Paper short abstract:

This paper will study the lived experiences of migrant women and their trajectories as participants of a pilot theatre project that has been set up by FMV (a socio-cultural civil society organisation in Flanders) as part of the Horizon Europe project ReIncluGen.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will study the lived experiences of migrant women and their trajectories as participants of a pilot theatre project that has been set up by FMV (a socio-cultural civil society organisation in Flanders) as part of the Horizon Europe project ReIncluGen. This participatory theatre project centralises the remembrance and honouring of migration narratives and labour migration histories in general and the role of migrant women and mothers in particular. Through the involvement of these migrant women as agents from the start of the trajectory we will shed light on the role of theatre as a tool for socio-cultural empowerment.

Also the authors will position themselves in this chapter as migrantized women using arts based (applied) research. The idea of this trajectory was initiated by a previous project called “Tesrith an Arif” of one of FMV’s member associations in which many migrant women got on stage for the first time and could speak in a safe environment that was a women’s only safe space. Additionally another artscience production of which the first author is a co-producer will be discussed. During the screening of the latter theatre play called “(Un)Certain Mothers” many of FMV’s participants showed a great interest in producing their own theatre play in which they could remember and honour their past experiences as in-between or second generation Moroccan women.