Re-Crea
creating traditional games from discarded material
Public Forum on the Environment and Culture
Anna Bucca, Otello Urso and WorldFest
Context
and Motivation - Essential
Timetable
This
is a six-month project (May - October, 2002) run by Inizjamed in
collaboration with the EU’s “Youth” Programme and Bay Street. The
project is coordinated by Clare Azzopardi and Karsten Xuereb.
“Re-Creation”
aims to foster the concept of re-using discarded material creatively, in
such a way as to encourage sustainability, cooperation and team-spirit
among youth and other members of the community.
Most
of the activities, including 
preparatory sessions for the young people
running the project, public fora and activities involving the general
public (mainly creating and playing the various games) will be held at the
Bay Street complex in the heart of the entertainment district of
Paceville.
The
aims of the project reach well beyond the six-months of its duration,
because it aims to actively promote sustainable ways of living, creativity
and respect towards and regeneration of local culture.
[Photo:
from left, Karsten Xuereb, Otello Urso, Anna Bucca, Clare Azzopardi,
Adrian Grima, Vince Caruana at the WorldFest, 4.5.02, St. Michael's
School, Pembroke]
Context
and Motivation
The
“Re-Creation” project arose from the need to address the specific
local environmental problem of waste management in a creative way. The
method was inspired by one of the project’s advisers; the artistic
association Mana Chuma of Italy. A visit to their centre showed us how the
idea of re-using discarded material and putting it to a creative use can
be put into action. By adapting it to a local context, Inizjamed thinks it
can be successful in generating environment-awareness and creative skills
among young people.
“Re-Creation”
also arose from the need to create a project that empowers
young people and shows them that they have a crucial role to play in the
solution of “national problems”. The participation of advisers from
Italy and Finland will provide the team of youngsters running the project
with practical insights and foster a stronger European dimension among
Maltese youth.
Essential
Timetable
During May and June, the participants will meet to assess their ongoing research work, to plan and to discuss their work with the advisers. The main public activity in this phase will be a public forum at Bay Street on reusing discarded materials and links between environmentalism and cultural initiatives. Speakers include Belgian environmental activist Eric E. Van Monckhoven, Dr. Paul Pace, an expert on environmental education, and Mr. Chris Ciantar from the Skart Project.
This
period will also include a trip to Gozo for the young people running the
project and for the advisers. The aim is to offer a direct exercise in
appreciating local heritage and allowing it to inspire their initiative.
The
project will be presented in public during July and August. The activities
include open sessions in which the general public will be encouraged to
engage with the idea of putting discarded material to creative use and to
become more aware of Maltese traditional games.
In
September and October the participants will carry out an overall
evaluation of the project and discuss ways to continue the process begun
by the project both as a group and in their everyday lives.
Local
and Foreign Advisers
A
number of local and foreign advisers will be offering their expertise and
experience in the various areas dealt with in the project. These are
Miriam Teuma (youth worker); Stephen Cachia (educator); Raphael Vella (in
photo) and Sina Farrugia, both educators and artists; folklorist Ġorġ
Mifsud Chircop; Vince Caruana, who has specialized in Environment and
Development Education; Anna Bucca and Otello Urso from Arci (Catania);
Massimo Barilla from Mana Chuma (Reggio Calabria); and Eric E. Van
Monckhoven (Finland).
Anna
Bucca, president of
ARCI Catania, and Otello Urso, are highly
experienced in the running of creative projects that empower
youths in local communities, and their presence will facilitate the
Maltese youngsters’ participation in the project while enabling them to
reap maximum benefits.
A
University graduate in literature, Anna Bucca has turned her attention to
the plight of young people in the Sicily and has carried out many concrete
projects to develop their full potential. Inizjamed and Arci Catania
collaborated on a project called “Al Buio – Per Chi Non Vede
l’Arte” funded by the Culture 2000 programme of the EU and
coordinated by Otello Urso.
Massimo
Barilla’s experience
in conceiving and developing Mana Chuma’s research centre for
traditional games and toys in Reggio Calabria is essential to the “Re-Creation”
project, since his input will be crucial to the overall vision and
direction the project will finally take.
