A Night of Remembrance: Human Rights Highlighted with the Help of Students & Cinema

On December 3^rd at 9:30 p.m., FSU students created a symbolic mass grave outside the Student Life Cinema (SLC).  Thousands of ceramic bones created by the One Million Bones/Florida project were laid out in the candlelight to call attention to genocide and mass violence.  The installation was the highlight of Human Rights Night at SLC, an event held in honor of December’s important human rights anniversaries:  the signing of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (December 9, 1948) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (December 10, 1948).  In addition to the bones installation, students watched In the Land of Blood and Honey, Angelina Jolie’s 2011 film about the Bosnian genocide, and learned about human rights organizations on campus.

One Million Bones/Florida has now created almost 18,000 bones and raised more than $18,000 for survivors of violence through their partnership with Students Rebuild (www.studentsrebuild.org).

Reflections on In the Land of Blood and Honey (Phyllis E.W. Stolc)

The cool night air carries a delicate tinkling as students arrange clay bones along three curves of lighted candles on the tiled courtyard. Many of the students are chatting with friends. There is laughter and discussion of classes and plans. There is also a silent procession of somber faces and hands full of bones. A quiet few in a nearly spiritual ministration gently place clay bones in recognition of the great collection of wrongs humanity has wrought. FSU students, who have just seen Angelina Jolie’s emotional depiction of the Bosnian genocide in In the Land of Blood and Honey, are now creating a symbolic mass grave with the One Million Bones project.

The goal behind Angelina Jolie’s film In the Land of Blood and Honey is to enlist the public in demanding timely military intervention in genocidal conflicts. While such intervention may succeed in reducing death and atrocity in the short term, once an ethnic conflict has reached its armed climax, it has already caused irrevocable harm. Atrocity prevention must begin sooner, resolving discord before communities have escalated through the all-to-predictable cycle through dehumanization toward atrocity.

So, how well does In the Land of Blood and Honey engage its viewers in the cause of genocide prevention? In its favor, the film exposed audiences to a heartbreakingly accurate portrayal of the suffering of Muslim women raped during the war. It hinted at the ongoing personal and social consequences these women—and their children conceived by the campaign of forced impregnation—still face in their families and communities.  But Jolie’s purpose in writing this story was not so much about telling the complex story of Bosnia as to convince the public, and thereby world leaders, of the necessity of timely military intervention in humanitarian crises. And, while this may be a worthy goal, it ignores—and for Bosnia may undermine—a wider goal and one that social workers may play a vital role in: prevention.

Genocide is not an unpredictable explosion of violence but a progressive and purposeful marginalization of a group that culminates in the erasure or elimination of that group or its identity. The strongest predictor of genocide is a prior genocidal conflict. So, when we seek to teach about conflict, we must keep in mind the people who still live under ethnic tensions. The so-called ethnic cleansing that was perpetrated in Bosnia was designed to ensure that Serb and Muslim could never again live in peace. The perpetuation of fear and distrust is in control of those who teach about the conflict. We must not change history, but we can present a narrative that invites communication and builds common goals.

Social workers are uniquely prepared to identify the complex ways intervention may affect all concerned groups. They are also uniquely placed to perform the long term work of atrocity prevention which consists of building economic stability and strengthening social capital. This is the persistent effort of social workers everywhere, but the purpose of atrocity prevention is not always one that social workers pursue with intention in what can be grueling effort to relieve economic and social hardship. I conclude with a challenge: how will your career intersect with creating common goals across social divides and how can you undermine the traps of dehumanization and erasure no matter what population you serve?

A Story That Needs to Be Told (Derrika Hunt)

Imagine living your life in peace. Going throughout your daily routine. Shopping for groceries. Feeding the baby. Watering the plants. And then suddenly, in a split second your entire life changes. An explosion threatens the balance of everything. Buildings are destroyed.  Piercing screams fill the air. You have no idea what’s going on until you see soldiers marching towards you. It’s a war. Your entire life, everything you’ve ever worked for has now become reduced to a single word: war.

I was moved to tears. I watched continuously covering my eyes as soldiers humiliated women. Rape became one of the worst weapons of mass destruction. I felt sick as I watched soldiers sit around and develop plans to ethnically cleanse the land of anyone who was not Serbian. Women and children watched in fear as their fathers, uncles, brothers, cousins and friends were systematically killed. Men were forced to watch in disgust as their sisters, daughters, nieces, friends, mothers and even grandmothers were humiliated and reduced to objects of sex. I could see fear in the eyes of soldiers who somehow knew that what they were doing was wrong, but they didn’t seem to know how to stop it. How could this happen? I felt empty, not because of what I had seen but because of things I did not have to see. I can only imagine the horrific things that cameras could not capture. The gut-wrenching things that survivors could not bear to speak of.

In the Land of Blood and Honey provides viewers with an unflinching portrayal of what war does—not only to the victims, but also how it destroys the perpetrators. It does not dress up the truth.

I understand that even sitting in the theatre watching this from a screen was a privilege alone that many do not enjoy. I also understand that having the opportunity to write about my experience is a luxury. So I write for those who cannot. I write for the survivors who scraped hope from the tiniest of places. I write for victims. I write to revive the heartbeat of those who were not fortunate enough to survive. I write to remember, honor and tell the story of how war changes everything. I write to tell a story that not only happened in Bosnia, but a story that has happened time and time again in our world.

After the movie, we all engaged in a bone installation, in which we took hand crafted bones and arranged them to simulate a mass grave. It was difficult and beautiful all within the same breath. I was honored to lay down bones to commemorate those who had lost their lives to genocide and war. And more importantly engaging in this activity reminded me that there are people today in 2012 that are still experiencing the devastating effects of war. “One Million Bones engages participants with their hands, their minds, and their hearts. Through making bones from clay, participants learn the facts of genocide while reflecting on the lives of its victims.”

One Million Bones is not only a movement to help us remember genocide and honor genocide victims. It is also a movement which teaches us the art of using education as a tool of transformation. As we tell the story of genocide, we also stop it from happening one more time. Just as the caterpillar transforms into a butterfly, this movement (along with many other movements) will transform our world into a place of true peace.

One Million Bones/Florida

One Million Bones Florida invites the community to join us in making bones, raising awareness, and working together to make this world a more peaceful home to us all. Bone making workshops happen regularly and the next installations in Tallahassee are scheduled for:

• March 2013                             621 Gallery (all month)
• Saturday, April 13^th                 FSU campus in conjunction with Peace Jam

Our culminating installation of over 500,000 bones will be held on Saturday, June 8^th, 2013, on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

For more information:

• One Million Bones Tallahassee, a 3-minute YouTube video
• One Million Bones Florida on Facebook

About the Authors

Phyllis W. C. Stolc is a recent graduate of The FSU College of Social Work MSW program. She also completed the Social Work in Disaster Recovery certificate. Phyllis has studied the nature and impact of genocide for seven years and had the privilege of traveling to Bosnia for the July 2007 memorial ceremony at the Srebrenica Genocide Memorial. She believes in the human capacity for altruism or atrocity and the importance of choosing to recognize the humanity of others.

Derrika Hunt is a graduate student of the FSU College of Social Work in her last year of the MSW program.  She spends much of her time traveling and volunteering in developing countries and enjoys immersing herself in new cultures.  Derrika plans to do international development work, particularly with women and children. Lastly, she believe strongly in the power of change.