Memories of Mogadishu

On behalf of the Memories of Mogadishu initiative, we are very pleased to present to you the Memories of Mogadishu Conference.

Join us at the Ottawa Art Gallery on May 4th, 2019 from 9:30AM to 5PM as we bring together Somali diaspora from around the world to explore the use of oral history and digital archives in preserving cultural heritage and collective memory.

The Memories of Mogadishu Conference will explore migration and memories in post-conflict societies with the goal of fostering greater inclusion.

Please register for the conference HERE

Sessions

9:30AM Registration & Networking

*Coffee, tea, and refreshments will be provided

10:00AM Opening Remarks

Asha Siad - Memories of Mogadishu Conference Curator

Alexandra Badzak, Director and CEO of the Ottawa Art Gallery

Latha Sukumar, MCIS Language Solutions

(TBC)

10:20AM Opening Plenary

Preserving Collective Memories Locally and Globally – An Institutional and

Community Effort for Building Just and Peaceful Societies

Moderator: Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz Africa

Chantal Fortier, Chair of the Canadian Advisory Committee for the Memory of

the World program for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO

Nduka Otiono, Assistant Professor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton

University, Ottawa

Fowsia Abdulkadir, Independent Researcher and Human Rights Activist

Dr. Stéphane Martelly, Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling,

Concordia University, Montreal

11:30AM Coffee Break

11:40AM Roundtable

Memories of Mogadishu - The Past, Present and Future

Moderator: Asha Siad, Memories of Mogadishu

Abira Hussein, Independent Researcher and Curator, United Kingdom

Ahmed Gure, Editor of Hiiraan Online

Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, Italian writer and author of Far from Mogadishu and

Clouds over the Equator, and Wings

Abdi Latif Dahir, Quartz Africa

Hawa Mire, Diasporic Somali Storyteller and Writer, and Strategist

1:00PM LUNCH BREAK

Nomad (Interactive Art Exhibit) by Abira Hussein and Mnemoscene,

United Kingdom

Somali Youth Art Showcase & Open Mic

2:15PM Workshop

Introduction to Oral History and Archiving

Trainers:

Dr. Stéphane Martelly, Concordia University, Montreal

Lisa Ndejuru, PhD Concordia University, Montreal

3:15PM Panel 1

A Global Conversation on Memory, Migration and Peacebuilding

Moderator: Nadia Caidi, University of Toronto

Jean-Nicolas Beuze, UNHCR Representative in Canada

Ifrah Hassan, Community Activist

Eliana Trinaistic, MCIS Language Solutions, Toronto

Jonathan Durand, Director of Memory Is Our Homeland

4:00PM Coffee Break

4:15PM Memories of Mogadishu Documentary Film Screening

Moderator: Ahmed Mahamed, Somali Education Fund

Asha Siad, Memories of Mogadishu

Shirin Ramzanali-Fazel, Italian writer and author of Far from Mogadishu and

Clouds over the Equator

Fowsia Abdulkadir, Independent Researcher and Human Rights Activist

(TBC)

5:15PM Closing Remarks

Speakers

Shirin Ramzanali Fazel is an Italian writer of Somali and Pakistani origin who writes in Italian and English. She is the author of the memoir Lontano da Mogadiscio (1994) and Nuvole sull’Equatore (2010) a novel about a young woman of mixed race growing up during the Italian Trusteeship Administration of Somalia.

She rewrote and herself translated Lontano da Mogadiscio into English as Far from Mogadishu, in which she expands on the painful issue of the Somali diaspora.

Abdi Latif Dahir is a Nairobi-based journalist with Quartz, a digitally-native publication that is a guide to the new global economy. Abdi covers the eastern Africa region and has written about China's deepening reach in Africa, the intersection of technology and geopolitics, and how local and global companies are identifying and making innovative solutions to local problems. Abdi's work has also appeared in both local Kenyan and international outlets.

Writer, painter and scholar, Stéphane Martelly was born in Port-au-Prince and now lives in Montreal. Through a profoundly transdisciplinary approach, she confronts theory, critical reflection and art in her work. Her scholarly work notably include working in the Montreal based Life Stories Of Montrealers Displaced By War, Genocide And Other Human Rights Violations as a researcher and coordinator.

Jean-Nicolas Beuze worked for more than 20 years with the United Nations in the areas of Human Rights (OHCHR), Peacekeeping (DPKO) and UNICEF at Headquarters and in the field (Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Afghanistan and the Middle-East and North Africa region) before joining UNHCR in Lebanon as Deputy Representative for Protection and Inter-Agency Coordination.

