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Conrad Grebel University College, Westmount Road North, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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Conrad Grebel University College, Westmount Road North, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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Conrad Grebel University College, Westmount Road North, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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Throughout cultures, social norms are ingrained into citizens, and enforced to maintain separation between religions, ethnicities, and orientations. But what happens when those established beliefs are challenged by music to encourage connections between groups? We propose that the act of challenging social norms to promote tolerance through music can be a powerful tool in the fight against the single story and extinguish flames of hatred across war zones and divided cities.

In Bosnia and Herzagovina, music has become the mouthpiece of reconciliation and an agent of healing after the devastating Bosnian War. The Pontanima Choir from Sarajevo, Bosnia has been travelling the world sharing their message of religious pluralism to promote acceptance and tolerance, a somewhat unpopular opinion in multicultural Slavic countries.

In India the Dalit caste’s changes in musical style and performance reveals their desire for upward mobility in the caste system along with civil rights. The existing belief that different castes had to be separate in all forms of living, whether it be eating practices or forms of art, has been challenged and through this Tamil Christians are able to reconstruct their cultural identities outside of the caste system.

We hope you enjoy this exhibit!

-Abigail and Jessica

Useful Definitions :

Tolerance: willingness to accept behaviour and beliefs that are different from your own, although you might not agree with or approve of them.

Social norms: Common standards within a social group regarding socially acceptable or appropriate behaviour in particular social situations.

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Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small slavic country, born from the former Yugoslavia in Southeastern Europe. Its capital, Sarajevo, is home to Muslim Bosniaks, Catholic and Christian Serbs and Corats, and Jews. The country bears the scars of a devastating conflict that shaped the history of inter-religious tolerance forever.

The Bosnian war was an ethnically rooted conflict caused by a failing economy, loss of communist power, and a desire for independence from Yugoslavia. Major parties included what are now known as: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, NATO, and the UN. Extreme nationalist views pushed parties to engage in ethnic cleansing of Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks), and Orthodox or Roman Catholic Serbs and Corats to create pure states. Rape, torture, abuse, pillaging, bombing, and genocide were constant from 1992 until peace negotiations in December 1995.

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) completed and released the BiH War Crimes Case Map in December 2018 as a tool to provide accessible information and promote education on the events of the war (https://maparz.pravosudje.ba/). 518 crimes are recorded by location, sentence, and conviction. I encourage you to explore the map to help gain understanding of the conflict and its impact on the country.

After the war, more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians had died. Survivors were left homeless, and without support. The United States Institute of Peace states that: “In post-conflict situations, there needs to be reconciliation at the level of social, political, cultural, and religious institutions.” Bosnia needed hope for reconciliation and music has been the key.

Bibliography

“BiH War Crimes Case Map.” Accessed November 3, 2020. https://maparz.pravosudje.ba/.

Peuraca, Branka. “Can Faith-Based NGOs Advance Interfaith Reconciliation?: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” US Institute of Peace, 2003. Accessed November 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12252.

Discography

Traditional Music Channel. “Music and Dances from the Balkans,” July 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCzFI149Rc.

Zoltán, Arany. “Folk Music from Bosnia - Poljem Se Vija by Arany Zoltán,” January 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLviUpTxMNM.

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Sarajevo City Hall, Obala Kulina bana, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Sarajevo City Hall, Obala Kulina bana, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Sarajevo City Hall, Obala Kulina bana, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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Music has an incredible power to promote healing and communication. Fransiscan peace activist, Fra Ivo Marković knew this, and established the Pontanima choir in Sarajevo in 1996 as a way to encourage religious pluralism and healing after the devastating Bosnia and Herzegovina conflict from 1992-1995.

“I elaborated this idea as theologian work on inter-religious understanding and first of all healing and reconciling in Bosnia through music”.

“You can see at our rehearsals that we are happy, all of us. Muslims, Christians, Orthodox Christians, Jews, atheist, agnostic, and all others.”

That’s Alma Aganspahic, the current conductor. She works with about 40 singers to practice and perform Catholic, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, and Muslim spiritual songs. Through the universal language of music members of the choir, and audiences around the world are invited to look inward to find peace and outward to find acceptance. The name of the choir, Pontanima, comes from Latin and means ‘spiritual bridge’, which sums up the purpose of the choir very clearly.

The Woolf Institute (an academic institute from England focused on inter-faith relations) became interested in the Pontanima choir while visiting Sarajevo with a group of their patrons. They invited the choir to go on tour in the UK, opening up a global stage to share their message of peace and hope. In a documentary filmed by the Woolf Institute (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2hUHmOALk&t=710s), Ivo Marković states that his symphony of religions aims to present not only different faiths, but also the languages and musical diversity of each religion (5:40-8:00). Dr Nedzad, a survivor was invited by the Woolf Institute to share his story and passion for educating future generations at the concert (listen to his story from 12:27-17:28).

“We can turn denying into accepting, hating into tolerance, ignorance into understand, and we can create hope from the darkest pages of our history definitely, but we have to focus on educating.”

You can listen to his full story in the interview at 12:27-17:28.

The choir has not produced an album or any professional recordings, but there are videos from their performances around the world. Please enjoy their concert from May, 2017 at Sarajevo City Hall here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pSPZkAAqE.

Meet the choir in this 2 minute UK news report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9dfblcXSzc.

Bibliography
“Sarajevo's Interfaith Choir Promotes Dialogue and Peace.” YouTube. YouTube, December 16, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9dfblcXSzc.

