The Politics and Possibilities of Girl-Led and Youth-Led, Arts-Based Activism to Address Gender Violence: Circles Within Circles

“One of the most important things that we learned at this international event is that violence is not just happening in our community.” Statements to that effect have been made by Swedish and Indigenous young women participating in an art-making and GBV (Gender-Based Violence) workshop in rural South Africa, and by Indigenous girls and young women from across Canada at an international art-making conference (Circles Within Circles) in 2018 alongside young women from Sweden, South Africa and Russia. What has been most hopeful in this work has been the recognition on the part of participants of the significance of having more stakeholder support, something that became key to a ‘girlfesto’ produced at Circles Within Circles. What can we learn from these examples about new forms of activism and how might they contribute to deepening an understanding of young people’s leadership and engagement?

Claudia Mitchell, is a James McGill Professor in the Faculty of Education, McGill University, Montreal and is an Honorary Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. She is also the Director of the McGill Institute for Human Development and Well-being and the founder of the Participatory Cultures Lab at McGill. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, a Pierre Elliot Trudeau Foundation Fellow, and winner of the 2016 SSHRC Gold Medal for the impact of her work with young people. She has authored and co-edited numerous books related to participatory visual methodologies and is the Editor-in-Chief of the award-winning journal Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal.