Performing Change: Anti-sorcery violence video production with communities in Papua New Guinea - Seminar
Location: Online
Date: 20 March, 2025
Time: 8AM to 9.15AM NZST
Register: Email miranda.forsyth@anu.edu.au for link.
This seminar Associate Professor Paul Wolffram explores the development, production, distribution processes and impact of a series of short videos produced in collaboration with community groups in Goroka, Eastern Highlands, Papua New Guinea (PNG). The videos were co-designed and co-created to communicate an anti-sorcery violence message to young people in PNG.
This seminar examines the learnings and achievements of the project as well as areas for further development. The work also includes an overview of the dissemination processes used and the impact of the videos via social media platforms. The research suggests the potential for short co-designed and co-created video media to effectively communicate with target audiences, engage, and contribute to anti-sorcery accusation-related violence efforts in Papua New Guinea.
Scroll down for images of the film making as it happened.
JOIN US IN DISCUSSION! After the presentation, we will have an open discussion about the possibilities of social media to combat harmful practices related to belief in witchcraft and associated ritual attacks.
Associate Professor Paul Wolffram is an ethnographic filmmaker and academic who works with communities in Papua New Guinea. His latest feature documentary MARIMARI (2024) tells the story of human rights defender Evelyn Kunda’s efforts to rescue and rehabilitate three survivor families attacked following sorcery accusations in the highland of Papua New Guinea.
