Voices and Songs: Repairing the Pain of Collective Trauma[1]

Abstract:

This ethnographic essay describes our experience as members of the Coro a La Escucha (Choir for listening) in communicating the findings of the Colombian Truth Commission’s (CEV) report on Colombian exiles in the province of Quebec. The Voices and Songs event became a space for listening that made it possible to reconcile pain and affliction to hope, creating a dialogue between different groups of Colombian exiles and friends of Colombia living in Montreal.

The dynamics of two listening practices in a large group are described in detail: (a) communication of personal narratives related to the experience of exile in connection with the lyrics of two Colombian songs, and (b) the improvisation dynamic called the open microphone, an acoustic space that facilitates “active listening”. The experience of singing in a group is documented as a way of liberating emotions and expressing words, facilitating a collective reflection on the impacts of exile. Singing in a group builds confidence in one’s own voice and can foster authentic exchanges and dialogue that strengthen community spirit. Finally, some lessons are drawn from the experience of integrating singing into a group, and some suggestions given about methods for optimising listening practices in contexts of memory reconstruction.

Keywords: Colombian exiles in Montreal, community choir, large group, Colombian Commission for the Clarification of the Truth, listening practices.

Opening vignette

Thursday, February 23rd this year was the most stressful day for me. As one of the organisers, we planned things well for this big day. We had a series of meetings to plan what we envisioned as a special experience of songs, voices, and dialogue. The main purpose was to deliver the outcome of the Colombian Truth Commission in Canada. Commissioner Carlos Beristain was there, and we felt fortunate to have him on that day. He was very supportive and appreciative of this project. He personally gave thanks to the people who shared their testimony to the Commission.

I can still vividly remember how the program unfolds from stress to a magical moment. In the early stage, I saw the programme was not turning out to be quite the way we expected. At some point, a kind of tension emerged during the question-and-answer part of the event. Based on my observation, there were several overlapping reasons for this tension: (a) the short talks on the findings of the Truth Commission, which opened the event, had taken longer than planned; (b) some attendees refused to respect the time limits, they’re making long statements instead of posing concise questions; (c) the findings of the Truth Commissions’ report moved the audience emotionally, many parties were in tears; (d) some people did not expect the first part of the event to be so “academic”; and (e) participants were hungry since most of them had not yet eaten prior to the event and it was already getting late.

During the event, I took my responsibility too seriously. I was overwhelmed with a feeling of great frustration, which I later accepted. I decided to sit down and just waited for the moment when we would sing with the Choir. I kept wondering with skepticism how we were going to move on with the program.

Fortunately, Pilar, our choir director, was able to take hold of what was happening. To appease the moment, shetook the microphone and in a very wise, clear, and respectful intervention, encouraged the group of 100 to join the Choir. She said that music would bridge us to the spirit of community, where singing together would be the instrument for us to listen to each other.

As the Choir began singing our anthem song, “Mi País (My country)”, there was a moment of silence, and everyone was listening. I felt the voices of the Choir had a powerful strength that I had never heard before. The rhythm, the vocalization, and the tone, I heard them as almost perfect. This intervention was indeed magical. At that moment, I vitally understood what I had communicated in my short talk: singing in a group generates a song for listening, that is, to unite people in a mutually satisfying dialogue beyond words.   (Amparo Jimenez, choir, and organiser member.)

Introduction

This ethnographic essay describes our experience as members of the A La Escucha Choir (hereafter, Choir) when we came together to communicate the findings of the Colombian Truth Commission’s report on Colombian exile in the province of Quebec[2]. The Voices and Songs event became an intermediary space for listening that enabled the development of resentment and pain into hope, generating a dialogue between different groups of Colombians and friends of Colombia. The ethnographic notes are based on our direct experience during the preparatory meetings for the event (November 2022 and February 2023) and the weekly rehearsals of the choir. They also include our analysis of the videos and transcripts of the event, reflections that followed the February 23rd event with the members of the choir, as well as with the choir’s director, and reflections with the group analysis at Roffey Park in London in April 2023[3].

We propose to analyse five interdependent acts[4] that were constructed by thinking through reports, questioning, testimonies, voices, and songs (see figure 1). These five acts embraced diverse emotions that served as essential functions to create the conditions for a group dialogue in the sense of Patrick de Maré (1991) who saw large groups as a way of socialising the individual and humanising society.

