Kwibuka Rwanda exhibition on display in Michigan

The Kwibuka Rwanda exhibition is based on Julia Viebach's extensive research on the role of memory in transitional justice. The exhibition showcases a series of photographs taken by her at some of the 243 genocide memorials around Rwanda, together with testimonies of survivors of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. It reflects on the attempts of survivors working at memorials to honour their dead loved ones and to come to terms with loss and trauma.  The exhibition is currently on display at the Pitt River's Museum in Oxford and some of the panels were shown in Kalamazoo, Michigan as part of an event to commemorate the Genocide.

The commemoration event in Kalamazoo, Michigan was well attended and well received by the community of Genocide survivors and their families.

Albert Gaske, who co-ordinated the event in Kalamazoo writes:

One participant, Sister Marie Josepha, a survivor herself from Gikongoro now living here in Michigan was touched by the exhibition in a particular way. She pulled me aside after gazing at the panel that shows a stand-alone piece of stone  at Cyanika Memorial site. I was here, she said, pointing at the panel as she wipes tears from her eyes. Sister Marie Josepha was deeply moved.  She said she never thought her story and the story of those she lost can travel this far and finally reach her right here in West Michigan 7500 miles away of the little town of Cyanika. The story of Sister Marie Josepha is not a single one. Valentine Iribagiza,  who came out of corpses in Nyarubuye was really touched when she saw a panel that describes that memorial site. I could see survivors's enthusiasm as they were walking around the panels sharing their memories with their American friends.  On behalf of my fellow survivors, thank you so much for sharing Kwibuka Rwanda panels to the survivors and to our new community in West Michigan. This event would not have been a success without the generous access to those panels.