1
Participatory Edutainment in Practice
A Case Study of Wan Smolbag, Vanuatu
Laura Gibbons
Communication for Development 15 Credits Spring 2020 Supervisor: Oscar Hemer
Cover photo: Wan Smolbag actors performing Twist Mo Spin in front of a local audience in Vanuatu. Credit: Paul Jones, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia.
2
Abstract
Entertainment-Education (EE), or ‘Edutainment’ as it has come to be known, is a prominent discipline and communicative practice, both in international and community development, and is utilised to address social issues and culturally specific norms, some of which may be taboo or harmful.
This research sets out to explore the application of edutainment, in particular Theatre for Development (TfD), through an examination of its practice in a Pacific context; namely, a case study of Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB), a grassroots NGO based in Vanuatu. Using tangible examples of WSB’s theatre work, the interplay between listening, participation, and dialogue will be examined as they bear on WSB’s diverse operations in Vanuatu. It will also be suggested that edutainment and TfD sits at the intersection of communication, culture and development and in fact, requires all three elements in order to be realised.
Through its use of edutainment and TfD, WSB’s core strength lies in its sensitivity and responsiveness to both culture as aesthetic activity and as a way of life, enabling a dialogic, participatory approach that provides a stage for subaltern community voices to identify issues, and importantly, solutions to their own problems.
The Pacific Region poses a complex landscape for development research and the same applies in the area of communication for development and social change. Due to its vast geographical area but often small population sizes, Pacific-focused research and data can be difficult to source, both of a qualitative and quantitative nature. This study aims to address one such gap, while also attempting to situate this research in the wider historical context of edutainment. Key words: Edutainment, Entertainment-Education, Theatre for Development, Participation, Dialogue, Culture, Communication, Development, Pacific, Vanuatu.
3
Table of Contents Abstract ...... 2 Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 4 Chapter 2: Vanuatu & WSB Context...... 6 Vanuatu Overview...... 6 Multiple Strands: Examining the DNA of WSB...... 7 WSB’s Edutainment Work...... 12 Chapter 3: Literature Review ...... 13 Communication for Development and Social Change ...... 13 Participatory Communication...... 14 Defining Edutainment...... 16 Models of Edutainment ...... 17 Setting the Stage for WSB’s Theatre Practice ...... 19 From Development to Post-Development ...... 22 From Aesthetics to Anthropology...... 24 Chapter 4: Theoretical Framework...... 27 Chapter 5: Methodology...... 30 Semi-structured Interviews...... 31 Selection of Interviewees ...... 31 Interview Details...... 32 Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Materials...... 34 Textual Analysis of Selected WSB Materials ...... 34 Ethical Concerns...... 35 Limitations and Constraints ...... 35 Chapter 6: WSB in Practice – A Critical Analysis...... 37 Play 1: Twist Mo Spin (2019)...... 38 Context...... 39 A Heteroglossia of Voices...... 41 Dialogic in Principle and Practice...... 44 Process as Result ...... 47 Play 2: Something for Nothing (2002) ...... 50 Actor, Facilitator, Social Worker...... 52 Play 3: Zero Balans (2011) ...... 53 Chapter 7: Conclusion...... 57 Areas for further research...... 59 Appendices...... 60 Appendix 1: List of WSB Grey Literature and Content ...... 60 Appendix 2: WSB’s Core Values ...... 61 Bibliography...... 62
4
Chapter 1: Introduction
If speaking is silver, then listening is gold. – Turkish proverb
[P]articipatory theatre could be used as a forum to rehearse change. – Annie Sloman, 2012, 44
As one proud ni-Vanuatu man declared after watching a [Wan Smolbag] performance, ‘It’s us on stage’. – Rebekah Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 241
The above epigraphs, in different ways, succinctly capture the focus of this research: that of the Vanuatu-based grassroots non-governmental organisation (NGO) Wan Smolbag Theatre (WSB, their acronym). As will be outlined in the following pages, WSB’s ethos and approach is based on listening, participation, and representation.
WSB was established in Vanuatu’s capital city of Port Vila in 1989 by Jo Dorras and Peter Walker. Both originally from the United Kingdom, they moved to Vanuatu so that Dorras could take up a teaching job at Malapoa College (high school) in Port Vila, having previously spent some time in Zimbabwe where they were also engaged in theatre activities (Interview D and Woodward, 2015). What started out with six actors and one small bag of props (hence the name Wan Smolbag in the lingua franca, Bislama) had by 1994 grown to 11 with support from the UK Government (Interview D). WSB has now expanded into an extensive grassroots cultural and civic ecosystem comprising a theatre (with several acting groups), film and TV production capabilities, youth centres, health and nutrition centres, and sports grounds.1 WSB today employs 120 staff, 22 of whom are on the theatre performance side, 18 as actors and 4 are film staff (Interview C).
1 Wan Smolbag Theatre, Our Story: https://www.wansmolbag.org/our-story/ 5
This research seeks to examine the communicative practice of Entertainment- Education (EE), known also by the portmanteau ‘Edutainment,’2 and its wider application in a Pacific theatre context. Theatre for Development (TfD) is an example of Applied Theatre that exemplifies Edutainment at grassroots level, using participatory drama to help island communities deal with social change in an era of rapid globalisation – and, in the process, embrace change themselves.3 Through primary and secondary research, a number of plays were identified that provided examples of participatory theatre that form the basis of this study. Specifically, the question this research sets out to address is: what are the conditions in which communication, culture and development intersect to produce participatory edutainment in a communication for development and social change context? In examining this question, the tension between internal (culture) and external (development) influences will be analysed, as will the negotiating role that communication, in this case participatory theatre, plays between these two forces. As such, communication has to be attuned to both development and culture, in a constant two-way dialogue, in order to succeed.
Having introduced the overall research focus and the central research question, further contextual background on Vanuatu and WSB will follow below. I will then situate this research within existing literature and discourse by defining the key terms and processes as they relate to the realm of edutainment. This, in turn, will help to elaborate a theoretical framework for this research. An outline of the methodology underpinning the approach will follow, encompassing limitations of the research. The main body of the study will consist of a critical analysis of the findings, focussing on three WSB plays, in order to examine how principles of, and academic thinking on, CFDASC operate in the context of participatory theatre in Vanuatu. A conclusion noting key findings and areas of potential future research will feature last.
2 Entertainment-Education, EE and Edutainment will be utilised interchangeably throughout this study. 3 Applied Theatre has instructional or educational functions but it may also have other roles, for example, therapeutic uses dealing with victims of trauma, war or displacement. 6
Chapter 2: Vanuatu & WSB Context
Vanuatu Overview
It is important at the outset to give an overview of Vanuatu in order to contextualise the landscape and to understand better the cultural space in which WSB is operating. Vanuatu is an archipelago of 83 islands (63 of which are inhabited) in the Melanesian region of the Pacific.4 Historically, it was under French and British rule, becoming an independent republic in 1980.5 With a population of just under 300,000, it has the highest population growth rate in the Pacific at 2.5% (SPC, 2016).6 There are two main urban centres, the capital Port Vila and Luganville, with the majority of the population living in rural settings. Like other Pacific countries, Vanuatu has a predominantly young population, with 57% aged under-25 years (UNFPA, 2014, 94). Research conducted by UNICEF Pacific in 2017 identified several issues that pose challenges to social development, in addition to its post-colonial condition, including its remote geographic location; exposure to natural disasters; the impacts of climate change; lack of comprehensive social protection and other social welfare services; gender inequality that disadvantages women and girls; population growth and drift; certain cultural attitudes, traditions and ‘kastom,’ as well as other consequences of increased globalisation 7 (UNICEF Pacific, 2017, 4-5).
The need for social change is evident on a number of fronts, as “increasing modernisation, urbanisation and land disputes are contributing to a gradual weakening of traditional support systems” (UNICEF Pacific, 2017, 116). The difficulty here is in ensuring that social change does not weaken “traditional support systems” to the point of cultural disintegration, an acceleration of
4 Melanesia consists of Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands & Vanuatu. 5 Government of Vanuatu, https://www.gov.vu/index.php/about/about-vanuatu 6 A new census is due to take place in 2020. The last census was undertaken in 2009, with a mini census in 2016 (SPC, 2016). 7 In Bislama, the term ‘kastom’ does not directly translate to custom or tradition, though it is related. Anthropologist Jean Mitchell contextualises kastom as “the hybrid set of discourses and practices that encompass the cultural knowledge, sociality, and the social processes that are unique to ni-Vanuatu” (2011, 37). Miranda Forsyth puts it more succinctly: kastom “generally [means] ‘our way of doing things’” (2009, 95). 7
change that creates a host of new intractable problems. It is for this reason that, as a key grassroots entity grounded in cultural and civic life on the islands, that WSB’s negotiation of social change in terms of participation and dialogue within ni-Vanuatu8 culture offers important insights into our understanding of communication for development and social change (CFDASC).
Multiple Strands: Examining the DNA of WSB
[A]ll that Wan Smolbag does is focused on creating and promoting an environment for change across all sectors of Vanuatu society. Wan Smolbag achieves this through facilitating dialogue and engagement with people, communities and institutions, particularly between those with power and authority and those who are more marginalized (Wan Smolbag, 2013, 4, italics added).
The above mission statement does much to capture WSB’s raison d’être. The key terms highlighted in the text help to illustrate how WSB self-consciously aims to promote social change throughout Vanuatu. This commitment to change is based on core values around inclusivity, transparency, responsiveness and, importantly for this research, dialogue and participation (Wan Smolbag, 2013, 2).9 WSB have referred to themselves as a ‘development theatre group’ signifying the hybridity they embody between the creative arts and development, and the subsequent broad spheres of influence they traverse as a result (Wan Smolbag, 2013, 1). This grounding in local communities offsets certain power relations that have been obtained in top-down or externally driven models of development. There are, of course, external dimensions, that of globalisation and foreign development initiatives, but as the literature review will address, the impetus behind recent models of CFDASC, in particular, Theatre for Development, suggest this is not a one way process, and policies and practice that fail to address the life-worlds of communities fail themselves.