To begin, we describe the structure of Voices and Songs, contextualising the relationship between the Nodo Quebec group, the Choir, and the Commission. We will also describe the venue where the event took place, the “Salle des Boiseries” at Université du Quebec à Montréal (hereafter, UQAM), a place symbolic of a “sacred” meeting. Second, we share the expectations of the organising committee that was responsible for drafting and presenting the results of the Commission’s report in Canada, as well as the perception of the public’s response[5]. Third, we discuss the emotions of tension, frustration and fatigue that characterised the first interactions with the public around questions about the report. Fourth, we present the testimony of one Colombian exile who shared her reflections on the meaning of exile in the light of a Colombians songs performed by the Choir.

Finally, we show how the acoustic space of Voces y Cantos facilitated: the listening of personal stories related to the experience of exile, and the exploration of group identity through the open mic improvisation. We conclude by mentioning some of the suggestions learned about large groups, and reflections on listening practices in contexts of memory reconstruction.

Act 1: Context of the Voices and Songs

By November 2022, the Nodo Quebec was a group of six volunteers who had actively participated in the task of 45 testimonies from people exiled by the armed conflict in the province of Quebec. The testimonies collected between November 2019 and July 2021 contributed to the final report published in June 2022 in Colombia[6].

The Commission was one of the transitional justice mechanisms created by the government in 2016 to implement the Peace Accords signed with the FARC guerrillas, which put an end to more than 50 years of armed conflict in Colombia. The Commission was part of the Integral System of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Non-Repetition (JEP) and was created with the aim of clarifying facts and patterns of violence that occurred during the armed conflict. To this end, the Commission set itself the task of: (a) creating public spaces at the national and international level to listen to the different voices of the conflict, and (b) offering a comprehensive explanation of the complexity of the conflict to the whole of society after three years of work by June 2022.

In this context, Voices and Songs aimed to make known to the wider public the Commission’s findings on exile for the first time in Montreal. The event took place at UQAM and was attended by Commissioner Carlos Beristain, leader of the exile project, and the Choir A La Escucha. The Choir had been constituted since July 2019 as a bridge between the objective of creating community between Colombians living in Montreal and the work of supporting the Commission. From the first rehearsal, they determined that the Choir would be open to anyone who wished to participate. This meant that there would be no previous musical knowledge.

Features of the public

At the Voces y Cantos event, the audience was 90% Colombians now living in Canada, some of whom had come as refugees from violence and others as highly skilled economic migrants or to study, and who had arrived over a period of more than 20 years. The heterogeneity of Colombia was represented by the great cultural diversity and differences in class, region, and race. It is said that the country has neither a national identity nor a nationalist spirit. Colombians have been torn apart by social, cultural, political, and regional antagonisms and misunderstandings (mestizos and whites, rich and poor, liberals and conservatives, right-wingers, and left-wingers, “costeños”[7] and “cachacos”[8]) (Bushnell, 1994).

Those who were present in the evening of February 23 included people of diverse socio-economic status, with educational levels ranging from high school to university studies and with a presence of LGTBIQ, Afro-Colombian and, to a lesser extent, indigenous people. Among those present who had come to Canada as exiles were adults, adolescents and children from urban and rural regions, whose motives for seeking to leave their homeland were to find dignified conditions for themselves and their families. This group are engaged in a variety of occupations such as entrepreneurs, high school and university students, university professors, people who works at NGOs, factory workers, social and political activists, union leaders, artists, journalists.

There were also in this group, participants called “Friends of Colombia” meaning researchers from different disciplines with an affective and professional interest towards the country and members of mixed Colombian exile families.

Appropriation of the venue, symbol of a sacred encounter

We had decided to hold this event in the “Salle des Boiseries” (wood panelled room) which had been part of the Saint-Jacques church where the central campus of the UQAM, Judith-Jasmin, is located today. The remarkable salle, which resembles a chapel, is now used as a place of commemoration for special events. Since 1973, the religious furnishings, woodwork, statuettes, and stained-glass windows have contributed to the sacred character and unique atmosphere of this place, which is listed in the Quebec Register of Cultural Property.

Undoubtedly, the historical content that permeated the venue created the unique ambience for the Choir to be able to perform their music in a way that related to emotion, in an authentic way, undoubtedly enhancing the performance. We felt that we were singing songs that symbolised the voices of exile, embraced by a spiritual feeling in a specific environment, the beautiful salle des Boiseries. This place certainly prepares the listener for a certain sense of awe and admiration for the voices and music. We choristers could hear the nostalgia in our voices, as the singing soared through the Colombia of our dreams and the spirit of the occasion, the exile. Added to this was the fact that the fifteen members of the Choir had decided to seat themselves as part of the audience, to show a sense of affiliation, the basis of the multi-personal and multi-dimensional relationships of the gathering.

