Workshops and Inputs

Shaping postcolonial work

Workshop
Mon. 06.06.2022 10:30 AM
Instruction: Joanna Mechnich
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
A major challenge in postcolonial work is the question of the perspective from which work is carried out. Should the focus be primarily on deeds and perpetrators? Or is it about the stories that have so far been neglected and have remained untold? Everyone who wants to take a step back and broaden their perspective is invited to this workshop. Together we look at a way to look at postcolonial issues.

Decolonization is not a metaphor!

Workshop
Mon. 06.06.2022 11 AM
Instruction: Devrim and Maxi from the BIPoC Kollektiv
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
Increasingly, we encounter the term “decolonization” in academic and activist contexts. Often, however, in a way that makes it something abstract, a metaphor. We are then told to “decolonize” our consciousness, our language, our university. All right and good at first, but decolonization is more than a metaphor. It stands for the ongoing struggles against neocolonial exploitation and oppression and settlement colonialism worldwide.
In our workshop we want to approach the concepts of imperialism and neocolonialism and look together at concrete examples of the role the German state plays globally and what this means for our concept of decolonization.

(BIPoC only)

Dealing with racism at the University of Göttingen

Workshop
Mon. 06.06.2022 3 PM
Instruction: Joanna Mechnich and the International Student Council
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
Practical exchange on dealing with racism and other forms of discrimination at the University of Göttingen.
Students at the University of Göttingen experience discrimination on different levels. Since last year, however, anti-discrimination counseling for students has been abolished. In the workshop we will talk about possible courses of action for people who experience racism and other forms of discrimination at the university. It should be clarified what the first steps are after an incident and which offices there are to which one can turn. We will also exchange views on strategic questions: How can alliances be formed between university groups and non-organized students? What are the options for securing knowledge? Which activist methods can be used? It is requested that predominantly international students and/or BIPOC students from the University of Göttingen register for the workshop.

Decolonize Medicine!

Workshop
Mon. 06.06.2022 3 PM
Instruction: Lakshmi Thevasagayam
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
TW: Racism, Colonialism
For centuries, Western medical progress was played out on
racialized bodies. White physicians, including those from Göttingen, Germany,
were largely responsible for the fact that different
human races were talked about at all. We want to talk about this
colonial-racist history and continuities in the academy and in our everyday life. In addition, we will take a look
into the struggles of the Global South, where indigenous people are fighting for the
decolonization of medicine.

(BIPoC only)

Provenance research, restitutions and social justice

Workshop
Tue. 07.06.2022 11 AM
Instruction: Dr. Jonatan Kurzwelly and AG (koloniale) Provenienzen
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
The last decade witnessed an increased number of “provenance research” projects which investigate the often grim and violent histories of human remains in academic collections, and lead to their restitutions to “communities of origin”. Such restitutions aim to correct historical wrongs and to achieve social justice. What kind of injustices are addressed through provenance research, where lays its potential, and what are its shortcomings? In this talk we will explore the complex ethical, ideological and political issues related to provenance research and restitutions.
Also @provenienztagram will talk about the academic collections of Göttingen in this workshop.

Digital walk around the city

Workshop
Tue. 07.06.2022 3:30-6:30 PM
Instruction: Us, using the app Actionbound
Location: Starting at Startraum Göttingen
Content:
If you are interested in how colonialism still has an impact and is visible in urban society today, then you have come to the right place. At various stations, we will explore colonial traces that are still (partly) responsible for structural racism in Göttingen and worldwide.
For this we will use the app “Actionbound” and will walk through the points together and discuss them. At the end there will be a commentary by Chris Herrwig from EPIZ. In addition, we are planning a joint social media action, in which visuals and songs will be used to draw attention to the colonial continuities in Göttingen. Come by and join us!

Movie: “Remember Now” about the performance and audio walk in Berlin

Workshop
Mon. 06.06.2022 8 PM
Instruction: Soraya Reichl and Lea Shirin Kübler
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
We are very honored to receive the makers of the amazing audio and performance walk “Remember Now”.
The movie will move you and makes space to imagine a future that is not relying on colonial remembrance, but to have a city that is made by the people and for the people!
The film was only displayed publiquely once at @invision_festival and we are sooo happy to be able to show it within our networking conference on “recognizing and naming colonial continuities”.
The movie is in german. 

Wissmann-cult in Bad Lauterberg

Workshop
Tue. 07.06.2022 11 AM
Instruction: Johanna Strunge and Bernd Langer
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
Not far from Göttingen, in the spa town of Bad Lauterberg, Hermann von Wissmann is still persistently remembered. Wissmann was the leader of several expeditions in Africa, played a decisive role in the violent suppression of an uprising and was governor of German East Africa. Bad Lauterberg, where his mother lived, honoured Wissmann with a street name, commemorative plaques and, most prominently, a monument in the park. In his workshop, Bernd Langer, founding member of the “Anti-Fascist Working Group Bad Lauterberg” (1978-1985), will introduce us to Wissmann’s violent history and tell us about the protest of the working group. The working group made it their difficult task to oppose the annual meeting of the “Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz- und Überseetruppen” at the Wismann monument.

Environment and colonialism (a tour through the botanical garden)

Workshop
Tue. 07.06.2022 3:30-5:30 PM
Postponed! New date will be announced as soon as possible!
Instruction: Kieran Sattler and Audrey Vanessa Noukeu Petnguen
Location: Coming soon! (Startraum Göttingen oder botanischer Garten)
Content:
Coloniality always plays a role in questions of the relationship between people and their environments. Audrey Vanessa Noukeu Petnguen and Kieran Sattler want to point out some of these colonial continuities in a tour of the Botanic Garden and engage in exchange about these topics. Among other things, they will discuss the role of botanical gardens in colonialism, the coloniality of the climate crisis, and questions about “resources” such as knowledge or plants and the relationships that people have with them.

Searching for traces in the University town of Göttingen

Input
Tue. 07.06.2022 10 AM
Instruction: Dr. Karolin Wetjen
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
University and colonialism- Göttingen as an example, is a research project on which Dr. Karolin Wetjen worked and about which she will tell us.

Fragments of (post-) kolonial culture of memory in Witzenhausen

Input
Tue. 07.06.2022 2 PM
Instruction: Johnny Ibraimo
Location: Startraum Göttingen
Content:
In Witzenhausen, a small town between Kassel and Göttingen, young people were trained for colonial agriculture at the German Colonial School from 1898 to 1945. As “cultural pioneers,” they were supposed to help advance the agricultural “development” of the colonized areas. How do people in Witzenhausen deal with the town’s colonial heritage? This question has been explored by people in various workshop formats as part of the project “Perspective Change – Witzenhausen Tells Story(s)”. A multimedia retrospective with Johnny Ibraimo.