Comics for a Fair World

Petra Hyvärinen from Ylämylly School, Class 5A at the Fair Trade workshop. Photo: Päivi Keronen.

Grassroots Comics were used in a Fair Trade workshop in SciFest in Joensuu 10.-13. April 2013. Scifest is a Science Festival for school kids and high school students organized annually by the University of Eastern Finland and Joensuu Science Society. The event offers plenty of different workshops where the students and their teachers can learn and experiment about science, technology and the environment.

Joensuu has been a Fair Trade City since 2009, and in SciFest the City had a non-stop workshop about the origin of cotton clothes. Information about cotton cultivation, cheap production and the problems it creates as well as the alternatives, like Fair Trade, Organic, Farming and Domestic Products were displayed in a ”corridor” combined of photos, infoboards and clothes. The participants were walking through the corridor and took part in exiting exercises. One exercise included drawing a comic about the issues introduced in the workshop.

Many older students knew quite much about the problems of the textile industry and about Fair Trade, but especially Primary School students were surprised and shocked. Petra Hyvärinen from Ylämylly School was amazed when she heard how little pay the people who make our clothes actually get. She didn't know much about the subject beforehand, but had been drawing comics at home and at school. She had no trouble making her own interpretation of the state of the world into a wallposter comic, which was then viewed by the students who came later to the workshop.

The comics made during the workshop showed clearly that the subject made the visitors think about their own consuming, and what they could do to improve the situation of the victims of the textile industry, and the environment. Since it was a non-stop workshop, quite few visitors managed to draw their own comic, so they filled in a missing panel in a ready made comic. Many visitors stayed in the workshop for a long time to talk and share ideas with the tutors. 

(Post by Sanna Hukkanen)

Sarjakuva päihittää ennakkoluulot

Sanna Hukkanen

Sunday Mpanduji

(Comics against prejudice - English summary at the end of this post)

Lieksan kirjastolla käytiin ennakkoluulojen kimppuun sarjakuvan keinoin. Joensuulaisen Sanna Hukkasen ja Tansaniasta kotoisin olevan Sunday Mpandujin 14.3.2013 vetämään työpajaan osallistui Lieksan Keskuskoulun yrittäjyysluokka 7F sekä maahanmuuttajien valmennusluokka. 

Molemmista ryhmistä oli mukana 10 oppilasta. Työpajaan kuului sarjakuvailmaisun perusasioiden opetuksen lisäksi omasta kulttuurista kertomista toisille, jonka jälkeen jokainen osallistuja toteutti oman sarjakuvajulisteensa teemasta "Monikulttuurinen Lieksa". Maahanmuuttajaryhmän oppilaat olivat somalinuoria. Suomalaisnuorten ja somalinuorten yhteistyöskentely oli todella antoisaa, etenkin koska koulussa ryhmät eivät ole olleet tekemisissä keskenään. 

Työpajan aikana osallistujien välille syntyi omaehtoistakin keskustelua. Osallistujien erilaiset taustat muodostuivat haasteeksi piirtämisen osalta; suomalaiset piirtävät koulussa ja kotona pienestä saakka, kun taas somalinuoret eivät olleet tottuneet visuaaliseen ilmaisuun. Konfliktin keskellä koulunkäynti ei yleensä ole mahdollista ja uskonto kieltää ihmishahmon kuvaamisen. Sarjakuva oli myös maahanmuuttajaryhmälle entuudestaan tuntematon media, joten tarinan kuljettaminen ruudusta toiseen tuotti hankaluuksia. 

Maahanmuuttajia kuitenkin auttoi suomalaisnuorten työskentelyn seuraaminen. Kun sarjakuvan toteuttamisen näkee vierustoverin tekemänä työvaihe työvaiheelta, on helpompi hahmottaa, mistä on kyse. Ihmishahmojen puuttuminen osasta sarjakuvia ratkaistiin niin, että hahmojen puhekuplat tulivat vaikkapa koulurakennuksesta.

Maaliskuinen työpaja oli jo toinen laatuaan Lieksan kirjastolla, edellinen pidettiin noin vuotta aikaisemmin. Lieksa tuli surullisenkuuluisaksi sijoituksestaan maan kärkipäähän rasististen rikosten tilastoissa, kun kaupunkiin sijoitettiin taannoin suhteellisen suuri määrä somali- ja kurditaustaisia pakolaisia. Sarjakuvatyöpaja oli osa Lieksan kirjaston Voehan Wilson!-hanketta, jonka tarkoituksena on ehkäistä rasismia sekä edistää maahanmuuttajien kotoutumista.

Sarjakuvan alla on piirtänyt 7F-luokan Riina Pesonen

Summary in English:

Comics Artist Sanna Hukkanen sent to us a report on how she, together with Tanzanian Sunday Mpanduji, led in March a comics workshop for Finnish and Somali youngsters at Lieksa libary. The youngsters study in the same school, but did not know each other from before.  Lieksa town had previously had some racial problems, and the comics workshop was part of a project involving prevention of racism and integration of immigrants.

At the workshop, the two different groups had quite interesting interaction. The Somali youngsters, who were quite new in the country and studied in a preparatory class, were not used to visual expression. At the workshop they watched their Finnish schoolmates draw, and were able to learn some of the steps of comics making. The two groups had also quite good discussions when they worked side by side.

The comic above was drawn by Finnish Riina Pesonen, Lieksa keskuskoulu, class 7F   

TACOSODE training on grassroots comics

TACOSODE Board room, drawing from LP's sketchbook

TACOSODE  (Tanzania Council for Social Development) is a national umbrella organisation for more than 250 Civil Society organisations.

Twelve TACOSODE staff members attended a short training on the concept and uses of grassroots comics at their head office in Mikocheni, Dar es Salaam. After my presentation we made an exercise of making a story suitable to be made into a four-panel wallposter comic.  Each participant could quickly come up with a story that had a message s/he thought as important. The subjects of the stories were such as child rearing, forestry, right to education, corruption, domestic violence, health and drugs, water, soil.

The participants were sure that grassroots comics could be very useful for TACOSODE's member organisations and we are now looking into different cooperation options.

Post by Leif Packalen