Act 2: Findings of the Truth Commission Report in Canada

We had organised the Voices and Songs event in two segments. The first of which aimed to present the findings of the Truth Commission report in Quebec. In this part, four short talks were presented: (a) the context of the CEV Bogotá’s support work in Canada, by the Commissioner and director of the Final Report, Carlos Martin Beristain; (b) the role of the Nodo Quebec and the Choir in the process of collecting the testimonies in Canada by Amparo Jiménez; (c) a synthesis of the report’s findings and the impacts of exile in Quebec by Reina Vega; and (d) the report’s recommendations, by Catherine LeGrand. After these short presentations came a period of questions and comments from the audience.

On the advice of UQAM’s communications office, we decided to integrate this commemoration into the institution’s protocol. There was a certain solemnity and respect for what the meeting symbolised for us who represent “Colombia outside Colombia”: the pain of remembering the collective trauma and the expectations aroused by the contents and recommendations of the final report, which had been produced with great rigour and commitment. Various members of the public and representatives of different exile communities took the floor not only to ask questions about the report’s findings, but also to make claims or criticize the previous government for having delayed the implementation of the peace agreements. Commissioner Beristain responded with clarity, care, and precision to their concerns.

The exchanges between the organisers after the event (when they viewed the last version of the video clip) was a welcome opportunity to reflect deeply on the collective experience lived on the day of the event[9]. The first impression of watching themselves in the clip was one of satisfaction. The members agreed that, even though there were moments of tension, fatigue and disillusionment, the objective of spreading word of the findings of the Commission’s report in Quebec was fulfilled. As one of the members organising the event said: “It was a relief to have fulfilled the promise we made to those who gave us their testimony, to come together to talk about the findings”.

Related to the future of the Node Quebec, the group reaffirmed its commitment to start the second chapter of the task of managing the Commission’s legacy in Canada. This will require outreach work and communication pedagogy to inform Colombian exiles and government representatives in Canada about the needs of Colombian exiles. During the Voices and Songs event, we noted the presence of a significant number second-generation Colombian youth, who are eager to continue a dialogue about the country of their parents, and about the country they are discovering from afar. Reaching this second generation presents the main challenge of communicating the results of the report by the group now called Legado Nodo Quebec.

Act 3: Questions and discussion on the findings – Tension, frustration, fatigue.

Breaking the tense atmosphere, the very successful intervention of the Choir director had a pacifying effect and initiated the second phase of the event described by herself in the following paragraphs.

Vignette 2:

The magical intervention of Pilar, the director of the Choir.

Aware that in a few minutes we are going to perform, for me the performance of the choir starts from the moment we meet. The warm-up prepares us, connects us and for me it is important to feel that we are all in tune, confident in ourselves and in the group. There is a feeling that I need to settle in, and that is to feel that no one is alone, that we help each other, that I trust them, and they trust me. It’s a nice relationship that is forged in rehearsals and usually strengthened at each performance because we all learn from the experience, and I feel that we grow together.

The event started as planned, and when we got to the part of the questions, the schedule was delayed, so we had to cut off some people’s speeches a bit abruptly. The energy started to get tense because the people who wanted to speak felt that they had not been heard and they expressed it in their tone of voice and in their words. That’s when my instinct started to kick in and the only question going through my head was how to make people feel that the music helps them to be heard? At that moment I started to write a text to Luis telling him that it was time to sing and get out of the protocol. At this point, a participant from a university began to speak, and with a somewhat intransigent tone, he spoke about the need to do “something” as a collective. I grabbed hold of that and said to myself “this is my cue” and “I took the microphone”. I told the mistress of ceremonies that I was going to disregard of the protocol because it was no longer sufficient to control the situation.

I responded to the person that I agreed with him, that it was necessary to do something and that is why the Choir was there, we wanted everyone who was present to join us. I also remember that a lady asked me in a rather abrupt way who I was. During this moment of high adrenaline, I didn’t even introduce myself, because I didn’t care if they knew who I was or what I had done professionally, I wanted to cut through the protocol, I wanted to sing, because I felt from the bottom of my soul that it would lower the tension.