Massimo
Barilla completed his post-graduate studies in Torino for Coordinators of
Cultural Projects with a dissertation "Vox Terrae - Istituzione di un
Centro di produzione e di formazione teatrale". He is a co-founder of
the artistic association Mana Chuma of Reggio Calabria in Italy. In 2000
Massimo Barilla was one of the main performers in Inizjamed’s production
Kitbiet mill-Mediterran held at the University of Malta (Evenings
on Campus)
Eric E. Van Monckhoven
is a environmental consultant and activist. His main areas of interest are
crosscultural understanding, agroecology, natural and sustainable
eco-living, appropriate technology and social economy.
His key qualifications include community-based sustainable development,
environment, and international cooperation. He collaborates with a large
number of non-governmental and grass-roots organisations struggling for
local regeneration and sustainability. These include: “Aborigin”,
a not-for-profit
organisation aiming at promoting native, aboriginal, indigenous cultures
and traditions; “Ecolandia”,
an educational and
environmental centre in Calabria (Southern Italy); “LIFE/Environment”,
a project of Local Agenda XXI in the suburban area of Messina (Southern
Italy); “Mediterranean 2000”,
an educational campaign aiming at promoting sustainable practices for
local regeneration in the Mediterranean; and “MedPark
2001” (Aspromonte, Southern Italy), a
special event to enhance partnership between National Parks and protected
areas in the Mediterranean.
Beneficiaries
The
main beneficiaries of this project are:
§
The general
public that will play the games created by the participants and become
more aware of the need to respect the environment and to explore
sustainable ways of living
§
The
participants’ families
§
The schools the
participants attend
Impact
at Local Level
§
Raising
environmental awareness through the re-use of discarded material.
§
Involving the
beneficiaries in the chosen games, learning about Maltese traditions and
interacting with young participants.
§
Generating
originality and creativity.
§
Encouraging
sustainability at local level.
The
“Re-Creation” project run by mainly young people
addresses a number of important European concerns and offers concrete
action:
The Directive
on Waste (75/442/EEC)
requires Member States to take all necessary steps to prevent waste
generation, to encourage reuse and to ensure safe waste disposal. This
project aims to fulfil such strategies. Articles 40 and 41 of the
Directive are particularly inspiring:
·
Art. 40
Recovery of waste is at the core of any sustainable waste management
policy. Therefore, where the generation of waste cannot be avoided, it
should be reused or recovered for its material or energy.
·
Art. 41
Re-use of a product should, where environmentally sound, be further
encouraged, since it helps to avoid waste generation (our emphasis).
Waste can otherwise be recovered mainly by means of material recovery,
which means that some or all materials contained in the waste are
reprocessed in order to make new products, or by energy recovery
operations, where the energy is extracted by the use of the waste as a
fuel.
In
view of the serious situation regarding waste mismanagement in Malta, this
project aims at contributing to the process of rectifying past negligence
by empowering local young people in accordance with European strategies of
sustainability.
Both the issue of
marginalization and
the fostering and promotion of
cultural diversity are profoundly European issues. This project aims to bring
those who have been marginalized by circumstances back to the centre of
society, where we all belong. The main “instrument” here is that of
“creativity” and “play”.
In accordance with the European Commision’s policy on fair
trade, this project
also proposes to contribute to the building of the games by resorting and
making full use of local access to games and toys made of recycled
material (wood and metal) and fairly traded in order to inspire and help
build these games. Therefore, part of the budget is earmarked to purchase
such games from L-Arka,
and in so doing strengthen and support fair trade movement (as established
by the European Commission’s Communication on fair trade IP/99/937 –
Brussels, 2 December 1999).
The methods
proposed in this project have been adopted by many European NGOs working
in the fields of youth marginilisation, cultural regeneration and
creativity. In this sense, the working method proposed here is a European
working method. Team-work, youth empowerment, the internet, use of the
media and the sharing of methods and information with the local community
and the public in general are ways in which many European NGOs have
achieved good results.
Clare Azzopardi, Karsten Xuereb
Inizjamed
May, 2002