8 Ni-Vanuatu, essentially translates from Bislama as ‘of or from Vanuatu’ e.g. Irish from Ireland. 9 The full text of WSB values is included in Appendix 2. 8
It is difficult to explain how WSB has grown into the organisation it has become without looking at the multiple strands of its operation.10 While they are reluctant to ascribe labels or theoretical models to their approach, this analysis aims to show that a number of factors contribute to its sustained activity, which, in its own terms, are outlined as follows: • WSB responds first and foremost to the needs of, and issues raised by, the communities with which it works, through long-term partnerships and engagement. • WSB is dedicated to practicing two-way communication and accountability across all of their work and relationships, and supporting the same approach at all levels of Vanuatu society. • WSB is mindful of, and open to, changes in context and new opportunities, and committed to remaining creative and innovative in its approach. It is guided by strategy, but not constrained by it. • It seeks to build and strengthen strategic and, where appropriate, long term partnerships with key stakeholders within Vanuatu, across the Pacific region, and internationally. • It is committed to reflective practice and actively evaluates how it works, acting on what it has learned, on an ongoing basis. It strives to live its values, and is always open to sharing what it does, and what is has learned. • It values its staff and invests in their long-term development as key program participants and beneficiaries. • Is committed to making timely and inclusive decisions that are mindful of the organization’s ongoing effectiveness, efficiency, relevance and sustainability. (Wan Smolbag, 2013, 5, italics added)
Despite its gradual expansion over time, WSB has maintained its original theatre-based activity. They are at their core and by their own description, a grassroots NGO dedicated to creating an “environment of change”. As the de facto National Theatre of Vanuatu, WSB’s record has been distinguished by both its quality and its quantity. The breadth of work produced over its 31 years is wide-ranging: aside from 80 episodes of its TV series Love Patrol11 and extensive film and radio work, every year WSB retains its theatrical roots through the production of a ‘big play,’ a youth drama production as well as
10 This, however, is not to imply, that what WSB does is unique, as a number of organisations share some of these features, such as Nalamdana Chennai in India and Soul City in South Africa. 11 Love Patrol ran for 8 seasons from 2007 – 2016. 9
several other pieces. Many of their plays are filmed and uploaded to YouTube, 12 enabling free viewership by a wider audience.
While WSB is community-based and encourages new and emerging talent, it is by no means an amateur dramatic set-up. This is one of its striking achievements. Actors and crew are trained and paid professionals and are expected to work to high dramatic standards.13 In terms of expertise, Walker assumes main direction and production roles, while Dorras writes material in extended dialogue with communities and, in a given year, produces a considerable number of scripts. The devising of scripts is shared with actors (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 234), and scripts are also written around ‘scenarios’ related to relevant issues, which lend themselves to dramatic treatment. Given the unfamiliarity with professional theatre and low literacy rates, efforts to devolve authorial activity and to cultivate local scriptwriting talent have not been easy.14 This sets certain limits to the extent to which “the subaltern speaks” (Spivak, 1988) but as Dorras explains, it needs to be contextualized as part of a process, gradually putting in place the cultural infrastructure for theatre as a form, and for developing professional skills in playwriting and script development. Participatory theatre is crucial to this in the sense that the community still sets the terms for WSB’s activities, in some cases, as will be seen below, actors themselves improvising on the plays and bringing them to outer islands, putting their own stamp on dramatic treatments.
12 A total of 170 videos appear on WSB’s YouTube channel, the most popular being Yu No Save Ronwei Lo Lav (2016), a film exploring teenage relationships that has 396,000 views and counting: https://www.youtube.com/c/WanSmolbagTheatre/featured 13 This is a facet local independent journalist Dan McGarry sees as a great strength, “They insist on professionalism, and they treat their people like professionals which is one important distinction that gets overlooked by NGOs. It is one of the reasons they achieve real grassroots credentials as they pay their staff and they treat them like professionals. They are expected to perform at an extremely high level, half-assed jobs are not tolerated” (Interview A). 14 As Dorras illustrates, “We have run competitions. We have tried to get the actors to write. One or two have such extraordinary imaginations that they should be able to write but even though we’ve given them time or asked them to come up with the script its just not happened. And it might be because they are quite young and it might happen later. Or it might be because there are so few books here that people can get their hands on. And really a lot of writing is using stuff you don’t even know you’re using from something you’ve read” (Interview D). 10
It is important to consider how WSB fits into the wider development landscape within Vanuatu. Collaboration between WSB and its surrounding communities is informed by the wider structural/funding supports, such as the Vanuatu Government, their own donors (INGOs and Governments), along with the many other stakeholders within their sphere. The key lies in negotiating partnerships with these multiple actors to achieve shared priorities and outcomes. WSB has worked over many years with Vanuatu Government Ministries and Departments in implementing its programs. WSB’s organisational strategies are aligned to Vanuatu’s National Sustainability Plan and the United Nations’ Sustainable Goals (Wan Smolbag, 2020b, 7). Governance and civic participation are a major focus of WSB’s practice, but working with the government also ensures local legitimacy, given they are an important provider of social services and safety nets.
In recent years, WSB has refined its internal monitoring and evaluation resources in order to capture the impact of their initiatives and activities. The latest results collected from January to June 2020 include the following, though, of course, cumulative impact and long-term reach is yet to be determined:
• Over 6,521 women, men, youth and at-risk groups gained greater awareness of sexual reproductive health issues in Port Vila and Luganville through clinical, peer education, and the use of creative media tools such as: live play performances, production and distribution of multi-media materials (films, posters and booklets) and SRH workshops using these multi-media materials. • Over 448 people have been engaged on the islands of Efate and Epi, through plays, workshops and trainings on waste management, coral reef and marine conservation, and climate change impacts and mitigation strategies. • Over 5,933 people were engaged through plays, films and workshops touching on sanitation, population issues, kastom stories, land development and environmental degradation and the rights of people living with disability. (Wan Smolbag, 2020b)
From a development perspective, WSB’s programmes address complex and dynamic social issues facing marginalised and at-risk groups in peri-urban and rural communities. Their vision is “a strong and well-governed Vanuatu, 11
across all sectors of society, from rural to urban communities, and inclusive of everyone, particularly those who are more marginalised. This is a Vanuatu where: • An environment for change is cultivated and promoted at all levels, through opportunities for dialogue and engagement around key social, environmental and governance issues. • The rights of all people, regardless of gender, age, physical and cognitive ability, education level, sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and economic, ethnic and social status, are heard, supported and protected. • All people are equipped with the information and knowledge to engage in decision-making processes that affect them, and are empowered to participate freely in society. • Those who are entrusted with authority and power are held to account to ensure the decisions and actions that are taken by people today do not compromise the health, wellbeing, environment and livelihood opportunities of people tomorrow.” (Wan Smolbag, 2013, 3, italics added)
When the United Kingdom gradually began to refocus its attention away from the Pacific in the 1990s, Australia became WSB’s main donor, enabling the purchase of property and expansion of service provision (Interview D). WSB’s core funders today are Australia, New Zealand, and Oxfam, with additional funding coming from other sources such as Japan (Wan Smolbag, 2020b). The Government of Vanuatu, as noted above, has become increasingly involved in providing funding, as in the case of WSB health clinics and supporting the development of communications materials for COVID-19.
Creative media production, including plays, films, TV shows, audio and print materials are not stand-alone features of WSB but cut across and connect their three spheres of focus: health, environment and governance. From WSB’s perspective, key contextual issues they seek to address include: population growth and changing demographics; youth and at-risk groups; peri- urban Settlements; health related issues including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) (Wan Smolbag, 2020b, 4-5). For the purpose of this research, issues examined in more detail were those raised during interviews and include environmental and food issues, especially fisheries resources and management, gender inequality, gender based violence, and access to SRHR services. Since the 12
beginning of 2020, two additional factors with a considerable social impact have come to the fore: the COVID-19 global pandemic,15 and Tropical Cyclone Harold, which hit Vanuatu in April causing widespread damage including to WSB’s own properties (Wan Smolbag, 2020b). This provides some idea of the formidable challenges facing sustained development in the region, not least where it is driven by an entity such as WSB.
WSB’s Edutainment Work
From an academic or theoretical perspective, WSB’s performance work can be seen as falling into two categories of edutainment, both of which serve a valuable purpose and interact in various ways:
1) One-way edutainment: A creative output incorporating an educational social theme/storyline, for example, a play, radio drama or social media video. These pieces are technically based on one-way communication but are deliberately positioned to engage an audience on a social topic identified by the community, and as being of relevance to the community. 2) Two-way edutainment: A creative output incorporating an educational social theme/storyline that also includes a participatory element based on two-way dialogue, such as an after-play discussion, a dialogic educational resource, an associated workshop, or elements of forum theatre, as championed by Augusto Boal (1979). This type of edutainment provides an opportunity for deeper discussion of the issues at hand, leading to sense-making on behalf of the individual and/or wider community,
The latter mode, involving Theatre for Development at grassroots level, will provide the main focus of the research below.
15 The first case of COVID-19 was identified in Vanuatu on 10 November 2020 (Willie, Roberts and Ligo, 2020) 13
Chapter 3: Literature Review
Among the principal sources consulted in this research, Neihapi et al’s (2019) recent work on WSB’s Twist Mo Spin production will be examined in detail in chapter 6 as it relates to overall findings and analysis. Similarly, Ian Gaskell and Robin Taylor (2004 and 2007) have undertaken ethnographic research specifically focused on WSB’s theatrical outputs, as has Rebekah Woodward- Hanna (2014 and 2015), both of which will also be examined more closely in chapter 6. Robyn Drysdale (2014) has conducted targeted and extensive ethnographic research into WSB’s Love Patrol TV series, but as it is not directly participatory, it is not a main focus in this research due to the defined scope.
Just as WSB itself occupies an overlapping space between communication, development and culture, so also it intersects with different aspects of communication models. Edutainment allows for the highlighting of social issues, often in a manner that brings complex, controversial and wider cultural ‘baggage’ to the fore, while operating in challenging or socially resistant contexts. As such, its application in a development context is at minimum an entry point and at best a catalyst through which to encourage and bring about social change. In order to examine WSB’s practice in more detail, it is first necessary to take a step back and look at the wider landscape in which their work is situated.
