Broken Homes

Sue Hill

 

Abstract

This paper focuses on the complexity of notions of ‘home’, with special reference to the work I have been doing in conflict areas, through WildWorks and the Eden Project, with people who have experienced what happens when more than one tribe thinks of a place as their home. The word ‘home’ conjures cosy images of safety, comfort, warmth. But ‘home’ can also imply ‘homeland’ and ‘territory’. I explore  what ‘home’ means for the communities we have worked with in Kosovo, Cyprus, and the West Bank, and the significance of collective memory of place in culture and identity.  Finally I examine the role of the artist making work in and for these post-conflict areas with the people who live there, describing pitfalls and sensitivities and proposing a set of guiding values and principles.

 

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