I must admit that my memories are a bit blurry because there is a mixture of adrenaline and responsibility. We started to sing Manos de mujer and Alexandra, an exiled woman with testimony gave strength to the Choir. I asked David, the pianist, to start playing while she spoke. When the music starts there seems to be like an atmosphere that embraces everything, and I wanted to keep that atmosphere, I asked the Choir to stand up while Alexandra was speaking because I didn’t want there to be a space between her words and the song.

Then I remembered that the tension we were experiencing was from the Choir and the audience, so we had to lower the tension together. I asked the Choir and the audience to follow me, and they did. With shy faces, the audience started to join in, and smiles started to appear, so I said, ‘it’s working’, we couldn’t stop there, we had to harness the energy of the song that was brewing, so we sang another verse and when we got to the final ‘ay ay’. I remembered that they all had the lyrics of the songs we were going to sing, and I asked them to sing with us or to follow the lyrics; I wanted to feel or just believe, that they felt part of something, that we were all part of something”.

Act 4: The Choir performs Mi País and Manos de Mujer – Sadness, compassion, empathy.

Once the Choir and the audience had found in the music the spirit of community that they had longed for and that made them more able to listen to each other, the first performance of Mi País created an atmosphere of recollection and expectation to listen to the testimonies of the two people who would link their experiences of exile with the lyrics of the songs Manos de Mujer (Figure 2). In this section, we will present one of these two testimonies: “Hands that say goodbye, hands that ask for a future, hands that work as never before, hands that embrace hope”.

The testimony of Alexandra moved the whole room (Figures 3). She pointed out with nostalgia and hope at the same time. Listening to the melody of the song, in relation to the testimony of the exiled woman invited attentive and respectful acoustic listening. One hears the music addressed to the listener and the listener responds subjectively: the music invites the listener to embrace his or her own subjective point of view, through a kind of empathy that shows the world from a perspective that is no one else’s, and therefore everyone’s, because music is partly an abstract art, and partly because it makes use of temporal organisation in non-physical space (Scruton, 1997).

Here is an excerpt from the Choir director’s testimony that complements the music in the group atmosphere:

When the music starts there seems to be like an atmosphere that embraces everything, and I wanted to keep that atmosphere, I asked the Choir to stand up while Alexandra shared her testimony because I didn’t want there to be space between her words and the sounds of music.

Figure 2: Manos de Mujeres (Women’s hands) by Marta Gomez

Mano vieja que trabaja va enlazando algún telar
Mano esclava va aprendiendo a bailar su libertad
Manos que amazan curtiendo el hambre con lo que la tierra les da
Manos que abrazan a la esperanza de algún hijo que se va (aya, aya)

Manos de mujeres que han parido la verdad
Manos de colores aplaudiendo algún cantar
Mano fuerte va barriendo pone leña en el fogón
Mano firme cuando escribe una carta de amor

Manos que tiemblan manos que sudan
Manos de tierra maíz y sal
Manos que tocan dejando el alma
Manos de sangre de viento y mar

Strong hand goes sweeping puts wood on the cooker.

Firm hand when she writes a love letter.

Hands that weave knots

Hands that pray, hands that give

Hands that ask for some future so as not to die in loneliness (aya, aya)

Old hand that works is weaving a loom.

Slave hand is learning to dance its freedom.

Hands that knead curing hunger with what the earth gives them.

Hands that embrace the hope of a son who is leaving (aya, aya)

Hands of women who have given birth to truth.

Hands of colours clapping a song

A strong hand sweeps and puts wood on the stove.

Firm hand when she writes a love letter.

Hands that tremble hands that sweat.

Hands of earth, corn, and salt

Hands that touch leaving the soul.

Hands of blood of wind and sea

Figure 3: Testimony of Alexandra, psychologist in exile in Quebec

Act 5:   Choir and audience perform El Pescador – Dialogue, spirit of community.

That day, we had planned to close the event with the open mic[10] an improvisational dynamic coordinated and animated by Pilar, director of the Choir, and Luis Sotelo, Director of the Concordia Listening Lab. Walking freely around the room, we sang El Pescador, a Colombian song with a cumbia rhythm that encouraged joyful singing and dancing. Then, participants were invited to sing along with the Choir members, and to approach the open micset up in the middle of the room to spontaneously express reactions, feelings or messages arising from the enveloping atmosphere of the meeting. Of course, it had been agreed to lower the volume of the singing to listen attentively to the voices of the volunteers who expressed in their words a mixture of nostalgia and liberation.