Communication for Development and Social Change
Analysis of WSB’s practice is informed by the influential works of a number of key figures, most notably, Nora Quebral (1988), Paulo Freire (1970) and Augusto Boal (1979). Contemporary researchers such as Linje Manyozo (2002, 2012) and Thomas Tufte (2004, 2005, 2017) have also provided a large body of work to consult. The diversity in this field is already apparent in 14
the nomenclatures of development communication (DevCom),16 communication for development (ComDev),17 and communication for social change (CFSC).18 While these practices vary in many ways, they share several crossover traits, attesting to what Tufte terms “the different dynamic relations that exist between practices of communication and processes of social change” (Tufte, 2017, 3, italics added). This highlighting of practice and process is crucial to my analysis below, which is further enhanced by Florencia Enghel’s emphasis on the mediation process, and the promotion of dialogue in Communication for Development and Social Change (CFDASC) which she defines as “intentional and strategically organized processes of face-to-face and/or mediated communication aimed at promoting dialogue and action to address inequality, injustice, and insecurity for the common good” (Enghel, 2013, 119, italics added). CFDASC is based on the concepts of engaging and informing, which is why participation is key to the process.
Participatory Communication
The notion of participatory communication stresses the importance of cultural identity of local communities, and democratiation and participation at all levels (Serveas, 1996, 75).
The element of participation is a central point of WSB’s ethos and approach (see Appendix 2). It manifests in the form of concerted two-way/dialogic interactions, inspired by a myriad of twentieth-century recastings of the role of communication in society. Freire’s (1970) concepts of liberating pedagogy, based on empowerment through education by means of dialogic communication approaches and conscientização (awareness-raising), have presided over much of CFDASC. His focus on horizontal communications, which flattens out practice to avoid a top-down, didactic-heavy process,
16 DevCom is considered to be the dominant discourse within this field of research and practice, its origins deriving mainly from the work of Nora Quebral in the Philippines. There is a strong emphasis on individual behaviour change (Tufte, 2017, 13). 17 ComDev emerged from critical perspectives on cultural studies (both European and Latin American), integrating popular culture and recognising the importance of audience sense- making processes, which grew out of reception studies in the 1980s. Tufte explains: “It is also tied to critical studies of globalization, which question the notion of development and argue for stronger post-colonial notions of development” (Tufte, 2017, 13-14). 18 CFSC has become more prominent in the last two decades, excavating “deeper into the relation between communication and empowerment, communication and collective action, and communication and the articulation of critical thinking” (Obregon and Tufte, 2013, 46). 15
provides for a more consultative and shared approach which has led to “a growing recognition of the need to have people define, articulate and lead their own social change processes” (Tufte, 2004, 404). These Freirean elements and focus on process over content, on empowerment over receiving information, are particularly evident in shaping the contours of CFDASC (Tufte, 2017). 19
Augusto Boal directed Freire’s pedagogical ideas of conscientização towards drama to develop Theatre of the Oppressed (1979) and within that forum theatre, a method that works at the local level, in which “people have enacted situations, produced dilemmas on stage and invited audience members not only to suggest solutions, but also to act out how they can be resolved, resulting in a highly empowering process for those involved” (Tufte, 2017, 63). This can be seen as addressing the need of the “subaltern to speak” before it became a key theme introduced by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in postcolonial studies (Spivak, 1988).
Both Freire and Boal’s work were inspired by the earlier work of the radical playwright, Bertolt Brecht, who was a pioneer in the advocacy of two-way communications processes (2006).20 Brecht also prefigured aspects of the concepts underpinning edutainment, encouraging audiences, as he memorably expressed it, ‘not to hang up their brains with their hats when they arrive’ (Unwin, 2005, 22). These innovations see theatre not just as passive entertainment but a more self-conscious interactive process, providing the pleasures and excitement of symbolic re-enactments to prompt new ways of looking at the world as against momentary escapism.
19 Tufte elaborates further, “Rather than being about communicating the correct or relevant information to specific target groups, this becomes about articulating specific processes of collective action and reflection. The communication for social change approach takes many of these issues into account. The central focus is on the empowerment of citizens through their active involvement in the identification of problems, the development of solution strategies and their implementation. This is a dialogic, bottom-up approach to communication and development” (Tufte, 2017, 12-13, italics added). 20 In an astute comment about the potential power of radio, Brecht observed as early as 1927: “The radio would be the finest possible communication apparatus in public life… if it knew how to receive as well as to transmit, how to let the listening speak as well as hear, how to bring him into relationship instead of isolating him. On this principle the radio should step out of the supply business and organise its listeners into suppliers” (Brecht, 2006, 2). 16
Defining Edutainment
The concept of edutainment was originally conceived of as a prescriptive tool to incite individual behaviour change (Tufte, 2005, 173). Writing of the “the history and development of EE as a sub-field of study within communication for development,” Tufte notes that “the first characteristic to highlight is that, in many ways, it has followed the key theoretical and methodological trends from communication for development in general” (Tufte, 2005, 162) – trends outlined in Tufte’s three generations model described in more detail below (Tufte, 2005, 173). In more recent years, however, it has become increasingly directed towards collective and structural changes going beyond individualistic, single-issue models based on product/output (Tufte, 2005, 173). As a working definition, edutainment is primarily described as:
[T]he use of entertainment as a communicative practice crafted to strategically communicate about development issues in a manner and with a purpose that can range from the more narrowly defined social marketing of individual behaviours to the liberating and citizen-driven articulation of social change agendas (Tufte, 2005, 162).
This view notes the shift in the understanding of the notions of entertainment, culture, education and social change based on marketing models to a more expanded field, addressing not only immediate tasks but wider issues and root causes (Tufte, 2005, 163-164).
The origins of edutainment can be found in the work of Miguel Sabido, a Mexican TV producer who revolutionised the medium of soap opera telenovelas to incorporate pressing social issues in an engaging non- threatening manner. While DevCom and ComDev were developing elsewhere in the 1970s and 80s, an Alternative Communication was emerging in Latin America (Tufte, 2017, 14). Notably, Sabido improvised on the canonical Shannon and Weaver “hypodermic” or “transfer model of communications” (1949) in which a message is transmitted unalloyed by a sender in a medium to a receiver, showing instead how linear models of information require adjustment to the cultural exigencies of practice and real life. Sood, Menard, and Witte explain the evolution of Sabido’s model: 17
Sabido (inspired by Rovigatti) took the five basic factors in Shannon and Weaver’s (1949) communication model (the communicator, message, medium, receiver, and noise) and arranged these factors in a circular model in which factors could interact directly with one another, resulting in communication effects. This novel conceptualization of communication effects allowed Sabido to design complex, multilayered telenovelas (Sood, Menard, and Witte, 2004, 124).
What Shannon and Weaver consider ‘noise’ or interference on the medium was primarily conceived in physical, technical terms, but if reconsidered as a modification of the message in a cultural context, it becomes central to the notions of mediation or process – crucial factors in producing, not just transmitting messages. An interesting, and I would argue healthy, tension thus exists within edutainment: without education or a didactic element, there is no information/message to be imparted/transmitted, but without entertainment or viewing pleasure, that information/message may not be received. It is in the process of negotiating these tensions in a TfD context that a grassroots organisation such as WSB derives much of its cultural energies.
Models of Edutainment
As discussed above, an emergent trend in development-focused communication has been the primacy of dialogic as against monologic approaches, in which the participatory programmes of Freire, Boal and Quebral have taken precedence over previous social marketing-type models. If a dialogic approach is adopted, it is appropriate then to ask who is in this dialogue and what is its potential to bring about change? The components of Tufte’s Three Generations of Entertainment-Education (2005)21 are instructive in tracing this shift in emphasis but it is important to note the generations are not independent of, or at the expense of, each other, with much crossover according to their spheres of operation. As Tufte formulates the evolving models: A categorisation of the different approaches to EE, suggesting three generations of EE-communication; from the social marketing strategies
21 Modified in his 2017 book, Communication and Social Change, A Citizen Perspective as Three Generations of Communication for Development (Tufte, 2017, 17). 18
which marked early experiences and continue to exist as a widespread approach, over the more interdisciplinary strategies linking diffusion and marketing with some degree of participation, to the transdisciplinary third generation of approaches. This third category is explicitly oriented toward identification of social problems, power inequalities and their root causes, most often enhancing collective action and structural change (Tufte, 2005, 161, italics added).
With regard to the sphere of operation, Tufte points out that, “The key distinguishing feature lies in varying definitions of the problem to be addressed.” He adds, “Social marketing strategies define the key problem as a lack of information, while the second and third generations of EE define the problem as societal problems such as structural inequality and unequal power relations” (Tufte, 2005, 163). This important observation is reiterated by Tufte in his later work (2017), as identifying the issue involves not just immediate problem-solving but investigation of root causes and wider social concerns.22 As will be seen below in the case of WSB, while imparting much needed knowledge related to development issues, the technical information is embedded in social practices, which raise questions of agency and decision making within communities.
On Tufte’s generational schema, strategies derived from social marketing aimed at behaviour change without cultural mediation, without taking understanding and awareness into account, are thus confined largely to measurable behaviour outcomes. By contrast, edutainment conceived in third generation terms involves “drama and role theories in relation to how people script/enact their own lives,” drawing on wider ‘contextual theories’ concerning culture as ‘a way of life’ (Obregon and Tufte, 2013, 34, 55). Narrative, drama and fiction (the components of edutainment) empower communities in enabling their “writing the world” in Freire’s sense, that is, in helping to determine and organise one’s own stories in negotiating one’s own life-world (Hemer, 2005, 82). Narrative and performance ensure that instead of focusing
22 According to Tufte, “It is the way the problem is defined that determines the nature of and need for the communication response. If the problem is defined as an information problem the response will obviously be information dissemination [Generation 1]. However, if the problem is of a more complex nature, referring to the underlying causes that influence behaviour, norms and values, then a whole different set of communication strategies evolves. It is thus the nature of the development problem to which they seek to respond that defines the core difference between the generations” (Tufte, 2017, 16-17). 19 just on behaviour (which can be engineered through “persuasive” techniques), community dialogue and exchange are crucial elements. As will be shown in the analysis section, this is particularly true when theatre performances are staged in the context of pre- and post-workshopping, alongside Q&A sessions with audiences.
