Kintsugi: the scars left by the Machistan violence tell stories
Quintsuero, a century-old Japanese technique, consists of observing broken ceramic pieces with powdery gold, instead of dissimulating "scars", creates something unique with new value. That was the symbolism that we used on February 24 in an act of symbolic reparation to women who have survived different Machistan violence.
Some of our vital experiences leave us scars, visible on the skin or invisible. Some do their best to hide and continue living. Some decide that they are part of their memory and history and start a training process. A process of repair, recognizing our fragility, facing each other, ceasing to hide with the masks we have put for so long to survive.
This path cannot be individual, it must be supported by other women, men, societies, institutions… To this end, Mugarik Gabe, along with other institutions, launched a process of documentation with fifteen women who have survived the different Machian violence. Women forced to leave their homeland behind the violence they have experienced, who have faced many other violence until they find the people they have been welcomed. Women who are denied identity and are forced to live as they want. Women who are immersed in jobs that leave their places and turn them into slaves, immersed in a reality that does nothing to transform and without rights. Women who leave the processes of violence and have found institutions that aggravate and revictimize this situation.
With fifteen women who have survived different Machistan violence, we began a documentary process. Women forced to leave their place of origin due to violence. Women denied identity
We met and asked them, "What do you need to observe, complete and carry this wound forward?" Asking and listening are fundamental elements in the repair process. Listen without prejudice, with empathy and openness. And above all, listening to our responsibility as a society, because the right to reparation is a step towards social transformation and we dream of a life without male violence.
This listening and credibility would be a first measure of reparation, because they would feel that we are with them, with the victims, and that they are part of this society and not aggressors.
Solidarity with all women is one of the most recurring and most important issues. To mobilize for the passion of not passing what they live and are living with other people, to get involved with associations in initiatives, in processes, and to do so they must count and turn these stories into part of our collective memory.
They also pay attention to institutions to rethink their protocols and to continue their actions. Institutional violence exists, it would be worrying if they recognised mistakes and bad practices and defined concrete commitments to change so many things for them and for which they will come.
The list of shared reparatory demands was long. These processes have an individual component to complement what each one needs and become the protagonist of their life, but also collective.
The processes cannot be designed from the offices as a tool to be put in place for each of the women who suffer violence, and should not only start from the institutions, but also from the nearby environments and society in general. Processes pose many challenges and the necessary transformation. We must stop, ask and above all listen.
From there, it is necessary to define this process of repair that helps women who have survived the male violence, to appropriate their lives and enjoy again, leaving behind the violence lived, without hiding their scars. These scars tell a story of pain and overcoming a life without male violence.
Lidia Ruiz Gómez, Sin Fronteras
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