny try to convince Ella that she is a real chi ld already, but
Ella´s experience confirms that she is a dog. She doesn´t bel ieve them. Unti l they put on an
experiment:
Gogo: Let’s do an experiment.Ella: OkGogo: Let’s imagine that Lenny here is kitten, a tiny cute kitten.Ella: Ok…Gogo: And now, let’s say that someone comes and kicks the tiny cute kitten, really hard.Gogo kicks Lenny and he cries l ike a hurt l ittle kitten. Gogo turns to Ella.
Gogo: Does that kick turn this kitten into a ball?Ella: No, of course not, it’s still a kitten.Gogo: Right. So, if Esther and Zongi treat you like a dog, does it prove that you
actually are one?Ella has to think for a moment.
Ella: Well...no.Gogo: Right. So how do you want to be treated?© Camil la Hellberg and Linda Rajal in
From here on Ella´s journey to discover who she truly is takes a new turn and before the sun
comes up the next morning everything wil l change. Read the whole story by registering to
www.thesongofthetree.com for free. Realize it as a theatre play in your community and be part of
The Song of the Tree online Festival 201 3.
Next issue
The next issue wil l be out on November 1 5, 201 2.
You can fol low us on Facebook at
http: //www.facebook.com/TheSongOfTheTreeInitiative unti l then.
I f you l ike reading blogs, artistic director Camil la Hellberg is sharing insights and
lessons learned from her journey with the story The Song of the Tree in her new
blog www.thetreeinme.wordpress.com.
1 0
This was our sixth issue of the Tree-zine and we would highly appreciate your feedback. Please
send your comments to [email protected]. We are interested in knowing what worked
for you and what we could do better. Thank you for your participation!
Publisher:Nordpic Production Ltd/Thomas Weckström
Editor:Camil la Hellberg
Layout:Thomas Weckström/Nordpic Production Ltd
Cover Design & background graphics:Enchant Creative / Simbirirai Solomon Maramba, Tafadzwa Tarumbwa
Photographs by:Thomas Weckström, Leif Weckström, Krista Orama.
CopyrightAll articles, photographs and il lustrations belong to the originators.
Everything else is © 201 2 Nordpic Production Ltd.
Thomas Weckström Camil la Hellberg Kenny Gibe Dorothy Meck Minna Pentti lä
Project Manager Artistic Director Head of TSTI in SA Head of TSTI in Head of TSTI in
Zimbabwe USA
Emails to the team: [email protected]
You can read more about TSTI and the script we are inviting participants worldwide to take part
in by going to www.thesongofthetree.com.
Issue # 7 wil l be out on November 1 5, 201 2. We wil l see you then!
Lots of love,
The TSTI Team
11
The Song of the Tree
2 0 1 3F E S T I V A LShare your real i ty and the vis ions for the future you want to l ive. Tel l the story The Song of the Tree through your unique lens of l i fe. Your idea might change someone’s l i fe for the better.
The fest ival i s held onl ine and we encourage part icipants to create local l ive events in their communit ies dur ing the fest ival week.
J o i n www . t h e s o n g o f t h e t r ee . c om
t o f i n d o u t mo r e !