"Let our revenge be the laughter of our children" — Bobby Sands
In June/July 2007 I was commissioned by Radio National's Radio Eye to make a documentary — Awakening from History? — about how colonialism and war are still having a profound impact on the minds and bodies of the people from the north of Ireland. It must be stated at the outset, I don't even pretend to approach this topic objectively, as this centuries-old conflict continues to have an enormous and mostly adverse impact on myself and my family.
As I say in the documentary: "I have lived most of my life in Melbourne but the conflict in Ireland lives in me." This simultaneous closeness and distance to the conflict in and about the six counties of Ireland still controlled by Britain, gave me a unique position from which to try to comprehend, articulate and perhaps even begin the process of transforming what I term intergenerational trauma.
When I started to grapple with some of the complex and multi-dimensional issues central to this documentary, I realised that notions such as "human rights" and "post-traumatic stress disorder" are grossly inadequate in their ability to describe, let alone respond to collective forms of trauma. My criticism of mainstream psychological and therapeutic frameworks for dealing with trauma is that they are essentially limited by their often unacknowledged individualistic and liberal assumptions and ensuing practices.
Understanding the effects of torture, rape, murder and the like on the individual is necessary. But this does not enable us to understand or address the corresponding structural, cultural and collective psychic impacts that such events can have on individuals and communities for generations.
More insidiously, I would also contend that the very socio-psychic processes that constitute "individualsim" are part of the unfolding history of oppression, for "individualism" is offered by oppressors as an alternative to collective forms of resistance. So, it is not surprising that notions such as intergenerational trauma remain largely under-theorised, because it is a radically confronting notion that necessarily unmasks the workings of power and ideologies.
Consequently, the political and artistic challenges involved with the making of this documentary were considerable.
In making this documentary I did not seek to be balanced, in the sense of giving equal weight to each side, because the corporate media mouths the views of the British state. Rather, I wanted to challenge myself and my preconceived notions and as much as possible be fair, in the sense of trying to give as full a picture as possible.
I talked with Padraic McCotter, who was a "blanket man" (a political prisoner who refused to wear prison uniform during the H-Block prison protests, which stretched from 1976 to 1981) who spent 15 years in prison for his involvement with the Provisional IRA, as well as William Frazer who is an ex-soldier. We did a tour of South Armagh visiting the sites of numerous murdered members of his family.
I also talked to Professor Bill Rolston about the "Peace Walls" and the roots of sectarianism in the north; Mark Harbinson, an Orangeman (British loyalist) from Stoneyford and Claire Hackett, a community development worker who is conducting an oral history program in the Falls Road, West Belfast.
In talking with such a diverse array of people I hope I am able to give people a sense of the complexity and enormity of the conflict in and about the six counties.
Awakening from history? is a collective love story. I don't mean love in the narrow sense of a romantic couple, but rather the love of a broken and often very damaged collectivity, which has been kept alive through the centuries through many, many acts of immense sacrifice and resistance and the dogged defence of memory through song and story-telling.
The Irish people remain divided and hurting — it is part of who I am.
I made this documentary because even in my own brokenness I realise that I am part of a greater whole and that my healing and observations can feed into and perhaps even contribute to a collective form of healing.
I am not sure, but perhaps the recent moves towards a cessation of violence in the north of Ireland offer a window of opportunity that needs to be seized ... in both hands.