For the Choir director, the open mic has been an experience that forces her to lower her expectations and just adapt in the moment. She says she trusts in the strength of the group and tries to work to make the choir members feel confident in their singing, to make them feel competent and strong as choristers, so that they can cope with the emotional ups and downs that come up unexpectedly. Confident in the autonomy of the group, she can take care of involving the audience. Let’s read in her own words her experience with the last song that closed the Voces y Cantos event.

We had left El Pescador as the last song to introduce the open mic. We had already had the experience in a previous concert of asking the audience sing along to this song. We were all standing, and I remember that Luis gave the introduction to the open mic while requesting people gather the chairs to free up the space. At that moment I called the Choir and told them ‘Follow me, I’m going to make the audience sing and I’m going to tell them when we can move to the open mic, you must give them security’. I remember that I asked the audience to join in with the chorus of the song, I thought it was important to make the audience responsible for the outcome of the performance. I remember that I explained the origin of the song and described the shape of the instrument used, so that they could imagine how it should sound. I used this exercise with the audience because I wanted them to understand what they were going to do.

Then the Choir understood its role and the song went by itself. When I perceived that the Choir and the audience already felt comfortable with the song, I asked the Choir to start walking, then, it was time to start the open mic. The rhythm took off and without much effort we were all moving to the same pulse. The stamping of everyone’s feet at the same time accompanied the entrance to the activity, and Luis knew that it was the moment to invite people to communicate ideas or messages through the microphone, while we were singing and moving. Confident that the Choir was in control, I gave the guidelines to turn the volume up or down, or to change the song, or to let myself be carried away by what others proposed. I always know that all the participants are listening and will react to the dynamics of the improvisation exercise. If someone doesn’t know how to do it very well, they will find their place, thanks to the help of the others.

Convinced that listening is more than just hearing that it is also involving, empowering, inspiring, and bonding, and that true listening is a holistic act, we set about the task of building just such an atmosphere of collective bonding and then we were able to hear messages such as the following:

Luis:

We are unfortunate, but why do we want to be fortunate? We need the truth. This is the beginning of the open mic, we are going to speak only through the microphone, the others are watching what is going on, like a living organ. Whoever wants to talk, whoever wants to answer, whoever wants to say something, whoever wants to sing, whoever wants to cry. The mic is open. The rest of us is there to help.

Alejandra:

Be fortunate is the voice, we are steps that carry the rhythm, steps that inhabit our territory, that inhabit this territory, steps that carry the rhythm, speak, and walk. Be fortunate is in the silence of the one who speaks to listen. I am also accompanying, in the embrace, in the joy.

Sandra:

I am no longer afraid, no longer ashamed, no longer. Yes, it still hurts, it still hurts, but I recognise that pain, I embrace that pain, I can say it and say why I left my country.

Mario:

The memory of those who are not here because most of those who left, left defending life. Those of us who went abroad left with a broken heart. The pain of our friends who left after 22 years, like my friend Pedro, who left with the desire for peace in Colombia.

Ingrid:

We are going to talk about the pain of women and the bodies used by violence. Silence that holds the glory, the suffering. New forms of relationships emerged. Pain made us sisters, and pain made us friends, and pain made us recognise each other, and value each other, and today here is my friend Nancy whom I value, as well as all of you. The absence of Elizabeth – my sister – who I know also shares the pain and the recognition.

In the following section, we focus on making sense of specific aspects of the emotional power of music and its role in creating an intermediate space for listening and dialogue between different groups of exiles and Colombian’s friends. This, within a perspective of exploring ways to optimise the practice of listening and dialogue in contexts of memory reconstruction.

Listening integrating emotions and collective singing.

The listening practices (testimonies related to exile in connection with the singing of Colombian songs and the open mic) facilitated the creation of an acoustic space of “active listening”. The experience of singing in a group liberated emotions and facilitated the expression of words and a collective reflection on the impacts of exile. Singing in a group generated confidence in one’s own voice and fostered conditions of dialogue and community spirit. Integrating ‘group singing’ into a ‘large group’ can be the basis of a method to foster dialogue in contexts of memory reconstruction. We know that music has essential functions in all cultures and societies. As by AIan Merriam (1964) writes.

Music… provides a rallying point around which members of society gather to engage in activities that require group co-operation and co-ordination. Not all music is performed in this way… but every society has occasions marked by music that bring its members together and reminds them of their unity…. Music is clearly indispensable to the proper enactment of the activities that constitute a society; it is a universal human behaviour – without it, it is questionable whether man could truly call himself man, with all that implies.