Setting the Stage for WSB’s Theatre Practice
While WSB’s edutainment focused works spans many genres and mediums, including radio, film, TV and dance, the focus of this research is their theatre work, which comes under the umbrella term ‘Applied Theatre’, defined by James Thompson as: Applied theatre can be understood as a theatre practice with an explicit intent. It acts deliberately within institutions, with certain communities on particular issues. It translates, adapts and transforms theatre processes so they work with, upon, between and against... The application creates a friction that is the source of the energy or heat that forms the marks on and the bonds between people (2012, 174 italics added).
Theatre for Development (TfD) is a methodology within applied theatre identified by Tim Prentki as “a tool used by development agencies for improving the quality of life among vulnerable populations. TfD uses fiction and the ‘safe space’ of performance to comment on reality and offer alternatives. The medium offers the opportunity to explore roles that would normally be denied in real life and to explore a community’s developmental aspirations” (Prentki 1998 as summarised by Crossley et al 2019). The 1960s and 1970s, saw theatre used actively as a tool for international community development as a result of an increased focus on participatory practices to address top-down, information-transfer practices (Manyozo 2002 and 2012, Kamlongera 2005 and Sloman 2012). This speaks to a concerted effort to shift the balance of power to communities, which resulted in empowerment approaches that “represented an alternative, grassroots approach to development” (Sloman, 2012, 43).
20
Within TfD, various strands of categorisation exist, each encompassing different core principles and emphasis.23 As Crossley summarises, “there are not always clear delineations between such fields as community theatre or theatre for development, with practitioners and theorists applying terms as they deem them appropriate in different contexts” (Crossley, 2019, 212). TfD, according to Prentki (1998) “is one of the most effective ways of ensuring that objectives are owned by communities through genuine participation and have a strong chance of sustainability by transforming development objectives into self-development objectives” (Prentki, 1998, 421). But what is meant by participation in this context? As alluded to above, Boal (1979) took inspiration from Freire’s liberating pedagogy (1970) and theories to develop the concept of the ‘spec-actor’, involving the audience in the play, making it participatory in the imaginative sense of teasing out and, to an extent, ‘completing’ the narrative action through improvisation. Conceptual differences notwithstanding, Sloman (2012), Woodward-Hanna (2014)24 and Thompson (2009) have argued that community or audience spec-actor participation in the play is not the only way to define participatory theatre. What is now commonly known as Boalian methodologies (1979) have created a “mistaken hierarchy” that tends to exclude pre-scripted, narrative plays (Thompson, 2009, 3), or professionally acted performances. Sloman usefully outlines the range of possibilities within this category: Theatre can be participatory in numerous ways. It can be directly made with a community to explore issues and topics that are related to their lives. It can be discussion theatre, where the audience is encouraged to have active discussions about elements of a theatre piece during or after the theatre performance. It can be forum theatre, where the audience is invited to enter the action of the theatre, to change or challenge what is happening in the story (2012, 46 italics added)
This expansion of what participatory means allows different measures of intervention in TfD, according to the particular circumstances and resources
23 This includes but is not limited to theatre in education, educational theatre, educational drama, drama in education, community theatre, theatre for conscientization, theatre for social change and community theatre. 24 In her 2014 article, A Patchwork of Participation: Wan Smolbag Theatres Big Plays in Vanuatu, which will be returned to in more detail in the findings chapter, Woodward-Hanna “challenges the process-oriented definition of participatory theatre advocated by Boal in the context of Theatre for Development” (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 240). 21
available within communities. There is recognition that consistently engaging with, consulting with, and responding to the community and audience constitutes meaningful participation and can be seen to rebalance one-way transactions, recalibrating power and creative content decisions. Woodward- Hanna (2014) adds that Boal’s rigid perception of what qualifies as participatory needs to instead “extend beyond one theatrical format and include the cultural sensibilities of local audiences” (2014, 227), that is, where they are coming from as well, and what resources they have to hand. This broader conceptualisation of the participatory approach echoes Freire’s pedagogical emphasis on conscientisation as a process to help people identify both problems and solutions (1979). As Manyozo writes of TfD, “theatre becomes a discourse and a forum through which local people critically analyse development issues, linking effects to causes, thereby attaining mental liberation or conscientisation in the Freirean praxis” (2012, 42).
Manyozo elaborates that “participatory communication is a major strategy towards community (and stakeholder) engagement that is based on dialogue, respect, for local knowledge and collective decision-making” (2012, 155). In these circumstances, mediation itself involves facilitation, personnel with skilled cultural and communications repertoires to take account of site-specific nuances: hence the “participant-facilitator who motivates communities to unpack complex development conundrums. The communicative facilitator ideally understands the praxis of living with the people if they are to effectively help communities to speak and unspeak their world.” (Freire, 1996 in Manyozo, 2012, 156). As the analysis chapter will illuminate further, this ‘speaks’ to the core of WSB’s practice and ethos.
The elements that link the definitions of CFDASC, Edutainment and TfD are the intent and the participatory/dialogic nature of the processes. Likewise it is these elements that inform and drive WSB’s approach and body of work. The key components integrated in the theoretical framework underpinning this research and explained in more detail in the next chapter include culture, communication and development. As communication has been addressed in 22
some detail in this chapter, a short overview of the key theories related to development and culture considered in this research will now follow.
From Development to Post-Development
How one interprets development communication depends on how development itself is understood (Quebral, 1988).25 Development has become a contested term during the 70 years or so in which it has moved away from evolutionary schemes following Western models of progress and modernisation (McEwan, 2018, Tufte 2017). As illustrated by Cheryl McEwan (2018), development was at one time seen mainly in economic terms of growth, industrialisation, and urbanism, and while addressing political issues of democracy, literacy and secularization, was not primarily concerned with ‘non-material’ areas such as human rights, equality or social justice (though, of course, these are inextricable from material resources).26 The fundamental critique of this discourse centred on “its narrow focus on economic growth and the centrality of market logic, its lack of concern for social consequence and its lack of long-term considerations of sustainability” (Tufte, 2017, 25). By way of contrast to this, Amartya Sen developed the ‘capabilities approach’ defining development “as a process of expanding the real freedoms that people enjoy” (Sen, 1999, 293). Tufte notes Sen’s approach is characterised by four elements: “first, development is understood as a process, not an outcome; second, it focuses on freedom of choice in all spheres – the personal, social, economic and political; third, it puts people at the centre of development; and, fourth, people themselves define what they value” (Tufte, 2017, 28). As will be illustrated, much of this speaks to the way in which WSB operates.
25 Manyozo writes of Quebral’s argument, “development communication is ‘coloured’ more by how we define development, which is ‘the stronger principle in the tandem’ to the extent that, when the definition of development changes, the ‘definition of development communication also changes’” (Quebral, 1988 in Manyozo, 2012, 49). 26 Development has seen many guises, as McEwan summarises: “In development studies, development has been defined as the use of resources to relieve poverty and improve the standard of living of a nation. It is often thought of as the means through which a traditional, low-technology society is changed into a modern, high-technology society, with a corresponding increase in incomes. This is a notion of intentional practice in developing countries … it is also underpinned by the idea of an immanent (evolutionary) process, rooted problematically in western understandings of progress and modernization” (McEwan, 2018, 16). 23
In seeking out more participatory models of development, Manyozo notes, “modernisation strategies have perceived poverty and underdevelopment as immediate upshots of backward traditional practices in much of the global south. As a consequence, community engagement, has been structured within integrated rural development programs, and incorporates external, donor-driven and co-opted praxes of participation and consultation. Participatory development has, in contrast, emphasised the heteroglossia of voices” (Manyozo, 2012, 154). It is worth reflecting on this, since ‘backward’ was invariably seen as the local cultural barriers development agencies had to contend with, grassroots ‘noise’, as it were, on the information channel. By contrast, participatory methods have been “renewed in the context of the post- development development paradigm” (Tufte, 2017, 12) proposed by Arturo Escobar (1995), which asserts encouraging and enabling grassroots entities and local communities to use traditional knowledge rooted in local identities to address and engage with new problems that require structural and societal change. As a self-defined grassroots organisation, the emphasis on acknowledging, incorporating and reflecting cultures on the ground is crucial to WSB’s approach. This offers “new ways of thinking about development – of what it is, what it does and what it might do. It also allows us to reconsider the practice of doing development” (McEwan, 2018, 323).
Building on Escobar and McEwan, Mohan Dutta contends that “development is the very site of articulation and contestation in culturally centred social change communication” which sees “grassroots-driven rationalities of development emerging form the margins offering decolonial imaginaries of/for development as modernity” (Dutta, 2018, 89). ‘Imaginaries’ can be understood as cultural processes – narratives, symbolic practices, performances, representations – and ‘modernity’ can be taken to mean participation in the world system or wider global economy, not as a source of extraction but as a constituent in discourses of human rights, agency and empowerment.
By definition, TfD is a relational concept, making connection with wider international concerns (human rights, gender equality, ecology, civic literacy, economic well being) but in a manner that empowers and enhances the 24
lifeworlds of communities, cultivating dialogue and participation between ‘internal’ and ‘external’ forces. Prentki argues that participatory TfD “can be facilitated by external agencies but it must be owned by the community if it is to be a valid tool in assisting sustainable self-development” (1998, 422). Sloman adds that a key part of TfD’s success “is an understanding and desire from the funding agency for something more than just dispersing public education messages” (2012, 51).
Manyozo (2002) maintains that when theatre comes entirely from within the community, it is less didactic and may function purely as entertainment when dissociated from ritual. In a development context, an external source requires an instructional or educational intervention, and entertainment to make it appealing to audiences (Manyozo, 2002, 57). This is, of course, a spectrum with education and entertainment blended to different degrees, as is the combination of internal and external forces and modes of address.
