Walking, sensing, belonging: ethno-mimesis as performative praxis

Abstract

This article outlines a research project that used participatory action research (PAR) and arts practice (ethno-mimesis) to explore the senses of belonging negotiated by asylum seekers, refugees and undocumented migrants in the English East Midlands. At the core of this project was a walking event in which refugees and new arrivals guided long-term residents through the city, tracing an imaginary and real journey that linked the here and now with the then and there. Reflecting on the ways that walking evokes and invokes, this article suggests that while walking should not be privileged as a way of knowing, it has certain sensate, embodied, relational and collective attributes which rendered it particularly useful as a means of exploring the importance of being-in-place among a group whose lives are often depicted as markedly transnational.

Notes

[1] Research undertaken by the Information Centre about Asylum Seekers and Refugees (ICAR), Refugee Action, the Refugee Council and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRCT 2007) has documented the impact of the changes to immigration policy over the last decade.

[2] Humanitarian Protection is usually granted for a period of up to five years; after this time the person can either be returned (if there is no longer a threat to life or persecution) or apply for Indefinite Leave to Remain. Leave to Remain is permission to stay in the UK either temporarily or permanently.

[3] As Cocker (2008) puts it, ‘there is a risk that wandering research practice may lapse into a form of tourism, where ideas are only cited and never fully inhabited; where the sound of a disciplinary dialect is mimicked but its meaning is never fully understood’.

[4] We launched the project by replicating Myers’ methodology of participatory performance and research that she instigated with refugees and asylum seekers in Plymouth between 2002 and 2006.

[5] See http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/global_refugees/image_makers.html for an example of one of the walks.

[6] Two of the Long Journey Home artists documented the walks led by community arts organisations using film and also photographs; and two further Long Journey Home artists in Nottingham and three artists in Derby led walks, walking with co-walkers from Housing, Health and the city council. Photographer John Perivolaris was a co-walker in Nottingham and has documented the walk at http://www.lboro.ac.uk/departments/ss/global_refugees/image_makers.html. Maggie O'Neill and Phil Hubbard also documented the walks they took part in, in Loughborough, Derby and Nottingham.

[7] Misha Myers summarised the walking event as follows: ‘The project was successfully led by participants’ own interests and desires and well structured to facilitate their contributions of knowledge and creative endeavour. For me personally, it was a wonderful opportunity to extend my approach to a different context and to develop and test new strategies.’ See also Myers’ article in this issue.

[8] These organisations were City Arts (Nottingham/Derby), Charnwood Arts (Loughborough), Long Journey Home (Nottingham), and Soft Touch (Leicester). The participation of each was facilitated through an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Knowledge Transfer Award.

[9] The ‘Sense of Belonging’ exhibition was launched to the press on 9 January 2009, followed by a private view on 12 January. The exhibition was reported on in the local press in Derby, Nottingham and Loughborough, as well as online and nationally via the Guardian Society web pages. Over 300 people attended the private view and 1005 people visited the exhibition between 9 and 29 January, averaging 60 visitors per day (not including the numbers attending the private view). See the exhibition online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2009/jan/13/sense-of-belonging-exhibition?picture=341562670.