During Voices and Songs, we saw the unsurpassed emotional power of music in the context of dialogue. First, singing made emotions tangible without sacrificing the strength of feeling. That is, singing does not objectify feeling, but extends subjectivity beyond the boundaries of the self to group feeling. Secondly, music detaches emotions from purely individual and concrete motives and circumstances, which gives it an independence that is also a form of pleasure, even when the emotions are disturbing. The feelings involved always seem specific, not generic. For example, the singing that accompanied the testimonies brought us closer to the pain of exile, which, for both Alexandra and Alexa, meant separation from family, from friends, from territory. We could almost touch the sadness of both women and then we put ourselves in their place and experienced great compassion and empathy.

The affective nature of the music in Voices and Songs event involved intersubjective empathy and shared delight, making listeners socially aware of their intimate connection with others. Engaging in a satisfying shared experience increased group receptivity and emotional sensitivity. The typical posture in musical listening involves a sense of sharing a life with others. As we listen, we perceive others as compatriots whose immediate interests coincide with our own. Both listening to music and participating in its performance can bring us together in a non-defensive and relatively non-competitive way; “music creates intimacy and cultivates appreciation, thus facilitating reciprocity and emotional entrainment” (Feld, 1982: p. 219).

Dialogue in a group that sings together.

Inspired by Wotton (2012), we view the matrix of this group as a musical process – a complex reflexive process that rests on our innate communicative musicality. The matrix is the music of the group (rhythms and Colombian songs), emerging from the creative space of interactions between members. Writing of the matrix as a network of communication, Foulkes said:

We must accept that the language of these [communications] is not confined to words, but extends to inflexions of voice, manner of speaking, looking, to expressions, gestures, actions…; emotions reactions of all sorts… These primary levels correspond to the foundation matrix, based on the biological properties of the species, but also on the culturally firmly embedded values and reactions… developed and transmitted in… the social network (1975, p. 131).

The theory of communicative musicality offered a way of conceptualising how we come to embody our past as Colombians (60 years of armed conflict) as well as the potential for hope and future change (truth, peace and reparation) through the construction of musical narratives based on our innate musicality. According to Wotton (2012: 108):

“Musicality is understood in terms of a sensitivity to embodied rhythms and pattern of tension and release, based on a shared, biologically derived sense of timing. This musicality is fundamental in allowing human bodies to be open and responsive systems -open to transpersonal processes that form us, while at the same time those processes are forms by our interactions”.

The participation of all the members was very interesting when, following Luis’ instructions, they picked up the chairs themselves, initiating to start the dynamic that precedes the open mic. There was a corporal movement, an exercise of unforeseen coordination, a dynamic of starting again. Then, from chairs arranged in a half circle, we moved from standing to continuous movement. It was equally relevant in building a feeling of affiliation and multi-personal relationship that the members of the Choir were integrated as any other participant from the beginning of the event.

Then, a chant began, inviting everyone to sing and move their bodies in a very natural way. The microphone in the middle of the room encouraged whoever wanted to speak and as expected, dialogue timidly emerged. As de Maré (1991) states, dialogue in a large group was not a conversation between two people, but an interactive and multi-personal exchange that went beyond the dyad. It was a process of transformation where meaninglessness was transformed into understanding and meaning.

I remember the message of Sandra, a victim of the conflict, when she said into the microphone: “I am no longer afraid, I am no longer ashamed, no longer. Yes, it still hurts me, it still hurts me, but I recognise that pain, I embrace that pain, I can say it and say why I left”. I think most of the people there, Colombians living outside Colombia, understood what those words meant. Colombians outside their country distrust other Colombians, they are not only afraid, but they are also ashamed to tell what happened to them and why they are exiled. We Colombians have learned to keep up appearances and to present ourselves as if everything is going well. As de Maré (1991: 65) puts it: “The very essence of dialogue is polemical and paradoxical, neither true nor false. The medium of exchange does not consist in an academic flow of signs, but in a richer and more complex exchange of symbols”.

When we re-listened to the voices expressing spontaneous messages during the open mic, we remembered De Maré’s words: “It is not the individual who is unconscious but the culture that does not allow the thought to be voiced” (1991, p.77). Voices and Songs was a place where sociopolitical traumas such as Colombians could emerge and be observed in a social context. That’s the focus of the large group, a place where we could gain as ‘outsight’, as opposed to insight into these experiences, but also the possibility to repair (de Maré, Piper, & Thompson, 1991:121).