WoolfInstitute. “Pontanima Choir Featured on BBC World Service: Newsday (05/03/18).” YouTube. YouTube, March 7, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXgfDpoJuyM.

WoolfInstitute. “The Woolf Institute Presents: Pontanima Choir.” YouTube. YouTube, May 8, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2hUHmOALk.

Discography

“Pontanima Koncert u Vijecnici 15 5 17,” May 13, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pSPZkAAqE.

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You’re listening to the Pontanima choir from Sarajevo. It’s creator, Fra Ivo Marković, began the choir to encourage religious tolerance and healing after the Bosnian war in 1996.

“We live in Bosnia. Bosnia has something extremely positive, we lived together, different religions. Jews, Muslims, Christians, Catholics, and Orthodox people together for 10 centuries, and we have very positive experience of life together. But also we have negative side because always we lived under hegemony of outside supremacy, and the Turks who tried, the Ottoman Empire tried to Islamize. Christians later during Austria, Muslims experienced that Austria is Catholic state trying to Christianize them. Later the Serbs tried to Serbize and so communism. So that by us we’re developed very deep defending mechanisms against the Islamization, Christianization, Serbization and so on.”

Janine Clard argues that in a country so divided, the message of the Pontanima choir  has proved to be all too provocative for the leaders of Bosnia's Islamic and Roman Catholic communities, who have withdrawn their early support for Pontanima on the grounds that it is promoting syn-cre-tism. The choir is funded by foreign donations such as the Mennonite Central Committee, private German donors, the Anglican Church of the United Kingdom, and foreign embassies in Sarajevo.

Reconciliation within the choir’s members has been an incredible journey for Marcovik to witness.

“It was shocking, but we wanted it to be shocking. Imagine how difficult it was for Orthodox Christians Serbs, upon returning from the frontlines of war to sing loggias, or for Muslims to sing Orthodox Christian songs. For some people it was so difficult that was causing them physical pain. But we were taking it slowly until they experienced catharsis and became capable of singing.”

The United States Institute of Peace applauds the Pontanima Choir and its success in demonstrating several facets of interfaith reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One is the links between local and international organizations, with foreign faith-based groups supporting local interfaith efforts. Another is fluidity and flexibility. With the world as its stage, the Pontanima choir faces an encouraging future of hope and peace as it continues to promote tolerance through music.

Bibliography

Clark, Janine Natalya. "Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia & Herzegovina: Are Religious Actors Doing Enough?" Europe-Asia Studies 62, no. 4 (2010): 671-94. Accessed November 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27808737.

Peuraca, Branka. “Can Faith-Based NGOs Advance Interfaith Reconciliation?: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” US Institute of Peace, 2003. Accessed November 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12252.

“Sarajevo's Interfaith Choir Promotes Dialogue and Peace.” YouTube. YouTube, December 16, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9dfblcXSzc.

WoolfInstitute. “The Woolf Institute Presents: Pontanima Choir.” YouTube. YouTube, May 8, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2hUHmOALk.

Discography

“Pontanima Choir Concert, City Hall Sarajevo, 2017,” August 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEOF4faQkrg&pbjreload=101.

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Tamil Nadu Tourist Place, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

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Tamil Nadu Tourist Place, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

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Tamil Nadu Tourist Place, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, India

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University of Waterloo, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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University of Waterloo, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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University of Waterloo, University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, Canada

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“We can turn denying into accepting, hating into tolerance, ignorance into understand, and we can create hope from the darkest pages of our history definitely, but we have to focus on educating.” -Dr. Nedžad Avdic, survivor of the Srebrenica massacre during the BiH War

The BiH War and the Pontanima Choir - Abigail Berndt

Discography

“Pontanima Choir Concert, City Hall Sarajevo, 2017,” August 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEOF4faQkrg&pbjreload=101.

“Pontanima Koncert u Vijecnici 15 5 17,” May 13, 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1pSPZkAAqE.

Traditional Music Channel. “Music and Dances from the Balkans,” July 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njCzFI149Rc.

Zoltán, Arany. “Folk Music from Bosnia - Poljem Se Vija by Arany Zoltán,” January 2017. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLviUpTxMNM.

Bibliography

Andrejč, Gorazd. “Sarajevo: Its Religions and Ways of Remembering .” The Woolf Institute, November 3, 2020. https://www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/blog/sarajevo-its-religions-and-ways-of-remembering.

“BiH War Crimes Case Map.” Accessed November 3, 2020. https://maparz.pravosudje.ba/.

Clark, Janine Natalya. "Religion and Reconciliation in Bosnia & Herzegovina: Are Religious Actors Doing Enough?" Europe-Asia Studies 62, no. 4 (2010): 671-94. Accessed November 2, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27808737.

Peuraca, Branka. “Can Faith-Based NGOs Advance Interfaith Reconciliation?: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina.” US Institute of Peace, 2003. Accessed November 2, 2020.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep12252.

“Sarajevo's Interfaith Choir Promotes Dialogue and Peace.” YouTube. YouTube, December 16, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9dfblcXSzc.

Smock, David. "Divine Intervention: Regional Reconciliation Through Faith." Harvard International Review 25, no. 4 (2004): 46-50. Accessed November 2, 2020.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/43650148.

WoolfInstitute. “Pontanima Choir Featured on BBC World Service: Newsday (05/03/18).” YouTube. YouTube, March 7, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXgfDpoJuyM.

WoolfInstitute. “The Woolf Institute Presents: Pontanima Choir.” YouTube. YouTube, May 8, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LP2hUHmOALk.

Tamil Christians in India Opposing the Caste System Through Music