The latest Faces of Kabul Satellite exhibition opened at Fort William Library in the first week of September as the next in line following the previous presentations at the North Coast Visitor Centre, Wick and Fortrose. Once again, as with the other events, this provided an effective route to take the exhibition, in a smaller-scale version, to communities in outlying areas, reaching those who may not have had the chance to visit the full-scale exhibitions at Eden Court in Inverness or Kelvingrove in Glasgow.
The exhibition was accompanied by an online event led by Sitakumari to present some of the stories behind the images and how it was gathered. Particularly important was understanding a world where a lot of what we take for granted is just not there. Basic activities and roles such as girls going to school or women as teachers are captured in the photostory and Sita through the online event was able to highlight these images. She was also able to give the assembled audience an insight into the world of photojournalism and how an image tells a story. One of the benefits of the satellites is the opportunity to actively involve children and young people from local schools as well as the general public.
In Fort William, two classes of children from local primary school in Years 6 and 7 came as audience for the online event. The teachers said:
‘The children were engaged the whole time while the presentation was given. Sitakumari answered their questions with great enthusiasm praising them for the type of question they had asked. Nothing was too simple a question or too difficult to answer. Everything was explained greatly and it was super that she showed us the photos she was talking about and then we could look at them in greater detail as they were displayed in the library.’
Comments from the children included:
“The pictures were really well thought out” – Grace
“What you said about what happened was interesting” – Logan
“The pictures had a lot of meaning in them” – Max
“The display was well put up” – Naomi
“It was interesting that we learned more about Afghanistan” – Lukas.
By contrast, whilst the satellite exhibition was in Wick Library, older young people from Wick High School were able to visit. Here is what Seb Sandecki, the Head, who came with them said: ‘Thank you for organising the event and also inviting us. Both pupils and myself really enjoyed it. I actually thought that it would have been great to have it organised in our school hall so we could have put it on a big screen and shown it to a lot more pupils. They would all benefit from seeing it as it’s a very powerful message. It was also great to have to opportunity to have a chat to the Afghan family and see them dressed in their national outfits.’
This last comment highlighted another valuable aspect of both the main as well as satellite exhibitions. They are providing an opportunity to connect and engage with Afghan families resident in the area on a different level. The images provided the mechanism to have a much deeper discussion than would otherwise have happened, looking at what led them to leave Afghanistan in 2021 and their lives now. The messages of ‘Faces of Kabul’ – the need for empathy, understanding, to stop seeing ‘the other’ and fearing ‘difference’, and recognise the commonality of human experience, all central to the exhibition and the core aims of Heartstone, are now reaching out to even greater numbers, including in particular, children and young people. For the refugee Afghan families, it is another route to build inclusion and feel part of mainstream culture.
The ‘Faces of Kabul’ satellite will be moving on to its next Scottish location in the next few weeks.
Our grateful thanks to High Life Highland, the librarians and staff of the venues hosting the exhibition across Highland Scotland for their support with all aspects of transport and staging and the Ward Councillors for helping to bring the funding needed for each installation.
