Refugee puppet girl Little Amal, a performance art piece to highlight forced migration, visited our Canterbury campus after walking 8000km from Syria across Europe to the Kent coast.
Standing 3.5 metres high, 9 year old refugee puppet ‘Little Amal’ had walked nearly 8000km from the border of Syria when she arrived at The Gulbenkian on the 21st October.
Her journey intended to focus attention on the urgent needs of millions of young refugees worldwide and the need to change the narrative around human movement, a powerful subject explored through the focus on Migration and Movement at Kent.
‘It was inspiring to see Little Amal on campus today surrounded by young people keen to learn more about, and stand in solidarity with refugees.’
Little Amal set out from Turkey’s Syrian border in July before passing through Greece, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. Produced by Good Chance Productions, Kent’s leg of The Walk was put together by our Institute of Cultural and Creative Industries (iCCi). The leg of The Walk began at Canterbury Cathedral and moved up the hill to campus accompanied by classes of school children singing and chanting for Amal.
‘At precisely the moment Amal arrived on campus, I was about to run a class with our final year psychology students on psychology-based interventions in schools to tackle prejudice.’ Dr Lindsey Cameron, Director of Undergraduate Student Experience and Student Success told us ‘It was fantastic to hear our students’ original and exciting intervention ideas.’
‘We also discussed how important it is to build young people’s capacity to resist stereotypes and stand up to racism and discrimination when they come across it, which I am confident Little Amal will have done.’
The University of Kent is the only UK university hosting a leg of The Walk – one of the biggest international community arts projects ever produced. Our proximity to the Kent coast, directly corresponds to the hazardous journey taken by so many Internationally displaced people travelling through Europe.