This workshop is about exploring our embodied histories. Our experiences, our emotions, our pain like our joys and our hopes, are held in our bodies, in a space beyond language. ‘Drawing out’ such deeply entrenched memories can be painful and violent. But, it can also be cathartic. Giving space to create a new language for Body/Memory locked within ourselves and hidden away by cultural norms or fear of repression allows for the ‘telling of stories’ on our own terms.

Radhika is a public historian, researcher, and peacebuilding practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience based in Sri Lanka. She works through art, oral history, and facilitates public discourse on issues of gender, security, history, justice and sustainable peace. She is the co-founder of the "Herstories project", "The Community Memorialisation Project", and is presently documenting women’s histories of sex work during conflict as an extension of the work on women, history and transitional justice. As a curator, she curated the first iteration of travelling history museum, "It’s About Time", as well as for Colomboscope (2014, 2015), the multi-country exhibition of marginalised histories "Shared Journeys" (2020) for International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, and created exhibitions to share conflict histories through multiple perspectives in Sri Lanka as well as abroad. She holds a Masters in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Images by Don Wong