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Different Women Together, Beyond the Cliché is an exhibition at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast, which opens on Tuesday 17th April 2007 at 5pm and celebrates the end of a journey undertaken by a group of women from Parkside, a small interface community in North Belfast and Ballybeen, a large loyalist estate in East Belfast.
Tuesday 17 April 2007
Wednesday 02 May 2007
9.00am
Waterfront Hall- Belfast
Free
Event
The metaphor of a journey is in itself an often overused cliché, and yet there is no better way to describe the process which these women have undertaken. They have been meeting together in Corrymeela House, Belfast, for a year and during that time they have journeyed together through the landscape of their own lives.
They have revisited their childhood and family life, school days, rites of passage, looked at celebrations and commemorations, music, love stories and their own personal experiences of the ‘troubles’.
The women have shared together these stories, reflecting them through the lens of their community, tradition and culture. Their differences were not diluted nor their similarities overplayed, but rather they listened and learnt from each other and reached a new understanding of not only themselves, but those who prior to this experience would have been considered ‘one of them’. One participant said
"I think what our exhibition is all about is showing how everyone had fun together, sharing good craic, whatever our background or religion."
If the process that they have been on was a journey, then this exhibition captures some of the snapshots that were taken along the way. It does not attempt to show every step nor even pretends to highlight the major milestones; rather it reflects the mood and spirit of the journey.
Founded in 1965 by Rev Ray Davey, Corrymeela is an ecumenical community of people committed to reconciliation and peace-building through the healing of social, religious, and political divisions in Northern Ireland.
Our residential centre on the North Coast of Antrim has been a safe space for meeting, encounter, and dialogue for thousands of families, school children, youth groups, churches, and community groups for the last forty years.
Their guide during this journey has been the Corrymeela Community Partners Project managed by Susan McEwen. This project is now in its third year although Corrymeela as a charity has been an active force within peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland for over forty years.
The map that guided this journey is an innovative and creative new resource called Outside In and has been developed from the learning of the Community Partners Project. This resource will be launched in the Waterfront in two weeks time.
Susan McEwen from the charity Corrymeela said that
“I am so proud of all the remarkable women who took part in this journey, we all learnt valuable things along the way and this exhibition is fascinating and I would urge everyone to come and see for themselves. My sincere thanks go to the women from The Treehouse, Parkside, North Belfast and Ladies Who Lunch, Dundonald Methodist Church, Ballybeen who worked together to such great effect.”
This Corrymeela Project has been generously supported by the Community Relations Council, Sir Haley Stewart Trust and United States Institute of Peace.
The exhibition closes on the 2 May 2007 however you can request the loan of it for workshops or exhibitions. For further information on Corrymeela and the exhibition, please contact
Corrymeela House
8 Upper Crescent
Belfast BT7 1NT
t: 028 9050 8080
w: www.corrymeela.org
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Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action is registered as a company limited by guarantee in Northern Ireland (No 1792) and is registered as a charity for tax purposes with the Inland Revenue