"People who make music together cannot be enemies"

This afternoon I joined Sr Rose Mary for a lecture at University of Sydney and had a chance to tour the campus before it started. Turning off of the sidewalk and through the iron gates, I felt like I had stepped into one of J.K. Rowling's novels! Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is absolutely beautiful:

Hogwarts? Nope- University of Sydney!

Foundation and walls built primarily of sandstone

Standing underneath a bridge dedicated to fallen Australian soldiers of WWII

Walking into their Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, I noticed countless inspirational posters supporting global peace movements that framed a wall-sized copy of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Here, I was introduced to the Musicians without Borders director, Laura Hassler, who was visiting University of Sydney to give a talk about her organization's international work. MwB is a global network organization that uses the power of music to connect communities, bridge divisions caused by stereotypes, and heal wounds of war and conflict. The projects developed by the organization are designed to become self-sustaining and partner local musicians with matching organizations so that they can respond to a variety of local needs. One of these projects, "The Music Bus," is a mobile center bringing music instruction to children from all ethnic backgrounds in the war-torn Srebrenica region of Bosnia and Herzegovina. By traveling into these two communities, the Music Bus crew first builds trusting relationships with these families in the area before bringing together people within each community, previously in conflict with each other. Another project, the Mitrovica Rock School, restores rock music culture to the ethnically divided city of Mitrovica, Kosovo by uniting teen Serb and Albanian musicians. Although the musicians come from very different backgrounds, they come together to form rock bands, and lasting friendships, in a week-long music camp. The program breaks through the traditional ethnic labeling and instead finds its power in focusing on the thing that each student shares- their love for music. MwB also gives attention to women who are suffering for a number of different reasons. In the refugee camps in the Srebrenica region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dutch and Bosnian women bring the gift of song and dance to the mothers, wives, and sisters who have lost loved ones in the Bosnian War. Laura sees this program as a type of therapy for the women, working with 'emotional language' and connecting women and building trust through empathy. All these projects seek to begin the peace and reconciliation process not on a large, governmental scale, but rather start within the homes by focusing on the women and children, which is the easiest way to bring about change within a community. Music, she says, has amazing power because it can help reconnect you with your body and is a universal language of joy; it has so much potential in bringing a person back to their spirituality after years of sadness and depression. I was reminded of a saying my great-uncle Arthur, a priest in NYC, that: "He who sings, prays twice," and only last week I saw this power of song in Nancy's smiling face, as we marched and sang down the hospital hallway. Sr Rose Mary told me this is a good introduction to the way in which I will experience how the Solomon Island people celebrate and connect with one another using music and I can't wait to see this for myself. 

Hats off to Sarah who had a delicious chicken paella waiting when I returned home. Yum!