On Sunday, April 19, eleven community members of the Australian-Armenian diaspora gathered to map the stories of their community and ways to navigate collective challenges. The context: Kaitzak’s “Weaving Narratives of Strength” workshop–an initiative supported by The University of Melbourne’s Little Hansen Public Humanities grant–aimed at using storytelling to promote intercultural understanding and create flourishing diasporas. In phase one of the project, Kaitzak co-founder and positive psychology practitioner Mariam Vahradyan facilitated a community workshop focused on the community’s strengths, values, and challenges. The workshop resulted in a “living artifact”: a collection of trees created by the participants that visually depicted the concepts discussed in the workshop.
During the session, participants described moments of pride and what constituted a thriving community according to them. Later, the group divided into small teams to complete “The Tree of Life” activity, a narrative therapy technique. The groups came together afterwards, reflecting on their “forest” of trees and shared strengths and challenges they had outlined.
The post-workshop survey results demonstrated the following:
“There seems to be an acute need to talk about all this.“
Participants used words like “understood“, “hopeful, and “connected” to describe how they were feeling at the end of the workshop.
In addition to bringing a focus on community strengths and exploring the stories of Melbourne’s Armenian diaspora, the space created during the workshop served as a platform for people to feel understood and share feelings and concerns in an emotionally safe environment. One participant noted that “there seems to be an acute need to talk about all this.” Another participant noted that “workshops like these give an opportunity and a platform for our community to grow.”
In the next phase of the project, Kaitzak will host an arts exhibition drawing upon the main themes discussed in the workshop.
This workshop is part of a larger effort to bring a strengths-based approach to diaspora communities around the world. Special thanks to David Newman from The Dulwhich Centre for his guidance on this workshop.
All photos by ZANA.
