AURAL DOCUMENTARY REVIEW: Home Makers - Lebanon and UK

I struggled with how to head this review, and came up with the rather clunky 'Aural Documentary', I wondered what else it could be classed as: radio account? personal broadcasts?. What in fact this group of people, known only by their Christian names, from both Lebanon and the UK, have created are a series of what they call  'soundwalks'. Performed as part of the International Online Theatre Festival, and available to listen to on their website, [homemakersounds.org], they are a collection of stories from migrant workers, seemingly, all from The Philippines, in both Lebanon and the UK who have experienced racism, phyiscal or sexual abuse, been denied human rights, or other indignities, and have been forced to flea either from their employers or the host country or both.

I listened to 5 of these soundwalks. [COVID Bayanihan, Kaya Natin Ito, Les Mere En D'Etresse, Not Nothing, and One Day The Kafal System Will Change], and all of them have an air of authenticity about them, spoken, (we are left to assume) by the real people themselves, but their 'performances' are very real, and the natural backgrounds of each location chosen make for a very 'documentary' style of authenticity.

All of these people, all female, have been subjected to horrendous working conditions, abuse, violence, neglect and a deprivation of their human rights. However, all of them too, seem to have been working and living in the countries illegally. None had the correct papers, documents, visas etc, and so, all were frightened to go to doctors or tell the authorities.

From the company's website:

"Making a soundwalk begins with a migrant domestic or care worker choosing a place that is meaningful to her. After going for a walk and recording a conversation there, we work together to edit the recording for listeners. This involves the collaborator learning how to use a free-to-use sound editing software, and being fairly compensated for her time and creative work.

A soundwalk expresses just a fragment of a person’s experiences and perspectives. As listeners, it asks us to acknowledge the limits of our understanding, as well as our points of affinity, alliance or empathy. This collection of soundwalks aims to centralise migrant workers’ own decision-making about what story to tell; not to fully capture an individual’s life story or an experience shared by an entire population. Processes of making the soundwalks were also shaped by the realities of time, labour, precarity, unpredictability and transience."

An interesting and informative listen.

Reviewer - Chris Benchley
on - 14/5/20