Novel Pedagogies
This project was an initiative aimed at creating environmental awareness, speci cally focusing on the importance of mangroves, amongst the children of Salehabad, which is located next to Manora o the coast of Karachi. Salehabad is a shermen community housing an indigenous community. The aim was to use the power of art to inspire young minds of Salehabad to appreciate and protect their unique coastal associations. The project actively involved the children of Salehabad through art workshops, storytelling sessions, and hands-on engagement in the creation of an art installation. Additionally, a collaboration was created with local school and community members to ensure the sustainability and long-term impact of the project. The larger aims of the project were raising awareness, imparting environmental education through creative narrative building, community engagement and creative documentation and dissemination.
The aim was also to create lasting impressions on a blank canvas, through developing a narrative that will imprint the lives of the school kids, and a bond will be created between humanity and the earth. The vision was to reach beyond just artmaking and nurture empathy and connect young hearts to the grandeur of existence. Just as nature safeguards us, the aspiration was for these children to become its guardians too.
The mangroves on the coast of Karachi play a vital role in the breeding of young marine species, oxygenating the entire coastal belt and protecting the coast from tidal storms. The shing community speaks of their integral role in the ecological system and identi es the damage and large scale cutting of the mangroves done by industry to save on fuel expenses. The project aimed to voice the concerns of the shing community with regard to changes to the ecological context, including the mangroves and untreated waste dumped into various waterways and sea, and the pressing issues they face that contribute to poverty for them. The lens used was that of children and how they appropriate urban space on a peninsula, and how they relate with natural elements around them, like the sea, the beach and the mangrove forest. The project thus connected the local community’s voice from the child’s lens and linked it back to the urbanites as a public art and narrative expressive therapy creating a sense of ownership and collective belonging.
The idea was to look for a space for more than what it is, and turn the lens inside out. The question being asked was, ‘what if the mangrove forest starts reclaiming its space back’, thus making the mangrove forest the protagonist. This publication brings together the learnings from this engagement and is meant to serve as a platform for building ideas on how to develop pedagogies which can help adults inculcate a sense of responsiveness in kids.
Pedagogy 1
Roleplay
In my view the role play activities with the students such as bees, oysters, fruit bats, monkeys, crabs, algae, sea urchins, snakes and mudskippers using yarn became a very interesting activity. This was engaging and students adapted to the role they were assigned to. Questions were asked about co-ecology and co-existence and these complicated questions were discussed using this activity. Students were required to be different species that inhabit the mangroves, and ideas of co-dependencies were explained.
For example three students were bees and ideas of importance of pollination and their role in fruit production was played out. Two more students were oysters and they were asked to think about their role in filtering the water systems and what would happen if they were to become extinct. Similarly, one student was a fruit bat, and they were questioned to address the idea that if they don’t feed on fruits, how will seeds disperse from one site to another, connecting to the idea of germination.
Pedagogy 2
Interactive Book Reading and Narrative Building
Book reading and narrative building in an actual setting, next to the mangroves helped go beyond simple storytelling and the students could experience the context that was being narrated in the story. This activity was accompanied by a dramatic poem recitation which was followed by interaction through a question and answer session.
Pedagogy 3
Giving Identities to non-human elements- haree-haree
It can be agreed that there is a raw beauty of identity, sense of belonging and attachment that lies under one’s name. If a non-human entity is to be given an identity it needs to be named first. ‘Names’ also help create a difference between one identity and another. This methodology was used for the this activity where each participant was asked to name the plant and talk to the plant. This short activity also served as an ice breaker and enabled the students to settle in the new context which was next to the mangroves and away from the school.
Story Narration
The Angry Forest
Break of dawn came very different for Salehabad on the first day of autumn. Shiza opened her eyes to her school bag hanging above her head…on a tree branch. For a moment she thought she was dreaming, she shook her head twice and then looked again that it was actually a tree branch coming from the broken door beside her bed.
