Bougainville literacy workers develop materials to promote conflict awareness

by Clem McCartney, 2002

Methods of popular, non-formal critical education are well established in Papua New Guinea and BWICF is one of a number of organizations in Bougainville with teams of trainers/group facilitators working throughout the island, including the most remote areas. The director of BICWF has been very concerned that local village people should understand the conflict that has been taking place and the necessary steps to resolve it so that they can play a full part in the peace process. She realized that the conflict could be dealt with in their training programmes in the same way that they deal with topics like health and nutrition. The normal method is to prepare cartoons depicting aspects of the topic in an interesting and sometimes amusing way, and accompany this with trigger questions which are put to the participants in the group. The cartoon and the pictures are open-ended so that they allow the group to give their own opinions on the situation and in this way explore some of the basic issues underlying the topic. This fits nicely with the desire to make the Accord publication as accessible as possible to local people.

The first step in developing such a programme was a workshop held in Bougainville from 25 to 29 November 2001. Taking part were educators from two organizations involved in literacy work, BICWF and BOCIDA and two teachers from the formal education sector. A Bougainvillean cartoonist was in attendance to capture the ideas and start work on illustrations. As the editor of the Northern Ireland discussion pack, my role was to provide another perspective on our knowledge of conflict, as well as to facilitate group discussion and co-operative working methods in developing materials. The intention was to begin the process of producing a facilitators’ pack for a non-formal education awareness programme on the Bougainville conflict and through that a greater awareness of conflict in general.

The first task of the group was to identify the topics that should be included in the pack. In small groups participants considered their own experience of the conflict and what aspects they had found hard to understand. In particular they were asked to think about the factors which had made the conflict worse and the factors which had led to improvement. A wide range of topics emerged but in the end 15 topics were prepared:

1. Land and its significance
2. Community influence on the peace process
3. Education
4. The impact of development
5. The economy of Bougainville
6. Environmental concerns
7. The relevance of the Melanesian way of decision making and handling disputes
8. The impact of violence and the peace process;
9. The nature of autonomy
10. The blockade
11. Identity in Bougainville
12. Racism
13. Human rights
14. Dealing with past wrongs and reconciliation
15. Disarmament

Most of these topics were very appropriate to a critical education approach as there are no clear right or wrong answers. They are topics where personal judgment is important and critical education helps the individual to consider different perspectives in order to reach a more informed opinion. On the other hand a few of the subjects seemed important because participants felt that there were stories to tell which should not be lost in the process of building peace. The blockade of Bougainville by the PNG Government was one such example where almost everyone had been touched in some way and many have personal memories of at some level breaking the blockade to ensure that essential items reached the community. The focus was on capturing and holding on to such experiences in the group rather than on the general questions about the impact of blockades and their relevance as a strategy in conflict.

A working method was then developed for preparing materials on each topic. First the full group brainstormed key questions in relation to a chosen topic and then a sub group worked on specific materials to develop that theme. At the same time the cartoonist developed ideas for an appropriate illustration. Sometimes he worked independently and at other times he interacted with group members to develop the concept. The whole group came together regularly to assess each other’s work and make suggestions. Finally the drafts were sent for typing. Fairly quickly a rhythm and pattern developed. The whole group acted as a trial group for each topic, refining the questions and writing down their own thinking about them. These notes are a concise summary of the issues in the topic and will provide a set of facilitators notes which they can use to prepare themselves for the issues which are likely to arise in actual use of the materials.

The initial notes were prepared in English but quickly the participants began to use the pidgin language, tok pisin, and it seemed to lend itself extremely well to the work. The population of Bougainville is 375,000 and there are more than 20 languages. In villages the local language will be used with the facilitator/educator translating as he or she works. Therefore probably there will never be written editions of the materials in most of the local languages.

The materials are not prescriptive but nor are they value free. While critical education encourages people to think for themselves and ask searching questions, it is also rooted in principles of the dignity of the individual, equality and fairness. The participants in this workshop have their commitments and values and they are evident in the materials. These principles include:

• A commitment to Bougainville
• A belief that people should as far as possible manage their own affairs
• A commitment to the traditions of their community
• A love of their environment and a concern that it has been damaged by modernisation
• A concern that modernisation and globalisation have damaged not only the physical fabric of the island but the social fabric of the people
• A distrust in the motivation of external bodies whether multi-national corporations governments or international organizations.
• A commitment to the peaceful resolution of disputes
• A recognition of the need to develop friendly relations with neighbours.

These values underpin the approach of the participants and what they have done is to provide questions and cartoons which help the users of the materials to probe what these principles actually mean in practice, how they have been affected by the conflict and how they can in turn have a positive influence on the resolution of the conflict.

In preparing the materials it has been recognised that the facilitators will not be experts in the field of conflict resolution or in the details of the Bougainville conflict. The materials will help the facilitator to understand the general context but they do not presume that they will be able to provide basic factual information. The critical education programme will raise awareness and encourage thinking about the conflict and help the community to identify questions that they need answered. There may be an additional task for public information outreach workers to do follow up work, to teach people about the peace agreement and the PNG Government. They should find an interested and thoughtful audience ready to listen, and also question, the information on the arrangements which are to be implemented under the peace settlement.

Since November, Sr Lorraine and the literacy trainers in Bougainville have begun to test the draft materials in their ongoing programmes in the rural communities. Some literacy trainers have translated particular topics, such as disarmament, into the local languages in order to engage immediately with the hot political issues in their localities. Following the testing period, the group will reconvene to make amendments to the drafts. The final editorial and design process will then create a finished product for ongoing use throughout the island. There is talk of translating the pack into English for use in secondary school education.

It is the hope of BICWF and CR that the critical literacy pack can make a significant contribution to the process of awareness-raising and consolidation of the peace agreement and that the body of work developed can be an interesting and inspiring point of reference for others working with particularly disadvantaged communities in areas of conflict.

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