From Aesthetics to Anthropology
WSB’s emphasis on culture and sense-making points to the role of culture in development as connecting artistic form (designed to enhance aesthetic pleasure or entertainment) to culture as a whole ‘way of life’ (Williams, 1960, xiv; Obregon and Tufte, 2013, 56). To an extent, this echoes changes in the concept of culture itself, as in Raymond Williams’ influential extension of the idea of culture from more narrowly defined artistic or aesthetic activities – ‘the general body of the arts‘ – to wider anthropological understandings of culture as ‘a whole way of life, material, intellectual and spiritual’ (Williams, 1960). Williams is careful to point out that culture is not society as such, but the ‘signifying systems/practices’ (mostly, but not always, representations) through which people make sense of diverse activities: “richer culture-driven communication perspectives... [enable] individuals and collectives to make sense of their own realities, create and circulate meanings” with a view to acting on them (Obregon and Tufte, 2013, 35, italics added).
25
In these framing perspectives, understanding culture’s dynamic role as mediating between structure and agency underlines the need for reciprocity, for listening and telling as active parts of the same conversation, and for sense-making as agency, a catalyst for action and change. In contrast to local culture as ‘noise’, tradition is re-purposed in the interests of empowerment rather than as a barrier to development. Considering cultural traditions primarily in terms of barriers carries with it the danger that the connective tissue of a community might dissolve, leaving it with little cultural resources to mobilise its energies and realise its potential. Some traditional practices may have to be questioned, of course, for there is no espousal of nativism, but a holistic view, encouraged by third generation approaches (Tufte 2005 and 2017) ensures it is not the culture itself that is being called into question but factors that prevent empowerment and engagement with both communication and development agencies.
It is in this sense, as will become apparent in what follows, that WSB harnesses tradition and culture as resources, mediating the contact between internal and external forces, and the local and the global. There is an emphasis on the process as much as the result, which will be explored in more detail in the analysis section that follows. In the most important sense, this requires that local audiences bring as much to the performances of professional groups such as WSB, as the players and the agencies bring to them: they do not have just a walk on part, but speaking and acting parts in their own lives. As will be shown below, this does not happen as a matter of course but has to be carefully planned in advance, which is where the professionalism, community trust and track record of the theatre group comes to the fore. The aesthetic structure of the works, the source of their appeal or entertainment value, also comes into play, allowing for stage design, scripts, character acting and plot structures to sufficiently open to invite imaginative participation on the part of the audiences, and to prepare the ground for post- performance activities, ensuring they are not just ‘tacked-on’ but integral to this particular mode of TfD. As Sloman notes, “Participatory theatre is made for and by the community. It engages people to identify issues of concern, analyse and then together think about how change can happen, and 26
particularly how relationships of power and oppression can be transformed.” (Sloman, 2012, 44).
TfD aimed at social change in this context can thus be seen as effecting a shift from anthropology to agency, seeing grassroots culture less as an ‘other’ or source of barriers to be surmounted, than as a set of cultural resources and societal capabilities to improve conditions for communities. Ahmed (2002) and Prentki (1998) have rightly drawn attention to the danger that NGO led development initiatives might lead to paternalistic forms of dependency, but it is clear that the forms of ‘intervention’ always involves stepping back from, or outside, existing circumstances, in order to change them whether from without or within (including more overtly political forms associated with Freire and Boal). The key considerations here are ‘grassroots’ and ‘sustainability,’ both of which presuppose participation and roots in diverse communities over extended periods, which researchers have repeatedly attended to in the case of WSB. More pointedly, local narratives and foundational myths are drawn upon in WSB performances to anchor stories in communities. 27
Chapter 4: Theoretical Framework
As elucidated in the introduction and literature review, the key concepts of consideration for this CFDASC driven research include culture, communication, and development. For the purposes of this study: • Communication is defined as a dialogic and participatory process involving those most marginalised and based on the ideals of liberating pedagogy espoused by Paulo Freire (1979). • Culture is this sense is deliberately defined ‘as way of life’ in the guise of Raymond Williams (1960) writing while also taking into account the need to reflect and represents ones cultural reality. • Development is defined in line with a post-development (Escobar, 1995) that prioritises a culture centred approach and integrates subaltern voices to amplify the identification of issues and solutions. • Edutainment is defined in Thomas Tufte’s terms as a mediated practice of educationally informed entertainment to effect social change (2005). • And lastly, as a subset of edutainment, TfD is defined as a development tool used to explore and critically reflect ones own reality (Prentki, 1998 and Crossley et al 2019).
In conceptualising a theoretical framework for this research project, it became evident that the process and practice of edutainment, and within that TfD, sits at the intersection of where communication, culture and development, overlap. What also became evident was that while edutainment is a mediating practice (Tufte, 2005 and 2017), it is itself the product of mediated processes involving several other fields. The following schema (Fig.1) illustrates how the overlap/convergence of these fields produces the process of edutainment and within that TfD. Furthermore, the visualisation goes someway to show that the additional intersections produced across the three fields are also processes that inform edutainment and TfD:
28
Fig 1. This schema illustrates how the intersection of communication, culture and development has the potential to result in edutainment, in particular Theatre for Development. Source: Designed and produced by author, L Gibbons, 2020.
The schema thus works as a multi-lens filter through which the central concepts of edutainment and TfD can be examined. However, the three additional overlaps presented in this model are also integral, as they are in many ways core contributors to the process of edutainment. Furthermore, teasing out these overlaps leads to more understanding of the strands and components that come together to create edutainment and TfD. The interactions draw on research around participation, narrative, representation, voice and agency and examines how WSB integrates these elements into their approach, both in terms of edutainment and more widely. In line with postcolonial theories of enabling the subaltern to speak (Spivak, 1988 and McEwan, 2018), participatory edutainment approaches facilitate the right/ability to problematise issues in ones own sphere, instead of being 29
dictated to from the outside (Sloman 2012). Sense-making can’t happen without dialogue and cultural interaction being taken into consideration.
Using the theories and concepts represented in the above schema as a filter, this research aims to examine how WSB’s use of edutainment and TfD, building on and incorporating culture, communication and development leads to processes of, and ultimately the realisation, of social change. As such, the model posited above to illustrate the key theoretical framework of this study, shows that edutainment and TfD not only sits in the overlap or convergence of these three areas but as I will go on to show, requires all three areas to ensure its success. 30
Chapter 5: Methodology
As alluded to already, WSB was selected as the focus of the research due to its status as one of the few NGOs in the Pacific utilising edutainment in different forms such as TfD as a communications practice. The size and long established presence of WSB further adds to the rationale and justification of its selection. With that in mind, qualitative analysis in the form of a case study of WSB, focusing on their participatory theatre work, was identified as the appropriate methodology for this research. Three methodological approaches were utilised to undertake the case study: semi-structured interviews with key individuals, critical discourse analysis of grey literature and textual analysis of particular WSB plays.
According to Joachim K. Blatter, “A case study is a research approach in which one or a few instances of a phenomenon are studied in depth” (Blatter, 2008*).27 As such, it is important to note the examples of WSB’s work highlighted in these pages are used for the purpose of informing the case study on edutainment as opposed to attempting to encapsulate or speak to the totality of WSB’s wide body of work. Blatter adds: “The quality of a case study, thus, does not depend on providing detailed evidence for every step of a causal chain; rather, it depends on a skilful use of empirical evidence for making a convincing argument within a scholarly discourse that consists of competing or complementary theories” (Ibid).
In keeping with a standard case study, elements of WSB’s evolution and history and institutional make-up are included in order to provide important context. As Blatter attests, “Case studies are much better suited than large-N studies for tracing these ideas because they can invest heavily in in-depth interviews or discourse analysis” (Ibid). Content from interviews conducted
27 *Due to the way in which the PDF chapters from The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods are downloaded from the link provided on Canvas, it is not possible to decipher exact pages numbers when referencing direct quotes from the encyclopedia entries. The PDFs themselves include the following disclaimer: “Please note that the pagination of the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.” An asterisk on future references throughout the following pages will denote citations from this same publication. 31 and discourse analysis undertaken formed the basis of two data sets referred to in the ensuing analysis, and described in more detail below.
Semi-structured Interviews
In conducting interviews I hoped to garner insights informed by individuals both internal and external of WSB. As Tracie Costantino (2008*) notes, when interviewing for data generation “the researcher aims to understand a phenomenon from the perspective of those experiencing it. The researcher's understanding is co-constructed with that of the participants through their mutual interaction within the research setting and dialogic interaction through researcher-initiated data generation efforts such as interviewing” (Costantino 2008*). Given the limited parameters in terms of geographic proximity and the defined focus of this study as set out in previous pages, a sample of interviews rich in qualitative insights was considered sufficient to tease out and examine the main points at the centre of this research, consistent with Costantino’s points that: A phenomenological methodology is especially common in interview studies in the constructivism paradigm as the researcher asks participants to reflect on their experience of a phenomenon and describe what was essentially meaningful to them. Through this reflection, both the researcher and participant gain insight, or construct knowledge, about the experience (Costantino, 2008*).
This construction of knowledge contributes to addressing and answering the main research question attached to this study.
Selection of Interviewees
The selection of interview participants was an important step in this research process. A cross section of perspectives was sought in order to examine WSB’s work from a number of disparate angles. Internal WSB subjects were important to understand in more detail the inner workings of the organisation. As such, the founders of WSB were interviewed to illustrate the origins and evolution of WSB. Given the small sample of internal WSB interview subjects, the danger of bias is necessary to consider.
32
In contrast to the internal WSB interviewees, subjects external to WSB but with working knowledge of the organisation were important to provide independent, and potentially counter, perceptions and insights. A concerted effort was made to interview external WSB subjects that were from Vanuatu and who could speak to both the local and cultural resonances of WSB’s activity. Some of these subjects also had the advantage of working alongside WSB meaning they could also speak to the operational side of activity too.
