While there were no dramatic events for INNATE in 2018, there was steady achievement in a number of areas.
The usual ten full issues of Nonviolent News, plus two news supplements, were produced. During the year this included a series of articles exploring “.......and nonviolence”, looking at the relationship between other approaches or ideologies (e.g. human rights) and nonviolence; this included input from people centrally involved in the areas concerned. The series concluded with a short nonviolent manifesto which appeared in Nonviolent News andis available separately in paper or PDF format. We also produced a considered piece, in our editorial slot, on abortion at the time of the referendum in the Republic.
It was a good year in relation to our online presence. On the main website, in addition to Nonviolent News there is a raft of workshops, posters for downloading and printing at home (110 of them) and other material. The main website has an average of 6,460 visits a month. Our Facebook presence kicked off more this year https://www.facebook.com/INNATE.nonviolence .
Our Flickr photo site benefitted from a considerable amount of new photos, many archival, so there are now over 1650 entries there and this includes documents which illustrate the work of peace groups, of various kinds, over the years. The easiest way to access the photo site is by clicking on one of the Flickr photos on our main website; it has now had almost 350,000 photos opened (you can view photos without actually opening them but to get detail you have to open the individual photo). Viewing the photos in the albums may make it easier to find particular interests.
In relation to peace trails, we collaborated with Emily Stanton who produced a motorised Troubles-related peace tour of Belfast, the printed notes for which are on the INNATE photo site. We also explored with Voices Women’s Group in Turf Lodge, Belfast, the possibility of a peace trail for their area, and ran our peace trail of Belfast for them and others.
We are working on our ‘Civil society and the Troubles’ project which aims to record what civil society (including churches, women’s groups, community groups, trade unions, peace and reconciliation groups, and campaigning groups among others) did to address issues during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. We are convinced that not to record this hands the narrative, by default, to the supporters of paramilitarism or government responses. We are optimistic that work in relation to this area will take off. Many of the archival additions to our photo site assist in relation to this area by at least pinpointing some of those we should remember and be looking at.
We ran a seminar on men and violence which included Louise Kennedy from Women’s Aid as a speaker. Unfortunately an international speaker for this event was precluded from coming by visa issues. Redefining masculinity is one of our areas of concern and work.
We developed and ran a workshop which looks at both small group consensus and voting consensus in one day, divided into morning and afternoon (or equivalent) slots. This includes role play in relation to the former and voting in the latter and can be tailor made to particular group’s needs; please enquire if interested.
We had a useful exchange with a group from Colombia, through the Social Change Initiative, sharing on issues which they chose, particularly monitoring and possible overlaps with mediation. Some of our members participated in the major international conference in Dublin opposing US/NATO bases and we published reports and photos of this event; the lrish organisation of this event was by PANA.
There were many other issues we addressed during the year not mentioned here. We continue to meet in a networking meeting once a month in Belfast (thanks to Mediation Northern Ireland for their hospitality) and this is open to anyone who wishes to come along – if you are interested you are very welcome. And if you have comments or suggestions they are also welcome.
