We recently shared on social media how restorative justice may be expressed through creative arts, and one of the resources mentioned was ‘Reimagining Justice,’ a virtual restorative justice art show hosted in 2020 by the National Center on Restorative Justice at Vermont Law School.
Visitors to the exhibition were invited to vote for their favourite image, and we were delighted to be contacted by Don John Omale, whose image was placed third in the voting.
Don John has kindly shared these further reflections on his entry, the design and what he learned from the competition, including a powerful reminder of what we can learn from Africa.
Why did you enter the exhibition?
The call for submission by Lindsey Pointer of Vermont Law School was an opportunity for me to showcase an afrocentric perspective to the Reimagine Justice Art Competition.
What was your thought process for your design?
My design was and is based on my sociological imaginations of dispute resolution and the sociology of law in Africa. I have often told my international audiences that when it comes to restorative justice, the west needs to learn from Africa as much as Africa needs to learn from them. To us in Africa, restorative justice is like a good old wine served in a new glass. And so to me, the logic and principles of restorative justice are in the old contained and in the new explained. Restorative justice processes and practices have been culturally inbuilt to the models of dispute resolution in most African countries and communities but never known to them as such before now. Growing up in a rural African community in the 70s and 80s It is a common sight to see elders and community members gathered under a tree shade to resolve community disputes brought before them. In my design you can see the people seated in a circle to make contributions to how a conflict brought before them can be peacefully resolved. The blindfolded "justice lady" is an enigma of justice, a facilitator or mediator that dispenses justice or resolves the dispute without fear or favour. It's a representation of impartiality which should be a typical characteristic of most a good mediator/facilitator. I used a woman because in Africa women appear to be more liberal , fair and impartial when it comes to dispensation of justice because the ones who give lives are always inclined to protect lives. Perhaps, that explains why most judges and magistrates in Africa are women. We have more women on the bench than men . I might be wrong though, but that is my perspective on the "African Justice Lady " that I submitted to the Reimagine Justice competition at Vermont Law School which came in third position.
Has doing your submission and seeing others changed your thinking at all or offered any different perspectives? Has it helped your work or personal experiences?
What I learned from the competition was that people have different and creative imaginations of the concept of restorative justice. The competition also demonstrated that restorative justice is a globally accepted idea judging from the number of submissions to the Reimagine Justice competition. The competition also shows that there are possibilities for global networking of ideas and knowledge sharing around Restorative Justice hence, I am reinvigorated to learn from others’ perspectives as well as continuing to share the African perspective to the international community.
To see the exhibits as well as find out more about the Reimagining Justice: A Virtual Restorative Justice Art Show here - https://www.vermontlaw.edu/rj-art