IRAQ & FRANCE: The Art of Survival: A Yazidi Cultural Archive

On the left: Unknown, faceless woman. Painting by Ivana Waleed, Yazidi Activist and Survivor;

"The Yazidi Cultural Archives project was developed over the course of 12 months through a partnership between Yazda, a community-led organization that aids survivors of genocide in Iraq and around the world, Community Jameel, CULTURUNNERS, the Office of the UN Secretary-General’s Envoy on Technology and the World Health Organization, with support from the Iraq Cultural Health Fund, as part of the Healing Arts initiative. An evaluation of the impact of the archives on the psychological well-being of participants is being supported by the Arts and Health initiative at New York University.

In collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, four unique digital stories are presented commemorating the strength and vitality of the Yazidi people following the 2014 genocide in Iraq carried out by Da’esh. [...] The content was produced through a series of art and photography workshops, led by Yazda, to help women use art to express their experience, recover a sense of connection with themselves and each other, reimagine identity, and document examples of their intangible cultural heritage. What is particularly notable about this project is that rather than delegating the process of cultural preservation to “experts,” this group of women were given the tools to identify what was meaningful to them and encouraged to find ways of expressing that meaning in the manner that suited them best."

Click here to view these unique digital stories and read the article written by Nisha Sajnani Founder, Arts + Health at New York University and Christopher Bailey Arts & Health Lead, World Health Organization. Explore more about this project (amongst others) on healing and remembrance on the United Nations page on Google Arts & Culture