Alexandra Badzak is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Ottawa Art Gallery where she led the charge on a major gallery expansion project in the downtown core. She recently sat as Chair of the Ottawa Museum Network Board of Directors and was a member of the National Historic Sites Alliance of Ontario Steering Committee. She is currently a member of CAMDO (the Canadian Art Museum Directors’ Organization).

Ahmed Elmi Gure is the Founder and Managing Director of Hiiraan Online. Hiiraan Online is the most popular Somali news website on the web with over 9 million page views a month. It has grown to a staff of nearly 20 in over 6 countries bringing daily news and analysis.

For seven years Lisa was a community co-applicant and steering committee member of the major SSHRC-funded community-university project Life stories of Montrealers displaced by genocide, war and other human rights abuses. Motivated by her own family's story of trauma and displacement, her current PhD studies at Concordia University are at the intersection of community engagement, clinical practice, and arts-based research.

Eliana Trinaistic is a MCIS Language Services’ Social Impact Manager. Eliana`s background is in administration, non-profit and project management, program design and delivery, education, engagement and public relations. Her current interests include the role arts and nature play in improving health, earnings and cohesiveness of diverse communities and theories and methodologies of creating social value for social impact.

Abira Hussein is an independent researcher and curator specialising in Somali heritage, digital archives, migration, and health. Recently completed an MRes in Clinical Research and Design Management at Imperial College London In recent years she has worked with the British Museum, British Library, London Metropolitan Archives, Refugee Council Archive, and Somali Week Festival, to deliver many projects and workshops engaging with the Somali Community.

Nadia Caidi is Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Information (iSchool). Trained in Linguistics and Communication from Lyon and Grenoble (France), she holds a Ph.D. in Information Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Her current research is situated in the context of global migration and the role of information resources, institutions, and technologies play in the everyday lives of migrant and refugee communities.

Asha Siad is an award-winning Somali-Canadian journalist and documentary filmmaker. She shares under-reported stories that expand dialogue and allow people to connect with the world in a more meaningful way. Asha co-produced Living at the Border, an Amnesty award-winning web documentary that shares the realities of African migrants and asylum-seekers in Italy. She co-directed the National Film Board of Canada documentary 19 Days. Her latest project examines the use of memory and reconstruction.

Fowsia Abdulkadir is an independent researcher and human rights activist. Her research interests can be placed in the international and Canadian national arenas. In the international context, her research interests are in the areas of conflict analysis; transitional justice or post conflict justice mechanisms; gender mainstreaming, and the role of women in governance, democratization and conflict resolution in the Horn of Africa.

Chantal Fortier chairs the Canadian Advisory Committee for the Memory of the World program for the Canadian Commission for UNESCO. Born in Montreal, she was first involved in science popularization following a degree in biology. She then become an enthusiast museum professional at the Canada Science and Technology museum in Ottawa. From 2000 to 2013, she occupied various executive positions at the Department of Canadian Heritage, being responsible for files regarding culture and heritage.

Ifrah Hassan is a Somali Canadian entrepreneur, prominent community activist, organizer, and mentor. She has a decade-long experience working as a community builder in Ottawa and her work is now known and followed by thousands of Somalis across the globe. Ifrah is the owner of Ifrah's Essentials- a global online business dedicated to providing optimum health, optimum beauty and optimum fashion, president of the Awakening Kakaca Conference.

Nduka Otiono is a writer and an Assistant Professor at the Institute of African Studies, Carleton University. Along with two volumes of poetry and a collection of short stories, he is co-editor of We-Men: An Anthology of Men Writing on Women (New Horn & Critical Forum, 1998) and Camouflage: Best of Contemporary Writing from Nigeria (Treasure Books, 2006). Prior to turning to academia, he was for many years a journalist in Nigeria.

Jonathan Durand is a documentary filmmaker and photographer from Montreal, Canada. He studied Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University (BA), after which he spent several years living and working as an educator in Asia and East Africa. Since 2009, he has been pursuing a career as a director, cinematographer, and photographer. ‘Memory Is Our Homeland’, his first feature-length documentary, premiered at the Montreal International Documentary Festival in November 2018.

Hawa Y. Mire is a diasporic Somali storyteller, writer, and strategist with more than a decade of experience in high-impact community-based initiatives, as well as the co-editor of MAANDEEQ, a collective of young Somali-demics from diverse fields who write about the Somali territories and the Somali diaspora. She holds a master’s degree in environmental studies from York University where her research was preoccupied with storytelling as a site of social-boundary making.

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Nduka Otiono, Carleton University