Borderlands: Decolonising

Borderlands is a monthly event held in the Pavilion Bar on the Ormeau Road in Belfast. It is put on by a collective of people which includes Corrymeela Community staff. On the second Tuesday of each month we platform music, poetry, reflections, dialogue, and stories around a theme effecting our society today. This is meant to be a truly borderlands space where an audience gathers from many traditions and community is built. Admission is free.   This month on the second anniversary of the ongoing tragedy in Gaza we want to gather to consider what most humanitarian organisations the world over are calling a genocide. But we also want to reflect on how this situation both effects us here in Belfast and also how we share common roots of a colonial past. When violence in a place is merely labelled a "conflict" it can minimise what is happening. It implies there are two equal parties who are in a dispute over something. For example most would realise that the problem between Russia and Ukraine is not so much a conflict. Rather it is about a superpower being led by a power hungry dictator, thirsting for more territory to conquer. Similarly when we look at Gaza, we do need to look beyond simplistic renderings.   This event will be a brave space for sacred stories. We hope it will leave people with determination to be part of building good relations in our city and our world, not by avoiding the roots of our society's ills, but by unmasking them and naming them. In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 Martin Luther King Jr said words that resonate today: "I refuse to accept the view that humankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and kinship can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word." Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr