The Reasons
2016 – 2017
Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council – Connected Communities Programme (AHRC)
Value: £19,031
Partners: Ramsey Rural Museum
METAL (Peterborough)
For this project the traditional Sardinian form of ‘La Rasgioni’ (The Reasons) was re-imagined and framed as a public storytelling event. The Reasons created a new performative methodology to allow a community to expose and address the conflicting perspectives, interests and priorities around drought and water scarcity in the Bevills Leam catchment, in rural Cambridgeshire. It combined vernacular wisdom with a healthy disregard for traditional power structures, collective problem-solving and imagining their own secure futures to provide a resolution that united the community. This project idea had been developed thanks to an ongoing conversation with the research team of CADWAGO (http://www.cadwago.net/), an international collaborative research project looking at climate adaptation and water governance.
Following the success of The Reasons Event in Peterborough, we have worked with Sharron Kraus to produce a recording of the song written for the event. The song brings together the stories of the storytellers who joined us at the event, as well as historical and scientific facts from the area.
In September 2019, we had the privilege to work with UN Live – The Museum for the United Nations and Hope Raisers on a new adaptation of ‘The Reasons’ in the Nairobi slum of Korogocho, Kenya. Over three days, we co-designed with 10 community leaders, mostly women, a public event to propose solutions on possible ways of managing one of the largest dumpsite in East Africa.