The workshop, Mapping Who We Are, was designed as a convivial space of interaction and reflection for all participants.
Before the Guwahati Workshop began, the first thing that needed to be done was the addition of colour and flowers to the drab conference room of the Cotton University campus.
Image 1: The volunteers at the Workshop
Instead of a conventional opening session with formal introductions, each participant was asked to attach a photo to an index card and write about herself as if she was talking to a friend. The index cards were then mounted on a map showing the North-eastern states of India and the Indian Ocean region to the south. In this way, we warmed up to each other and got comfortable with the space of the workshop.
Image 2: The Hab methodologies workshop at Assam begins with a mapping exercise!
Image 3: Linking the self-introduction cards with a coloured thread to their home on the map.
Image 4: The final map! Guwahati is the centre of the whirl of threads. Nagaland, on the right, is covered with cards.
Image 5: One of our participants from Nagaland posing with her card.
Image 6: A close up of Nagaland on the map.
Image 7: Every participants fills up a card - even the convenors, Francoise Verges and Aarti Kawlra.
Image 8: A few brief words and a photograph - that's all!
Image 9: If you didn't bring a photo, all you need to do is to improvise!
Image 10: Another close up of a card from another one of our other participants, Sayani.
This is the first of our updates from Assam.