Baris ila Burramatta ila Baris ila ...

Some of my internal dialogues during and after the presentation and discussion @

A tale of two cities: from Paris to Parramatta
Multiculturalism, community and cultural development: a transnational perspective.
Paula Abood @ Parramatta Artists Studios on 16 June 2008

• In a process of interviews and action research, ‘who’ is asking / posing the questions (regardless of a diversity of positioning and politics of interviewees)
• The very nature of ‘questions’ themselves as being like ‘gatekeepers’ to a first stage of discussion / communication (so what are the most effective questions? What is the most effective language or terminology?)
• In hearing about notions of ‘the republic’ and ‘the citizen’, I remember days and nights spent in discussion in a garage in Greenacre (south-west Sydney), where Arab anti-racism activists were trying to develop a group called ‘muwatin’ (citizen)
• In hearing about ‘secular fundamentalism’, I recall hearing Devleena G speak about secularism in India - that communalism there historically does not mean an absence of religion and shared cultural practices across all communities
• The context being researched (including the tensions of social / political / cultural dynamics) affects the body and mind and spirit of the researcher
• Are we looking for parallel worlds in contexts / communication / ideas / questions?
• The process of unfolding the layers and revealing the paradoxes…
• Can you only feel ‘at home’ with rhetoric / phrases / issues that you are familiar with?
• What are the implications on continuing public focus on young men only (Arab / Maghrebi / Lebanese / Muslim) – what about the banaat?
• If spontaneous grassroots cultural production is most effective in post-crisis / post-trauma – what are implications for us in our habits of state funding systems and policies?
• Why Paris and not Detroit? Parallel worlds (not) of communication and dialogue? [Especially as one objective of this Paris residency was to investigate the nature / effectiveness of CCD projects post-revolts of October 2005]. What does it mean to engage in international exchange (especially in this globalised era of internet and new media) where often the very bases of communication are difficult?

In asking why Paris? (as opposed to locating other more parallel contexts eg. Canada, USA, etc), I think more about the way I asked this question:
What is our ‘thing’ about Paris?
Is it an Arab thing?
Is it a Lebanese thing?
The postcolonial fascination?

So I reflect on how I tend to block out the whole thing of Europeanisation of Arab world / cultures – the colonial and the postcolonial ties that bind - (Britain and Palestine; France and Lebanon) – that perhaps if I did open up to a greater understanding of the internalised colonial histories of the political / social / cultural dynamics, then maybe I would develop a better understanding of what makes the Lebanese SO Lebanese, of what historically / socially / politically constructs the (political) Lebanese Christian conservative elements of Lebanese society, both in Lebanon, the Arab world, and more importantly for me, in Australia.
This is all relevant from social, cultural, political and historical perspectives – although I am not about to become a Francophile!?

After the session, Michael D talked of the pervasive phenomenon of early 20th century French Impressionism, entrenched in the arts of the ‘colonies’ and postcolonial worlds of Vietnam and also of the Arab World. Perhaps these forms and styles of visual arts are seen as universal, as European, as non-political, as contemporary, as neither specifically Arab nor Asian. (Is this possibly related to the work of a network of Iraqi artists in Sydney?)
This cultural and historical phenomenon is interesting, as it does cross over to the previous issue of the need to understand more deeply the colonial and the postcolonial and its influences within the diaspora as well as within the homelands.

When Paula talks of French newspapers having opinion pieces written by philosophers, I wonder why it is so difficult for me to write? (publishing / access issues aside)

I personally need to get out of the ‘hole’ that I have been in…
If the bio-conspiracy against my voice continues, I need to learn to write…

alissar
18 June 2008