A Year of Gentle Dissemination.

ROOTS GUIDE

Roots Guide: Publication, distributions and sales

We kicked off the year to reprint 1000 beautiful copies of Roots Guide with the talented Robstolk in Amsterdam (after a failed print at the end of 2021). Over the year, we have distributed and sold over 300 copies across the country, including several copies to our generous donors, one copy to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek, three copies to three lucky winners from Karlijn Vissers’ - from Holistik - social media giveaway! Furthermore, our Meghann has handed copies to some interesting people at the Ministry of Justice and Security, the senior policy advisor on immigration and integration at Gemeente Utrecht, and FENIX - a museum/cultural location in Rotterdam that will open in 2024. We are hopeful some collaborations will result from this!

Official book launch at Pakhuis de Zwijger

On June 9th, we hosted our official book launch of Roots Guide at Pakhuis de Zwijger in Amsterdam and as a part of their Designing Cities for All program. It was a night filled with stories of our hopes and dreams for Roots Guide, lessons learned during its creation, while our guides Marrit, Claudius, Razan and Wendy shared their experiences partaking in this multi year long project, and celebrating all our inspiring guides and their generous courage to share their most intimate stories of their lives. The whole launch was designed by using the four- step journey of Roots Guide and we invited the audience to reflect, connect, explore and share with us all! 

The program was developed by our Ingi and Meghann, in collaboration with Jonathan Tjien Fooh from Pakhuis de Zwijger. It was moderated by Matthijs van de Sande Bakhuyzen.

Book presentation in Wageningen Library

On September 3rd, Our Kristina and Ale organised a book presentation at de bblthk (the public library) in Wageningen, where our guides Razan, Lay and Masood were invited to read from their stories, while we showed Rehab’s documentary photos and played Kristina’s soundscapes.

RURAL MIGRANTOUR

Rural Migrantour: Slovenia and Greece gathering

From 3-7 April, #devoorkamer's Yetunde Oludare and our Meghann travelled to Rural Migrantour's first in-person gathering in Kostanjevica na Kriki, a beautiful little town on the Slovenian-Croatian border at the very tip of the Balkans that's home to Jana Milovanović, the Rural Migrantour project leader and director of Terra Vera. The town - surrounded by forest, strawberry fields and vineyards - is located along the Balkan Route taken by many seeking asylum in Europe. Meghann had the honour to co-design and facilitate some of Rural Migrantour project members' engagement in an intensive 3-day-long experiential learning process designed to develop empathic listening, qualitative research, oral and visual storytelling, and participatory mapping skills that ultimately enabled us to co-create a Rural Migrantour route in Kostanjevica na Kriki itself. 

From 20-25 June, our Daan and Ingi travelled to the second in-person training the stunning island of Kythera, Greece. Kythira has a lot of context. Her name is derived from the word ede = 'the one who hides love within herself'. Because the island, naked and empty at first glance, has plenty of flora diversity and many springs inside. As you make your way through the complex, distracted and mysterious landscape, you need a reliable guide. We had the huge privilege of having our Paths of Greece guides Eleni, Fivos and Rigas, who devotedly explore, restore, clean, and tag old paths to ensure their stories are rewritten. We also had the great teachers - Aliaksandro Ihnatovich Sa Ih, who opened our horizons in the field of creating social impact photos and videos, and Spyros from Staridas Geography taught us to create digital map stories.

KEY NOTE PRESENTATIONS

Reimagine migration with National Geographic staff

On September 29th, our Ingi gave a virtual keynote speech for National Geographic staff about reimagining migration and having inclusive conversations. Together with their Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Shannon Bartlett, they hosted an interactive presentation based on the four steps of Roots Guide.

This is what they said:

“The National Geographic Society DEI Speaker Series was grateful to have Founder of Pocket Stories, Ingi Mehus, speak to more than 150 staff about Roots Guide and reimagining migration. Ingi guided attendees in an inclusive conversation about migration; why words and diverse narratives matter for this topic; and how to recognize our own privilege and move to common ground when thinking about migration. It was a powerful presentation filled with her own personal reflections and highly interactive! 

It was wonderful to see staff connecting so profoundly with one of our National Geographic Explorers and engaging with this important topic. Ingi was masterful in helping us thoughtfully investigate our own migration stories; uncovering commonalities and highlighting uniqueness. We look forward to hearing more about her amazing work.”