The river, threads and fabrics: symbolic journey on the weft of life

Inspired by the workshop proposed by the Swedish partner Association Mexpert, “The river of the life,” this experience is grafted with the activity of the Dun Multiethnic Tailoring Workshop. Each woman will make her own river of life on fabric, which will then be applied to a large cloth to create a tapestry, which becomes a kind of banner/manifesto of this narrative engagement that from individual becomes collective, a symbol of an inclusive weave.

Educational activities based on art-therapy for social inclusion through art-craft approaches, autobiographical storytelling techniques and digital storytelling to support migrant women in self-awareness and empowerment projects, both in-person and remote. This kit describes how to prepare activities and materials, offers evaluation and self-assessment models of activities and outcomes, making it easier to use this tool and to reproduce proposed activities.

Art therapy education-based activities for social inclusion through arts and crafts approaches, autobiographical storytelling techniques and storytelling to support migrant women in self-awareness and empowerment projects.

This workshop is addressed to migrant women of different nationalities of 20 to 50 years old.

The objectives explain the learning objectives and the expected learning outcomes for participants. It helps to evaluate the activity.
The general objectives are psychological support and care, social inclusion and entrepreneurial start-up. The specific objectives are to help women reflect on themselves, redefine their life story. It is expected that women beneficiaries will increase their self-awareness, empowerment and confidence in themselves and towards the community.
Being able to use the river as a metaphor for life allows them to represent the path of their own story, identifying its significant elements, related to joys and/or sorrows.

In the first stage, drawings of their own ‘rivers of life’ will be made. Materials used: a sheet of paper, crayons and markers for drawing.
In a second phase, closely related to the tailoring workshop activity, each one will be able to reproduce her river on fabric.

Materials used: a piece of fabric chosen by each of them that will serve as the base of the tapestry, fabrics and scraps of various colors from their countries of origin, needles, pins, threads, buttons, sewing machines, trimmings to represent and embroider their river.

Research a dedicated space for tailoring in order to be able to use all the materials needed to make fabric artifacts.
Have all materials available for both graphic and textile representation.

1) Participants are invited to use the offered materials to draw their own ‘river of life’.

2) Instructions are given to execute the drawing with the course of one’s life in mind.
Points to follow:

• If your life were a river, what shape would it be?
• Where are the twists and turns when your situation (or perspective) changed? Was the transition smooth or sudden?
• Are there rocks or boulders-obstacles or life-altering moments-in your river?
• Are there points where the water flows powerfully and intentionally or slows down to a trickle?
• Write your age and/or approximate date along the flow of your river.
• Identify some key events in your life that shaped your story – The boulders in the river or The points at which the river changes its course.
• If you were to divide your life journey into sessions, where would the division occur? Name each session.
• Reflect on the people who have accompanied you along this path. Record these significant relationships and losses in the appropriate place in your river of life. If you want you can also add thoughts and feelings related to these relationships.

3) At the end of the exercise, as a group, each will be invited to describe the story told along their river. This will be a way for them to share and process together, in an affective and trusting atmosphere, their life experiences, most of them related to the migration journey. The presenters will take care to facilitate an atmosphere of listening and mutual respect, making sure that each of the participants has the space to express her own experiences.

4) These drawings will then be reproduced on a piece of white cloth, which will serve as the base of the tapestry. Various scraps of fabric .of various colors, some from their countries of origin, will be used. Colored buttons and threads will be used to sew and embroider their own river.

5) There will be a narration of one’s tapestry and the story of one’s fabrics.

6) The tapestries of each will be combined to create a long river on one large piece of cloth, which becomes a kind of banner/manifesto of this narrative engagement, which from individual becomes collective, a symbol of inclusive weaving and intercultural dialogue.

At every stage of the experience, close attention and listening will be paid to everything that happens and what the participants express about the experience they are having. This will allow continuous feedback on the creative act, which will put them in touch with deep, partly unknown aspects. This will lead to greater self-awareness and a deeper understanding of the relationship with the other. Touching personal and traumatic points can create moments of great emotion and emergence of fears related to migration wounds. In this regard, it is important to make available individual and group psychotherapeutic spaces in extra-laboratory settings dedicated to healing.

In the initial phase of the workshop, the working methods of the group are shared, which see:

• Confidentiality, empathy;
• Absence of judgment, and thus acceptance of different stories;
• we can use our native language in the writing;
• free sharing of ideas regarding the overall proposal;
• invitation to the group to make other proposals or requests

If the workshop includes the possible sharing of stories externally as well, we will specify that even this action is obviously not mandatory although we invite experimentation with this additional step. If particularly emotionally charged experiences emerge, in addition to immediate containment and support, it would be important to be able to offer a therapeutic space where such experience can be processed, such as for traumatic experiences.

In the context of Tailoring Workshop, the number of women is not large so it is not considered appropriate to divide the group, and in addition, the purpose is to create a group dialogue, which creates integration among migrant women.

3/3 – The complexity of carrying out the proposed activity lies not so much in the large amount of material, but in the time to carry it out ( especially considering the tailoring stage) and the need for professional preparation for psychological reception and psychotherapeutic support for the participating women.