Originally from Canada, Dan McGarry, is a Vanuatu-based independent journalist. Dan has reviewed and reported on much of WSB’s work and has detailed observational knowledge of the organisation and its reception in the community. Rebecca Olul is from Vanuatu and works as a communications officer in UNICEF Pacific’s field office in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Olul is currently working with WSB on COVID-19 programming and has wider familiarity with WSB’s work. Dirk Steenbergen is a senior research fellow at Wollongong University and worked closely with Pita Neihapi and Ada Sokach, from the Pathways Project within the Vanuatu Fisheries Department, alongside WSB to create Twist Mo Spin a play and accompanying workshop, which will be discussed in more detail in chapter 6. Ada also had acted previously in WSB’s radio dramas thus enabling her to speak in more detail from a grassroots perspective to WSB’s approach and methodologies. Attempts to make contact with present day actors proved unsuccessful due to logistic and mastery of English language difficulties. It is important to note that elements of bias might also have featured here, due to the fact that they are paid employees of WSB, potentially influencing answers provided.
Interview Details
A long-list of interview subjects was initially created, keeping in mind the desire to achieve a cross section of participants, and initial requests were sent to subjects via email. Based on responses and availability, five in-depth interviews involving six individuals were conducted, covering both internal WSB subjects and external individuals familiar with their work. Additional responses and expansion of points were also received via email. Communication with the interview subjects took place by email and 33
WhatsApp. The interviews were conducted via WhatsApp voice call and Zoom. Precise details of the interviews are captured in the following table:
Shorthand Name Details Date Duration Recorded Interview Dan Vanuatu-based 7 July 53 mins Yes A McGarry independent 2020 journalist. Interview Rebecca Communications 15 July 47 mins Yes B Olul officer, UNICEF 2020 Pacific. Interview Peter Co-founder and 15 July N/A Email C Walker director, Wan 2020 Smolbag. Interview Peter Co-founders of 28 July 1 hour Yes D Walker (D1) Wan Smolbag. Jo 2020 14 mins & Jo Dorras is the main writer (D2) and Peter is the director. Interview E Dirk Senior research 25 Nov 55 mins Yes Steenberge fellow, University of 2020 n Wollongong, Australia. Interview F Pita Neihapi Pita is a Fisheries 2 Dec 48 mins Yes (F1) and Officer and 2020 Ada Sokach Ada is a Senior (F2) Fisheries Biologist both with the Vanuatu Fisheries Department.
Questions for each interview subject were developed in order to ensure certain points were covered in the interview. In all cases, though structured, the interview was more informal in nature to avoid interrupting the flow of the conversation. For the most part, the previously drafted questions had arisen organically as part of the discussion. All interview participants were informed of the purpose of the research and agreed to answer questions. Written consent was obtained from each of the interviewees and each was offered the option of remaining anonymous. Each person gave permission for his or her names and positions to be used in this research. Each interview was also transcribed in full to allow for comprehensive analysis and as an archival resource.
34
In summary, the interviews produced rich content from varied perspectives that informed the analysis with substantive findings, both confirming and challenging arguments drawn on in the academic literature. Of the many issues that WSB is engaged with, a decision was made to focus on themes and issues that arose during the interviews such as SRHR, gender based violence and issues associated with fisheries.
Critical Discourse Analysis of Selected Materials
Csilla Weninger (2008*) defines critical discourse analysis as a “methodological framework… that centres on the qualitative linguistic analysis of spoken or written texts”. This method was utilised to formulate context and a foundational store of knowledge on WSB’s edutainment-focused activity. The writings of Norman Fairclough also informed this research track, given his focus on this particular method (Fairclough, 1993 and 2010). Materials considered and analysed included grey literature and content produced by WSB, a list of which can be found in Appendix 1. In considering the interpretation of texts, the analysis is mindful of Julianne Cheek’s (2008*) caution, drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, that “any text will only ever convey and produce a partial perspective of the reality being presented. The image of an object represented in a text is formed according to the frame or focus that shapes what is to be seen. This formation challenges the notion that texts are neutral and value-free receptacles, or simply conveyors, of information” (Cheek, 2008*).
Textual Analysis of Selected WSB Materials
Lockyer describes textual analysis as interrogating and deconstructing texts with a view to examining “how they operate, the manner in which they are constructed, the ways in which meanings are produced, and the nature of those meanings” (Lockyer, 2008*). Through research and interviews, a number of plays were mentioned of which ethnographic research had been undertaken (detailed in chapter 6). In order to draw out further insights relevant to this research, the detailed descriptions of the plays in question were analysed further, with examples drawn out to illustrate selected points. It 35
is acknowledged that a limitation of this textual analysis is that the author has not seen the plays in question.
Ethical Concerns
When approaching this kind of research, it is important to consider any ethical ramifications of the work. In addition to the ethical concerns related to interview consent and anonymity outlined above, a further ethical consideration to disclose is my own previous employment with UNICEF Pacific (based in Suva, Fiji) from 2015-2016. This brought me in contact with Rebecca Olul (Interview B), who worked with the organisation, and whose expertise is of considerable value.
Limitations and Constraints
The ultimate sample size garnered for this research while qualitatively rich is a limitation for this work and limits the generalisations that can be made about the findings that emerged. Repeated efforts over many months were made to schedule interviews with members of the core group of WSB actors, but as noted due to availability constraints and language barriers interviews could not be conducted. While insights from interviews with the actors would be informative, in-person observation of the actors conducting after-play discussions would be required to enhance this research, and indeed following a production through the various phases of evolution, would have been of great value. Ethnographic research was not possible within the scope of this degree project. Likewise, in a study with a wider scope, perspectives from community members and donors would also help to deepen the understanding and context of how WSB operates in Vanuatu.
In terms of the researches own parameters, the main limitations and challenges arose as a result of the 11-hour time difference between Ireland and Vanuatu. An earlier concern about technological challenges in conducting the interviews proved to be unfounded, with WhatsApp and Zoom both working well in each instance. 36
As a white female from the Global North (Ireland), I was mindful throughout this research of the personal opinions and lived experience that I brought to the research process. My professional background in international development and familiarity with the Pacific region, having lived and worked in Fiji (working with UNICEF Pacific) and visiting Vanuatu in a professional capacity, provided a useful grounding for this endeavour. However, I was cautious not to let this familiarity or potential bias influence or jeopardise the interviews, or the overall analysis of the findings. 37
Chapter 6: WSB in Practice – A Critical Analysis
For urban people at least, [Wan Smolbag] are maybe a third model, neither a village-centred theatre for development model nor solely a group of travelling players but a kind of cultural industry and employment opportunity for those whom school has rejected. As [Wan Smolbag] tend to use arts for social issues, people pick up some valuable knowledge and understanding of deeper social issues too (Interview C, italics added).
This analysis sets out to examine the institutional dynamics of the ‘cultural industry’ that is WSB. Furthermore, it will examine how culture, communication and development intersect to create edutainment, with specific reference to WSB’s participatory theatre work as an instructive example of TfD. Primary research, combined with findings drawn from available ethnographic work, critical discourse analysis based on WSB grey literature and textual analysis based on specific productions (listed in Appendix 1), allows for an informed critical study of WSB’s participatory practice in this light. The analysis will critically examine the form, content, and approaches of WSB, in order to identify the ‘DNA’, as it were, of the organisation in relation to the principles, values and processes of grassroots participatory theatre as a mode of edutainment.
The focus will be on one recent production, Twist Mo Spin (2019), basing the analysis on in depth interviews with some of the main figures involved in its production, as well as academic literature dealing with the play. Two other plays, Something for Nothing (2002) and Zero Balans (2011), will also be examined in lesser detail due to limited existing literature, to broaden the discussion, and to add some elements that may not have arisen in the main sustained discussion of Twist Mo Spin. In the course of examining these works, relevant issues will be teased out, drawing on additional in-depth interviews (details outlined in chapter 5) to contextualize or extend the range of the discussion, and to provide an understanding of the complexities of participatory TfD in this context.
38
Play 1: Twist Mo Spin (2019)
Promotional material for Twist Mo Spin’s Community Tour 2019-2020. The poster is in English due to its reproduction in an academic article for The Pacific Community (SPC) (Neihapi et al, 2019). Photo credit: Paul Jones (2019) and Poster design: Kristel Steenbergen, Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia. 39
Context
Twist Mo Spin,28 a reference in the local lingua franca (Bislama) to the twisting and spinning of dolphins, is a drama and interactive workshop devised in collaboration between WSB and the Vanuatu Fisheries Department (VFD) (under their Australian government-funded ‘Pathways Project’), with funding support from SwedBio, a Swedish conservation and development fund (Neihapi et al, 2019). The Blue Economy and coastal fisheries management related issues are ever-present for island communities across the Pacific, due to increasing pressures on marine stocks and habitats with impacts being felt both at sea and on land (Interview D1, D2, E, F1 and F2). Issues such as population growth, market expansion and the impact of climate change are leading to noticeable reductions in production and creating knock-on economic and social effects for communities (Ibid).
To address these issues, VFD sought to explore new ways to connect with communities across Vanuatu to communicate the importance of the sustainable management of coastal fisheries to rural people on the islands, rooted in the principles of community-based fisheries management (CBFM)29 (Interview E and F1). VFD were aware that effective communication would be a crucial part of this planned engagement and were eager to explore innovative approaches and solutions (Interview F1). Low literacy rates and limited access to television and radio also contributed to strategic considerations around the mode of communication, suggesting theatre as a particularly appropriate format. This in turn lead to the partnership with WSB based on their long established grassroots presence in Vanuatu, their focus on community responsive social engagement, and their highly trained staff (Interview F2).
The issue of fishing practices is clearly identifiable as a development issue given its connection to nutrition, livelihoods and the environment. However –
28 Interviews with several key informants (Neihapi, Sokach and Steenbergen) connected to the production provided details and background on the process and rollout of the play. 29 “CBFM refers to a management system under which communities take a leading role in managing fisheries and adjacent coastal areas in partnership with, or with support from, a promoting agency” (Pacific Community, 2010, 2) 40 and this a key to understanding many development issues – fishing is not a stand alone activity, and related issues come to the fore very quickly including pre/post-fishing activities, power relations, trade, management, entrenched gender roles, not to mention wider ecological issues. Notwithstanding the importance of technical information, vertical one-way information transmission is not the sole solution or remedy to address these wider issues. As such, a more holistic approach (Tufte, 2005 and 2017) is needed both in terms of identifying issues and solutions that acknowledge the external and internal social dynamics at play. The collaborative project sought to convey critical messages around fish-based nutrition, livelihoods, and inclusive decision- making, but as Neihapi cautioned, “Information must be tailored to the public in a way that is understandable” (Interview F1).
