2023 PrepCom: Side Event on Youth Empowerment through the Creative Arts

Report

Grahm Tuohy-Gaydos, NAPF/RTT

On 3 August 2023, the Republics of Kiribati and the Marshall Islands as well as the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Reverse The Trend (RTT), Marshallese Educational Initiative, and Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace hosted a side event entitled “Youth Empowerment through the Creative Arts.” The speakers were H.E. Ambassador Teburoro Tito, Permanent Representative of Kiribati; Benetick Kabua Maddison, Executive Director of the Marshallese Educational Initiative and RTT Advisor; Marcina Langrine, Program Manager for the Marshallese Educational Initiative; Yuumi Sato, Youth Ambassador for the Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace, and Rooj Ali, RTT Canada’s Youth Coordinator.

H.E. Ambassador Tito opened the panel by emphasizing the importance of youth voices in discussions surrounding disarmament, powerfully orienting the side event for the speakers that followed him. He also spoke to the pains and lasting legacies of nuclear testing experienced by the people of Kiribati, and drew parallels to the Marshallese and other affected communities.

The Ambassador was followed by two speakers from the Marshallese Educational Initiative, an Arkansas-based organization which educates Marshallese youth within their local community and in diaspora about the impact of nuclear testing and provides with them an outlet to express themselves and their experiences.

In connection to a joint project with RTT, Ms. Langrine discussed several paintings and other forms of art created by Marshallese youth Ms. Langrine also spoke to how this project impacted both themselves and the youth they worked with, and the role that they envision art should play in voicing the need for victim assistance and environmental remediation, as well as its uses as a tool to work through nuclear- based trauma. Mr. Maddison further elaborated upon the situation in the Marshall Islands and the Marshallese Educational Initiative’s mission.

Ms. Yuumi Sato spoke of a similar creative arts project spearheaded by the Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace, and reemphasized many of the similar points made by the two speakers from the MEI. Ms. Sato also discussed the Paper Crane Recycling and Circulation Project, a unique program created by the Hiroshima Organization for Global Peace which uses origami as a form of connection with hibakusha and as a method to express hope for a better and more peaceful future.

Rooj Ali closed the panel by relaying developments in her work with Reverse the Trend, including a new mentorship program currently being planned by the organization which will utilize artwork as a tool to display the humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons. We thank the panelists for their time and insight, and for recentering the focus of discussions surrounding humanitarian consequences of nuclear testing on affected communities and their experiences.