Conclusion

This essay began with an illustration describing the experience of singing together when we presented the findings of the Truth Commission report in Montreal. Emotions such as fatigue, tension and frustration generated in the first act of the event and gradually transformed into understanding, and a sense of community. We answered affirmatively the question of whether singing Colombian songs could help to release emotions and speech, enabling a reflection on the impacts of exile. We observed that singing together enhanced authentic exchanges and created conditions for dialogue that strengthened the spirit of community because it brought together diverse groups of exiles representing different generational and socio-political interests and values (group of victims, government representatives, students, researchers, members of the choir, trade union leaders, artists, activists, journalists, friends of Colombia).

Making music in group became a transitional space made possible: (a) awareness of the penetration of values of the culture of the host country in the individual internal world; (b) the feeling and expression of multiple emotions generated in contexts of exile (suffering and nostalgia, on the one hand, courage, and hope, on the other); (c) understanding of the impacts of exile on the individual and society. As a group, we were able to think about the question posed by Commissioner Carlos Beristain: what would Colombia be today with the presence and contribution of the 1 million Colombians like you who had to flee the country because of the armed conflict?

In this paper, we have reported only a first level of our experience as observers and members of the Choir. Numerous themes that were revealed during the writing of this account will need to be explored in greater depth to enhance the scope of our understanding. We would like to deepen the idea of group singing as a transitional space enabling the transformation of individual suffering into voices claiming the collective right to recognition and reparation. In addition, we want to analyse what other conditions may help to express the silences we carry within us. A deeper analysis of music – a non-verbal form of communication – as a sub-dimension of the matrix of the group[11] brought together by a collective trauma with intergenerational implications remains to be done. How did the sounds and rhythm of Colombian songs help to express emotions and silenced words within a very diverse group in a climate free of judgement and verbal aggression?

Writing this text together with Pilar, the Choir director, allowed me to enter carefully into the ideas and concepts I have learned as a group analyst. Pilar’s intelligent planning of the repertoire of songs (bambuco, cumbia, protest music), as well as her way of exercising both the role of “director” and “facilitator of the group process”, lead us to accomplish an ambitious task: singing in a very diverse group of Colombian exiles. Singing in this Choir allowed us to progress in two dimensions of group life: (a) accepting one’s own voice to be able to sing, and (b) being humbly ready to listen to the voices of others to harmonize together.

To conclude, we want to thank our fellow singers and listeners for their valuable presence in this adventure in the process of rediscovering our voices as Colombians and friends of Colombia in Canada, and in the world. 

Notes

[1] Thanks to Professor Catherine LeGrand (McGill) for her valuable suggestions to improve the English version of this text in English. I also greatly appreciate the comments of Teresa von Sommaruga Howard (CLGD) in the preparation of the paper’s talk at the 18^th GASi Symposium in Belgrade 2023.

[2] Jimenez, A., et colb. (2022). A perspective on Colombian exile in Canada from the Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia Nodes of the -CEV-. https://legadonodoquebec.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ENGLISH-FINAL-CEV-CANADA_SEPTEMBER-2022.pdf

[3] Creating Large Group Dialogue in Organisations and Society is a Study Program of Connected Residential Workshops in association with the Group Analytic Society International in London. It has offered me the opportunity to bring the potential of the large group with my work on the Nodo Quebec setting. The community of practice that I have met every two months since January 2019 has provided a pleasing place of support to work through the Community Choir, using the theoretical input and experience of the entire group.

[4] The term act is used as in theater to refer to major sections of Voices and Songs event.

[5] Members of the event’s organising committee: Catherine LeGrand, Reina Vega, Pilar Jiménez, Jessica Payeras, Gloria Zapata, Teresa Zambrano, Luis C. Sotelo, Amparo Jiménez, Laura Camelo, Julián Sánchez, Stiver Salcero.

[6]  https://comisiondelaverdad.co/la-comision/que-es-la-comision-de-la-verdad

[7] People from the Atlantic coast

[8] People from Bogotá, the country’s capital.

[9] https://legadonodoquebec.uqam.ca/en/videos-en/

[10] This practice is based on research work in Theatre. Within the perspective of the stage act, Sotelo (2020) takes a creative approach to the interaction between those who bring their memories of a painful past and the audience they want to reach. He proposes that by making both the narrator and the audience interpreters of listening, they are placed in a relational context that offers an alternative space in which the memories, emotions and thoughts of the victims and the audience can be worked on in a transitional context. Sotelo introduces an alternative space that conventional transitional justice institutions cannot offer.

