A STORY OF MARIJANA

Culture and Healing

Over the last 15 years I have been delighted to work with Tina Ellen Lee,
creative producer of The Complete Freedom of Truth (TCFT).
This is a pan-European youth centred and partly run cultural project
devoted to helping young people recognise their latent abilities
and devotion to democracy and freedom as they develop leadership skills.

Not only have several photoessays and  films emerged from this work
but I have had the opportunity to develop teaching skills
about film, photography and democracy
while meeting and befriending numerous caring and committed
young people and artists.

Maja with Tina Ellen Lee introducing a TCFT creative arts project to children in Bratanuts, Bosnia…photograph: Robert Golden

Amongst those people is Marijana Djukanovic (aka Maja)
whom I met as a girl of 14 in Srebrenica, Bosnia*.
She was and is bright, energetic, filled with enthusiasm, skills and talent.
She also had a delightful sense of humour.
Since Tina first went to Srebrenica
to work alongside the young people with their theatre and music projects,
Maja had been engaged in their local youth theatre
with a group of devoted friends.
In these projects they opened the group to everyone,
meaning no matter their ethnicity or ability.
This was a brave and enlightened decision,
and revealed the deep humanity that that had taken root
in these young people.

Having become a social worker in her community, recently she wrote,
“it is crucial we continue working with young people,
providing them with new perspectives on thinking
and reflecting on the society that surrounds us…
After last August’s residency with TCFT,
local children began to believe that things can be different,
that in their Cultural Centre
they don't have to listen to gloomy stories,
but rather, it can become their space, their free space.
It's important for us to emphasize that the seed has been sown
(by the TCFT project), and will certainly grow,
but we need the support of all the brave people who want to help
and to offer something new to young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In these workshops, we learn critical thinking,
empathy, and most importantly,
we engage in the prevention of any form of violence.
I would like to emphasize the importance of providing other young people
with opportunities that I had while growing up in Bratunac (neighbouring town)
and Srebrenica.
Young people are leaving here, abandoning their homes,
which is why it's essential to offer them as many opportunities as possible
for self-realization, education, and upbringing.”

Marijana Djukanovic, Youth and Social Worker

When I read this letter from Maja, I thought this must be shared
as it is such a representation of European humanism,
of the need for culture to lead people,
including young people,
to support and engage with fairness,
affection, love and inherent justice…
with democracy and with hope and wishfulness.
The seeds have been planted deep in their spirit’s through
caring for and working with all members of the community.

Maja with friends and fellow theatre practitioners… photograph: Robert Golden

Whilst working on CANDLES AGAINST THE NIGHT,
one of the 4 films I made in Bosnia,
I closely documented a small group of the young people
including Maja and her elder sister,
that I had come to know,
and who had come to trust me.
In their private conversations they were quite political.

CD cover for the documentary film Photograph/design: Robert Golden..

In one of the early assembly edits*** I showed to the town,
the showing event itself drew people of all ages
and from all religious, cultural and class groups
into the same room at the same time,
an unusual event in itself.
At the end of this first showing,
a local social worker stood up and shouted in anger
that I was planting propaganda in the young people’s minds.
I protested that I was only showing what they were saying and doing
without participating in the events but to film it.
I explained how I was practiced in being a non-participating observer.
He became angrier and threatening.
Then several of the young people I had been working with,
jumped-up at their own volition, including Maja,
and protested to him and the rest of the local people
that what was represented in the edit was of their own making
and that I was entirely innocent and had represented them fairly.
The social worker was silenced
by the fact that both Bosniak and Serb young people
had defended the film and me.

Group picture of a TCFT project in Srebrenica… photograph: Robert Golden

Maja is a tireless worker. Her devotion is a heartening thing to witness,
although Tina and I often worry about her wellbeing.
But she, and her fellows are like phoenix,
rising from their troubled background.

If readers feel the urge, please send a message of support to Maja via my Substack account and I will pass them on. Thank you.

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*During the Balkan Wars of 1992-1995, across 3 days in July 1995,
the invading Serbian army and local Serb irregulars
murdered between 8000 and 12,000 Bosniak (Muslim) men and boys.
Maja, as everyone else of her generation
grew up in the long shadow of this huge tragedy.

** Here is a short extract from Candles Against the Night
which was shown a number of years ago at Davos by Nigel Osborne
as part of a presentation on Music and Social Justice.
Tina also showed it at a conference recently on Democracy and Philanthropy
re a conversation around Art and War in Annecy, France.
We had permission to share this from all concerned in Srebrenica at the time.

***To be certain I was not offending or indeed drawing dumb conclusions
I showed the film at three points of its development.
People were quietly proud that their children could overcome the hatred
they, the parents, still clung to. I had never before been hugged by so many bearded men.