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Paper short abstract:

We consider South African co-creators of Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba, their reflections on stories, & how they make sense of power and meaning-making. Our approach is decolonial and invested in co-creation in this work on post-conflict, voicing issues related to land, stewardship and futures.

Paper long abstract:

In the paper, our specific focus is on methodologies developed with the young South African co-creators of Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba and their reflections on stories, power and meaning-making. We offer a critical consideration of co-production in the context of GCRF-funded research led by two forms of representation: participatory film-making and performance. We will introduce the project and builds a methodology of intersectionality and 'seeing power'. By attending to its importance in pedagogies and participatory processes, we offer reflections of how lived experience, conditions and dynamics come to the fore in the process, and how these young people make sense of power through their films.

We consider regimes of power related to funding, legacies of dispossession and ongoing peripheralization at the same time as highlighting the achievements of young people's participation in formulating the stories of their world. We provide close engagement with the processes of training, partnership-building and forging creative campaigns with the newly formed co-creator collective, whose ethnographic films and performance contribute to voicing issues related to land, stewardship and futures.

Pre-watch if possible:

2 of the films produced by Ilizwi are viewed on their Youtube Channel:

Thuyspunt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0pKi8YmX1g

Elizabeth Maarman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bppu-Z-qdp4&t=10s