[11] The notion of matrix of a particular grouping refers to its sociocultural organisation and it is more specific that the concept of social system. Nitzgen & Hopper (2017) describe three overlapping and interpenetrating matrices: (1) the foundation matrix of the wider society; (2) the dynamic matrix of a particular groupings, and (3) the personal matrices of the members of the particular social entity.

Authors

Amparo Jimenez-Valencia. Psychologist (Universidad Javeriana in Colombia), she holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology (Universidad de Los Andes in Colombia) and a PhD in Management from the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) where she has been a professor in the School of Business since 2002. Since January 2019, she has been running the Creating Large Group Dialogue in Organisations and Society (CLGDOS) training, in association with the International Society for Group Analysis in the UK.

Pilar Jimenez-Sanchez. Professional musician, flautist, director of Coro A La Escucha and advocate of music as a factor for change and social cohesion. She studied music at the University of Los Andes in Colombia and completed a master’s degree at the University of Montreal. Lecturer at the École des jeunes de la Université de Montreal, director of the Rendez-vous des aînés Choir, coordinator of the artistic area of Legados, and director of Jeunes musiciens du monde de Laval.

Bibliography

Blackwell, D., (2000). ‘And Everyone Shall Have a Voice: The Political Vision of Pat de Maré. Group Analysis, vol. 33 (1): 151-162.

Bohm, D., (1996). On Dialogue. London: Routledge.

Bushnell, David. Colombia, una nación a pesar de sí misma. Planeta, 1994.

De Maré, P., Piper, R. & Thompson, S. (1991). Koinonia: From Hate through Dialogue to Culture in the Large Group. London: Karnac.

Feld, S. (1982). Sound and Sentiment. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Foulkes, E.H. & Anthony, E.J (1990). The Phenomenology of The Group Situation. In Group Psychotherapy. The Psychoanalytic Approach. Second Edition. London: Karnac Classics.

Flinn, K. (2020). A group analytical approach to management education. Blended Learning in Practice, Spring, pp. 20-28.

Grant, S., (2016). Talking to my Country. Sydney: Harper Collins.

Higgins, K. (2011). The Music of Our Lives. New York: Lexington.

Jimenez, A., Gruner, S., Garcia, E., LeGrand, C., Vega, R., van Isschot, L. Gallo, L & Uzuriaga, H. (2022). A Perspective on Colombian exile in Canada from the Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia Nodes of the Commission for the Clarification of Truth, Coexistence and Non-Repetition -CEV-. https://legadonodoquebec.uqam.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/ ENGLISH-FINAL-CEV-CANADA_SEPTEMBER-2022.pdf

Kennedy, Roger (2023). Power of Music: Psychanalytic Explorations. https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0

Merriam, A. (1964). The Anthropology of Music. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.

Nietzgen, D. & Hopper, E. (2017). The Concepts of the Social unconscious and the matrix in the work of S.H. Foulkes. In E. Hopper and H. Weinberg, The Social Unconscious in Persons, Groups, and Societies. Vol. 3 The Foundation Matrix extended and reconfigured. London: Karnac.

Pavlicevic, Mercedes (2003). Groups in Music. Strategies from Music Therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. London. ISBN 184310 081 9.

Riaño, P. (2020). La Migración forzada de colombianos a Canadá: Tendencias, características e impactos. En Ninguno-a-e de nosotros-a-e es tan fuerte como todos-a-e juntos-a-e . -ASOVICA-https://issuu.com/boticartoonist/docs/guia_asovica_es

Scruton, R. (1997). The Aesthetics of Music. Oxford University Press. London.

Sotelo, Luis (2020). Not being Able to Speak is Torture: Performing Listening to Painful Narratives. International Journal of Transitional Justice, Vol 14: 220-231.

von Sommaruga Howard, T., (2023) ‘Finding My Song: Trauma, Discontinuity and the Large Group’. In Calarasanu, C., Schultz-Venrath, U. & Messner, H. A Psychoanalytic Exploration of Social Trauma. The inner Worlds of Outer Realities. Chapter 1, pp. 9-17. Routledge NY.

Wotton, Linde. (2017). The musical foundation matrix: communicative musicality as a mechanism for the transmission and elaboration of co-created unconscious social process. In In E. Hopper and H. Weinberg, The Social Unconscious in Persons, Groups, and Societies. Vol. 3 The Foundation Matrix extended and reconfigured. London: Karnac.

Jimenez.amparo@uqam.ca

Pilar Jiménez-Sánchez, director Coro a La Escucha, Canadá.