http://www.artbank.ca/News+and+Events/Activities/bulletin54.htm

In-progress: Abstract for co-authored article

Holocaust testimony has often been subject to redemptive memory practices on the part of communal or mass-mediated oral history projects. Such projects and practices invest testimonies with a standardized, hopeful trajectory that conforms to the "lessons" various constituencies want to teach to new generations about "the" Holocaust experience. Yet despite their increasing collection and dissemination, we fear that testimonies are increasingly met with a static response. Especially as such testimonies travel outside of the Jewish community, they meet with self-conscious witnesses, afraid to engage with the material out of fear that the questions they have may offend or challenge established narratives. As students we argue that, on the contrary, engaging with testimony personally, with the authentic questions that arise for each of us, would give rise to a more productive, ethical, future oriented self-aware witnessing. After watching 210 minutes of wartime testimony by Berel Bokser (a Polish Jew currently residing in Montreal), we decided to transcribe, debate, and finally draw our way into active dialogue and engagement with the story. Our choice of artistic medium, the graphic novel, proved to be a unique way for us to engage with the material, and in turn to transform it in ways that we hope will provide new points of access for future generations and audiences. Our presentation will discuss the task we confronted, our process of dialogue with and creation around the testimony, and finally our theoretical intervention around the notion of "self- conscious" vs. "self- aware" witnessing.

Co-authors/producers

Yesica Macias graduated this past April from Concordia University in Montreal with a B.A. Honors in History. Her interests throughout her undergraduate career revolved around contemporary Latin American history, mainly the period of authoritarianism during the twentieth-century in South America. For her Honors thesis, "Military Intervention into the Educational System 1976-1983," Yesica investigated the impact of Argentina's last military dictatorship on that country's educational system. She focused on the diffusion and implementation of nationalist ideas within Argentina's educational system, paying particular attention to how the Armed Forces articulated and imposed their ideas of “el ser Argentino” ("The Argentinian") in high schools, specifically in the area of history. Yesica is currently applying to Master's programs at American universities for Fall 2010.

Alexandra Wilson is a recent graduate from Concordia University and holds an honours degree in anthropology. Her undergraduate focus was mainly on conflict and genocide studies, as well as volunteerism and international development. Her thesis, entitled “Going to Gulu: Motivations and Experiences of Student Volunteerism Abroad” based on her own ethnographic research in Northern Uganda examined theoretical issues such as postcolonialism in development work. Alex hopes to begin graduate studies in international development and humanitarian action in the Netherlands next fall.

Vaimoana Heyman graduated this past spring from Concordia University with a B.A. in Anthropology and Arab Studies. Her senior thesis was a short documentary film project entitled, "Progressive Rhythms: Exploring the Intersections of Music and Religion in the Lives of Montreal Youth", which examines the effect of religious practice on the art of 5 diverse Quebecois musicians. Her undergraduate studies focused primarily on the roles of youth in developing nations, and the effect of colonialism on Middle Eastern culture. Vaimoana is currently working as a Fund-raiser for a fair trade boutique in Tucson, Arizona and is looking forward to doing her Masters in International Education.

Brief biography

Joanne Hui is a visual artist and fourth year doctoral student at Concordia University (Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Doctorate in Humanities and Philosophy’). Her research investigates concepts of identity in comic art, particularly how graphic arts addresses culturally-specific and historical conditions of migration. The outcome of her research will be in the form of a critical essay and a graphic novel. Recent works include Shanghai Daily (2008), a graphic novel travel collage, and The Potato Wars: Chinese-Canadian Resistance during the Exclusion Era, a comic poster selected for inclusion in the exhibition DIASPORArt; Strategy and Seduction by Canadian Artists from Culturally Diverse Communities. The exhibition (9/2009- 9/2010) will be displayed in the Ambassadors Room in Rideau Hall, the official residence of the Governor General Michaëlle Jean. This poster is also an insert in West Coast LINE 60 vol 42 no 4, Winter 2009.