Drama and performance thus mark an entry point in WSB’s strategic practice to address and confront social issues across a range of topics, extending beyond fisheries management. Tackling harmful social norms such as gender-based violence or lack of access to SRHR services, can be complex, involving multiple influences of culture, religion, information, service provision and, most importantly, agency. As Walker notes:
Whilst a message may be straightforward on some topics, it certainly won’t help you unwrap more fraught issues like gender violence. We can say it is wrong but when a significant percentage of a community doesn’t think it is, it won’t get you very far. Perhaps this is one of the strengths of drama live, or on film, that it tells stories and can give some sense of the difficulties and also make it easier for a community to discuss because it’s not so personal, it’s about these people in the story. And yet having said that, people can choose to make it personal and own, or identify with, the experience shown (Interview C).
It is possible to see from this how crude binaries of external and internal, sender and receiver, are contested, for while the community’s views may be challenged at one level, the capacity of stories to provide new perspectives in communal terms, and to elicit agency and change from within, enables people to own, or identify with, the experience shown in the film or play. Neihapi underlines this by adding, “WSB have a way of presenting issues that is accepted by the community. People in the community can really relate to it” 41
(Interview F1). As such, pre-testing and work-shopping the content is as important as Q&As or discussions afterwards to ensure it will resonate appropriately with the desired audience.
A Heteroglossia of Voices
Wan Smolbag actors performing Twist Mo Spin as a community audience watches on. Photo credit: Paul Jones (2019), Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia.
The development of Twist Mo Spin was a collaborative and iterative process by which staff from VFD, provided technical guidance on coastal fisheries management while WSB took the lead on creative aspects devising the storyline (Interview E). This speaks to the previously referenced healthy tension in edutainment; between the information to be communicated and the reciprocal cultural codes that entertainment requires to be effective. A critical additional layer of collaboration concerns consultation and dialogue with communities, which will be returned to below. The many layers of reciprocal cooperation illustrated in this example speaks to Manyozo’s point about participatory development emphasising “a heteroglossia of voices” and a consensus by committee type model (Manyozo, 2012, 154).
42
The plot of the Twist Mo Spin is centred around a young couple, Lyn and Jason, who upon returning to live in Jason’s village find themselves falling into familiar masculine roles (Jason), or having to adapt to societal and family pressures, particularly around motherhood (Lyn) (Neihapi et al, 2019). The story is not just structured in narrative form but also draws on fairytale and folklore elements common to local folktales, to increase communal identification. Sokach underlines that this theatrical device, immediately helps to situate the context and relevance to the audience in question – a familiar shorthand of sorts (Interview F2). WSB practices what it preaches, and though technical issues may be involved, they also rely on the affective nature of the production, utilising humour and sadness that establish an emotional connection to the characters and story lines (Interview F1 and F2).
These narrative techniques provides the backdrop for the local community’s struggles in dealing with declines in fisheries as a result of over-fishing, climate change and population growth. The content of the play also reflected the realities of fishing communities in Vanuatu, in that fishing is not just what happens at sea. Themes of family and community expectations, tensions and pressures are played out, with blame often coming to the fore as a social response. The play ends with the actors portraying community members embroiled in a heated debate during a community fisheries meeting, at which point an open-ended question is posed about what the real community (the audience) wants for the future and what they need in order to achieve it (Neihapi et al, 2019). Sokach explains that the play helps to set the scene for the subsequent discussion as the audience is then led into an interactive and participatory community workshop to start thinking more deeply about how issues raised in the play manifest in their own lives, for example drivers of ocean degradation and working together to better manage resources (Interview F2).
Twist Mo Spin was devised as a touring play and therefore had to be relevant to as many communities and contexts as possible. With that in mind, WSB staff including scriptwriter Jo Dorras joined VDF on field visits to project sites in different location settings. Here they observed the communities in their day- 43
to-day interactions, while learning directly from the community about how fisheries impacts on their lives, in an effort to draw out these experiences within the play (Interviews E, F1 and F2). Likewise, during rehearsals, more changes were made to the script following inputs from VFD and the actors performing the piece (Interview E). This exemplifies the systematic dialogical approach in which WSB invites community participation and then ensures that it is meaningfully reflected in the end result.
A key to WSB’s embedding, and developing appropriate cultural nuances, is the commitment to using Bislama, a Pidgin English that is the lingua franca of Vanuatu. Jo Dorras’s mastery of the language, her ability to wear Bislama like a ‘second skin,’ is central to this, as local independent journalist Dan McGarry acknowledges:
The quality of the work is astonishing. It’s very difficult for people that don't speak Bislama to understand just how incredibly fluent Jo is in her writing. It’s acted so naturalistically, and it flows so beautifully. As with all the best artists, you never see the work. All you see is the result. You don't see all the effort that's gone into getting there (Interview A).
Rebecca Olul from UNICEF Pacific, herself a native Bislama speaker and writer, elaborates further on Dorras’ command of the language: “Normally I write scripts in English and then translate to Bislama. Jo writes whole scripts and training programmes in Bislama” (Interview B).30 WSB uses Bislama as a ‘leveller’, meeting people where they are. Nuances, idioms, and turns of phrase require familiarity and involvement, the need for language to be immersed in everyday social practices.
Even though Bislama is the lingua franca, many remote communities do not use it as a working language. For this reason, WSB’s actors are recruited from many corners of the country, and when the play visited a community that
30 An example of how this works in practice is clear from the development of scripts for the recently developed COVID-19 PSA videos created by WSB, as Olul recounts, “[Jo Dorras] will write them in Bislama including all the directions for the actors and the cues. They are all written in Bislama. It is really well written too. It's about the nuances that you cannot capture when you are writing in English and just having a bit of an understanding of the context (which Jo definitely has) because of all the years of work that she has. You can tell that it's a real engagement with communities and you can see the understanding of what the community is thinking, through what she is writing” (Interview B). 44
didn’t use Bislama, an actor from the region with knowledge of the language would take a leading role in an effort to ensure the content was sufficiently communicated. It is important to note here that the boundaries between technical, artistic and grassroots aspects are not fixed but are porous.31 These collaborative and iterative processes ensure a horizontal sharing of power and decision-making, which WSB sets out to cultivate in its immediate WSB community of staff and the wider community. It is still of course, a development-driven initiative, but to the extent that grassroots participation is available within existing and cultural resources, it is incorporated to the benefit of existing communities in rapidly changing environments.
Dialogic in Principle and Practice
Wan Smolbag actors (in blue t-shirts) facilitating a Twist Mo Spin after play workshop with community members. Photo credit: Paul Jones (2019), Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, University of Wollongong, Australia.
31 For example, Sokach, now a senior Fisheries Biologist with the Vanuatu government and one of my interviewees, is ni-Vanuatu and acted with WSB in her earlier years, thus bringing a wealth of varied knowledge to the productions of Twist Mo Spin (Interview F2). 45
It is for this reason the mode and format of the production was equally carefully considered. VFD’s aim was to impart information but also to share knowledge and to bring out the latent strengths in the communities to face new challenges to their way of life (Interview F1). Their previous modes of engagement and awareness raising which involved fisheries officers hosting meetings in villages resulted in one-way models of communication, associated with paternalistic and hierarchical modes of instruction.32 Instructional posters or information, education and communication (IEC) materials used by VFD and other organisations can also convey negative reinforcement or chastisement (‘don't do this’ etc.), further underlining a hierarchical and paternalistic manner (Interview F1).
Therefore, through discussion and consultation, it was decided that the play would highlight a range of issues from different community contexts, to be followed by an interactive workshop in which WSB actors would facilitate discussions on key issues. The audience would be asked to discuss their impressions of what they had seen in the play and to relate the issues to their own context (Interview E). While the mode of address is cross-generational so that children could view it alongside young people and adults, a series of breakout groups were used as part of the workshop, sometimes disaggregated by sex and age and sometimes mixed together (Interview E, F1 and F2). This inclusive approach was utilised to encourage the participation of often marginalised groups, including women and youth, and it is in this sense the operation of TfD itself is instructive in re-dressing power relations and imbalances within the community, over and above the specific content of the play.
Neihapi importantly observed that as a result of the workshops “you see the sense of ownership coming out in different groups” which speaks to a sense of empowerment (Interview F1). This bespoke approach illustrates WSB’s flexibility in creating performances that respond both to the need for, and
32 It must be noted however that this is understandable in many ways as fisheries officers are hired based on their technical ability rather than communication or community engagement skills (Interview E). 46
context of, social change: in this case, devising sustainably managed fisheries and resource management led by the community with support from VFD as opposed to the traditional model of being led by VFD (Interview F2).
In this connection, the detailed preparations for the after-play discussions are significant, as can be seen in relation to other productions and the issues they address. WSB’s latest 2020 Progress Report illustrates that in recent months 16 (8 male/8 female) WSB core actors received a ‘refresher’ training session from expert nurses on family planning for the after-play workshop for The Population Play. This meant the actors were equipped with knowledge to answer questions from community members about population and family planning (Wan Smolbag, 2020b, 8). Areas related to SRHR or intimacy are particularly challenging for, as Walker notes, “If you are running a post-play or film workshop on [sexual health] the post-play facilitator has to at least acknowledge the difficulty that audiences experience and discuss what can be done and try to make connections with, for example, regional health staff and hear why people don’t want to use them [condoms]” (Interview C). Looked at more generally, WSB’s ‘life skills approach’ (akin to the second generation of Tufte’s model, 2005 and 2017) could be said to provide communities with “equipment for living,” in the American critic Kenneth’s Burke’s apt formulation (Burke, 1941).
