June 2023
The core team of co-PIs met again in June to conduct further interviews with local academics to discuss local peacebuilding efforts and the impact of international community aid contributions. Following on from these interviews, team members engaged in a two day community workshop and a four day writing workshop - both workshops are to contribute to further project outputs in the form of collaborative writing outcomes.
During and after the workshops, heritage site visits were organised around the locations of Kandy, Ella, Kataragama and Colombo.
June 22nd - July 5th
Colombo, Colombo, Kandy, Ella and Kataragama
Participants: Mark, Ed, Hasini and Karu
Colombo
21 - 23 June - Starting in Colombo, team members Mark and Hasini partook in a number of interviews with academics and community members at the International Centre for Ethnic Studies.
Kandy
24 - 27 June - In Kandy, team members continued to conduct interviews with community members, focusing primarily on local community peacebuilding efforts. A two day workshop involving Tamil and Sinhalese students from the Universities of Colombo and Jaffna, titled the ‘History and Community Project’, took place and included visits to local heritage sites such as Gadaladeniya Temple. Before departure, team members visited the Relic of the Tooth Temple and the International Buddhist Museum.
Ella
28 June - 1 July - In Ella, team members participated in a five day writers retreat. The retreat allowed the team to discuss ideas and work on various written project outputs such as journal articles and book abstracts. In between writing, the team visited local heritage sites including Meena Amma’s Tea Experience at Warwick Estate.
Kataragama
2 - 3 July - At the conclusion of the writers workshop, team members visited Kataragama. This destination was chosen due to its role as a sacred pilgrimage town for Hindu, Buddhist and Vedda peoples. Whilst there, the team visited the Kataragama museum, temples and historic sites.
Colombo
4 - 5 July - The final days of the June field trip included further interviews with various individuals, including Dr. Sunil Wljesiriwardene, Father Rohan Silva and Harshana Rabukwella. This content, and the interviews conducted throughout the project, will form the basis for a series of short films and podcast episodes.
Outputs
Daniel Schumacher presents ‘Bildung für den Frieden? Geschichts und Politikunterricht imnachkriegszeitlichen Sri Lanka’ (Education for Peace? History and civic education in post-war Sri Lanka), at the Binational School of Education (BiSE), University of Konstanz, 13th June, 2023.
