North Dakota has the highest per capita refugee resettlement rate in the United States. A result has been an increase in people of color and Muslims, and a rise in ethnic and religious tensions, harassment and violence. A program to counter this trend has been introduced: Holding “story exchanges” where people from the older North Dakotan community in Fargo and refugees listen to each other’s stories then retell the other’s story in the first-person.
The Story Exchange program was developed by Narrative 4, founded by Irish novelist Colum McCann. The idea is to get people from conflicted groups talking with each other in a way that elicits empathy and leads to understanding. People will learn to see each other and the world through another’s eyes. Narrative 4 has projects across the United States and in Ireland, South Africa, and Mexico.
Click here to read the BBC article about how this Narrative 4 project worked in North Dakota. The group of white North Dakotans and
Story exchanges can be a bold first step, but they may need to be woven into a larger project for dialog and eventual problem-solving. Click here to see information about “Two-Sided Story, a documentary about a longer story-telling project sponsored by Parents Circle–Family Forum in Israel and Palestine involving participants from both sides who lost loved ones in the conflict.
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