Everyone frantically made their way to the shore only to witness the water parted from the middle while all the branches, mud, hills and trash lead to central source in the forest across the water… the forest they had forgotten of lately. Shiza screamed: “Ma! It’s the mangroves… it has taken over the land!!” In response, all fishermen, wood workers and neighborhood men gathered their tools, shovels and knives to rush to the source tree. Meanwhile others fled to look for help across Manora and Keemari. Soon policemen and furious residents made way into the forest. Shiza and her classmates had now reunited by the port facing the forest and watched as people aggressively moved into the forest cutting, burning and gutting all that came in their way. The children observed the roots and branches as they grew more pointed and damaging with a roar as they got cut… as if the trees got angrier with each strike of the axe.
The children called out to people “Stop cutting! Stop hurting it… you’re making it worse” they cried. Yet no one listened and went more aggressive with each strike. Shiza gathered her six friends, grabbed a few carts, some bandages her mother kept aside and decided to go into the source trees. She told her friends “I think the mangroves is really angry… we must go in and talk to the police” on hearing this her friends giggled and ignored what she was saying but some followed her out of curiosity. On reaching the mangroves Shiza bent down and started removing trash, hard wire, fishnets and bricks from the arched roots. Her friends started putting bandages dipped in mud over the freshly cut branches by the islanders. They kept apologizing and singing ballads to the trees to calm them down. While cleaning the roots, children felt the branches moving and water was dripping from above them.
Bilal who was helping the group screamed “Its ALIVE!!!…. The trees are alive”. The children looked up and stood stunned as they saw the trees come to life. But all of the trees were shedding tears that made the water at their feet grow more. Suddenly they heard one tree speak… “Oh dearest, look what brought you to me… How does it feel to lose your land?” The tree cried louder “It hurts my soul that it took me taking over your land to have you be kind to me. We meant no harm, yet all people of the city did to me was harm. I was rare, I was one of a kind. Yet no one tried to know me, love me or care for me. Many times, I saved you all from the heat, I gave you fish and prawns but all you did was put litter in me.
The children called out to people “Stop cutting! Stop hurting it… you’re making it worse” they cried. Yet no one listened and went more aggressive with each strike. Shiza gathered her six friends, grabbed a few carts, some bandages her mother kept aside and decided to go into the source trees. She told her friends “I think the mangroves is really angry… we must go in and talk to the police” on hearing this her friends giggled and ignored what she was saying but some followed her out of curiosity. On reaching the mangroves Shiza bent down and started removing trash, hard wire, fishnets and bricks from the arched roots. Her friends started putting bandages dipped in mud over the freshly cut branches by the islanders. They kept apologizing and singing ballads to the trees to calm them down. While cleaning the roots, children felt the branches moving and water was dripping from above them.
Pedagogy 4
DIY tools as interfaces between human and non-human worlds
Various methods were used to help the students develop interfaces between human and non-human elements and think about the idea of bringing the mangroves back to life. Some of these methods are mentioned here.
Method 1:
Map-making and Drawing Based on Questions about Salehabad
The students were asked to think about the bird’s eye view of Salehabad and how the mangrove forest sits right next to it? They were also asked to think about what if the mangrove were to take back Salehabad, and to put these ideas on drawings. The notions of co-ecology and ‘who are we’ were also put in the narrative building for the creation of these maps.
Method 2:
Painting the Bird Feeders
Information about the endangered species found in mangrove’s ecosystem of Pakistan was given to the students and then they were asked to pick and paint some of these endangered species on bird feeders which were to then become part of the final installation.
Method 3:
Creating Wind Chimes from Recyclable Carbonated Drinks Cans
The idea of recycling and upcycling was introduced here. The concept of untreated trash going into the mangroves and the sea was also talked about. Ways of recycling trash creatively and preventing it from ending in the sea and in the mangrove forest was explored via developing wind chimes using sea shells found on the beach and empty carbonated drinks to create art pieces.
Method 4:
Using wires to Create Animal Wire Sculpture
Pieces of wires lying around the school campus and on the streets were also seen as trash. Some of these also ended up in the sea and could harm the sea animals. This idea was introduced to the students and wire sculptures were created using wire wastage and put on the public art installation of the tree.
Method 5:
The Installation Itself
A public art installation named “The Wish Tree” was created through engaging the students on the school campus. The idea here was to make a symbolic tree, using recycled materials, that was adorned with plastic shoppers instead of leaves. The branches were adorned with wind chimes made from trash, bird feeders, and real plants were planted as part of the installation by the students. This installation promoted human and non-human interaction and emphasized the interconnectedness of all living beings with the environment.