While WSB’s workshops are based on expert knowledge and information, they do not enter into workshops already knowing answers. This involves acute listening to the concerns of communities, and lends itself to dramatic treatment in that nuances, indirection, and sub-texts in both broaching and exploring issues allow for more culturally sensitive approaches, the aspects of ‘hearing’ and ‘voice’ on which Dutta places much emphasis (Dutta, 2018). Olul’s critical assessment bears this out: “They [WSB] don't go in thinking ‘we are the experts in this’, they go in with a listening approach… that's what people like about their approach, is this whole willingness to listen” (Interview B). This speaks to what Dutta (2018) and Quarry and Ramirez (2009) cite as being a missing link in much programming, demonstrating how listening itself becomes a productive activity. 47
Process as Result
The importance of participatory approaches in Twist Mo Spin cannot be understated and underlines WSB’s pushing against top-down didactic modes of theatre. While information transmission is a factor still, it is not the end result. Instead, the emphasis on processing and adapting the information, recognising that this will mean every workshop is different, and as such its actors are not just performers but improvisers, facilitators and, in effect, community organisers at grassroots level. A VDF fisheries officer was also present during the workshop to assist with questions of a more technical nature,33 which itself shows how the more obviously ‘expert’ knowledge was not centre stage (Interview F2).
The reason technical knowledge is not central in a dramatic idiom is that performances and workshops of Twist Mo Spin bring up challenging themes which needed careful and mindful facilitation by the actors, and which do not lend themselves to clear-cut ‘technical solutions’. For example, previous to Twist Mo Spin, in many communities only a select few (fishermen) would normally take part in VFD gatherings/meetings around fisheries as it was regarded as a male preserve. The opening up of this conversation by means of the play and workshop gave those not normally involved in these discussions such as women and youth, the opportunity to draw on their thoughts, challenges and ideas on solutions around fisheries management. As this was new territory, the discussions often became heated or contentious and required sensitive facilitation by the actors to help diffuse tensions and focus on solutions (Interview E, F1 and F2). In this sense, it is clear that the audience are stakeholders – they have a vested interest in the outcomes, and opening up the conversation brings new people’s viewpoints/ perspectives into play, thus expanding the discussion and outcomes as they bear on positive social change.
33 It is interesting to note Sokach’s point that VFD officers made a deliberate decision not to wear their uniforms while in attendance in keeping with the more relaxed and informal nature of the play and workshop (Interview F2). 48
A critical element in WSB’s practice and ethos is cultural mediation, which enables messages to individuals and wider collective groups to be received on their own terms. As linguistic proficiency alone is not enough to achieve meaningful dialogue, a deeper understanding and appreciation for the community and culture is required, encompassing tone, style, idioms, customs, and tradition, ‘kastom’34 in Vanuatu vocabulary. At times, as the Twist Mo Spin example shows, particular customs may be in contention and may resist change, but it is only when they are addressed on their own grounds, in terms of other familiar ways of negotiating issues, that they strike home. It is not just particular items or approaching problems piecemeal that matters but holistic approaches, considering ‘culture as a whole way of life,’ in Raymond Williams’ terms outlined previously. As Olul attests, without this crucial lived element, the whole point of what is conveyed or communicated is lost: [T]here is a sense that these are really hard topics to talk about but [WSB] do it in a way that's a lot more culturally sensitive and lot more aware of the context. There can be personal issues involved. They have actors who are acting in these plays but who might also be going through these issues at home, and are facing the same issues. So they have had to do a lot of that work themselves but I think they do it in a way that's seen as contextual and respectful, that they win the people on to their side. Rather than turning people off from the cause they are advocating (Interview B).
The sensitive nature of the topics explored as part of WSB’s work sometimes results in unsettling viewing and an uncomfortable reception. As Dorras notes, the most recent play staged by WSB, Mi Kuk, Mi Was, Mi Wet, thus had to allow for a certain deftness and improvisation in responding to its audiences, and to address them in their own terms.35
34 See footnote 7. 35 Dorras illustrates in an example worth quoting at length: “Our youth play is probably the hardest youth play we’ve ever done. We had so many cases in the youth centre of young men beating up their young girlfriends quite badly. So I wrote something about that. The lead actress is brilliant and we want to take her into the main group. She does some extraordinary things and there is always a little bunch of lads who are laughing at her. That kind of thing is very hard to deal with apart from making me extremely angry. Any form of domestic violence, as in other countries, it happens as a normal activity. People will laugh… sometimes they laugh at violence on stage because it’s badly done and they can see it’s false. The way Peter [the director] has [portrayed violence] in several plays is incredibly sensitive because there is no actual contact and for many people it’s very moving. But for so many young men, either it 49
It is clear that cultural mediation is required at both sides of the communication process – at the level of sender and receiver. Models are only as good as their ability to productively engage with the dense matrix of practices they come up against, and mediation is crucial if the desired process is to be enacted and the message is to be received. As suggested by Ira Shor and Freire, dialogue occurs when people “meet to reflect on their reality as they make and remake it” (Freire and Shor, 1987, 98). Walker throws further light on what WSB actors, drawn from the community, bring to performances in aiding this dual process of sense-making and sense-checking:
One of WSB’s strengths is that the actors themselves live in the community; they themselves have to learn about the topics they are dealing with, and can say when they feel that something in the play isn’t going to work. A good example of this is our work around reef management when many of the actors live on the coast and have spent many days in the sea and know enormous amounts about the tension between protection and needing to use the resources (Interview B).
Deploying the actors’ own ‘life-worlds’ and sense-making is central to the capacity of subaltern communities to hear their own voices in an extended sense, the production process being mediated by the reception process in performance. Walker illustrates how WSB actors are themselves engaged in devising plays that are then brought on tour to island communities: In a normal year, the actors would also improvise their own play in the first couple of months of the year. Usually the outer island work, for most of the last five years, has been a piece that we would talk about together with the group and then pick an issue that we felt was pressing between us all. They then divide into two groups and they improvise. It’s quite interesting because sometimes one works and one doesn’t. So they show each other their progress and we [Jo and Peter] comment. Sometimes one group will actually take the other group’s idea because they know theirs isn’t working (Interview D).
This shows how composition is not always formally scripted but improvised in the process of performance. The emphasis is not just on changing behaviours, which may be sufficient for social marketing models, but on
is a defence mechanism so that they won’t feel anything or their contempt for women is so bad that they refuse to accept that there is any kind of suffering on their part” (Interview D). 50
cultivating understanding and integrating change into the community’s own patterns of conduct, which allows people to take responsibility for change into their own hands.
As noted above, WSB’s adaptability and agility was tested many times in 2020 as a result of COVID-19. When it came to Twist Mo Spin, the original plan had been to undertake a northern tour to follow the southern tour that had taken place in 2019. This was no longer possible and instead a decision was made to record a performance of the play for DVD (Interview E). The importance of the after play discussion with audiences is highlighted in the concern that without the interactive workshop, the content may not be translated or received as successfully. To redress this, possibilities are being explored around the use of smart phones as a way of sharing information (Ibid).
Play 2: Something for Nothing (2002)
Rather than simply promoting the adoption of a particular attitude by individuals toward an abstracted message, Theatre for Development can be seen as creating community consensus through shared experience (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 2).
Taylor and Gaskell’s 2004 ethnographic research dealt with another touring play and after play discussion, Something for Nothing (2002), notably also on the topic of reef and fisheries resources. While their research looked at process and content, the overall aim was to measure the audience response to the play, the qualitative effectiveness, more from a culturally aesthetic point of view related to WSB’s artistic intentions (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 2). As such, their research provides useful insights into another of WSB’s plays, which helps to draw out further critical analysis and discourse. An audience questionnaire informed by the script and WSB staff, focus groups and a 'clap- ometer'36 were utilised to collect data. As in the case of Twist Mo Spin,
36 Gaskell and Taylor explain the use of the 'clap-ometer' as an audience response instrument, “The rationale for creating this instrument was based on the realisation that audiences might find the filling out of questionnaires that included numeric rating systems to 51
Gaskell (himself a theatre director) and Taylor (a psychologist) note that WSB expertly utilises logical, character and emotional appeals as well as call backs to history and folklore and music and dance to draw the audience into the story. They go so far as to say that the main character [Betty] “serves as a surrogate for the audience” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 7).
In the plot of the play, a schoolteacher, Betty, becomes fascinated by a book on the history of the Lapita people, the prehistoric settlers of Pacific islands. As she reads, the book comes to life behind her depicting a time when resources were plentiful but quickly began to diminish from overfishing. A similar situation is depicted in the present day with tensions arising in Betty’s community over resource management. Again, in a similar to vein to Twist Mo Spin, Gaskell and Taylor write, “Significantly, the play does not resolve the dispute at its conclusion, leaving it up to the audience to draw its own conclusions as to the future of the represented village. This lack of closure is designed to prepare the ground for post-performance discussion on the issue by the audience” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 5). It is clear from this that participatory theatre is open ended, as befits a two-way process in which responses to the story depend on what audiences bring to it from their life- worlds. To this end, there is a more sustained engagement with the cultural heritage of the island communities, building into the narrative origins myths and legends about the first Lapita peoples. This meant the allegory of the action between then and now was not lost on the audience, due to the skilful artistic construction of the plot: “To be successful, Theatre for Development requires a minimum standard of artistic quality, without which it cannot gather an audience and hold its attention” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 12). This aesthetic focus speaks to WSB’s professionalism as a creative entity that won’t compromise on form or quality: it is not at odds with its edutainment objectives but intrinsic to them. This is further born out in their research findings.37
be an alien, confusing and time-consuming operation. We also wanted to minimise our intrusion into the company's own post-performance procedures” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 7). 37 “All sampled villages thought that this was a 'realistic' play in the sense that it depicted credible events that could happen or already are happening. All of them agreed that the play 52
Actor, Facilitator, Social Worker
Subsequent research conducted by Gaskell and Taylor in 2007 involved interviewing fifteen WSB staff member (eleven actors, one director/actor, a scriptwriter, a community researcher and a community reproductive health nurse), which resulted in rich insights around ‘artistic literacy’ and WSB’s own praxis that helps to illuminate the questions at the centre of this study. The crux of which focused around: Most of the interviewees talked about the fact that the topics they present in drama cannot be simply communicated verbally by an expert. A health worker, for example, could not walk into a traditional village where sexual matters are considered taboo, and expect to be well received whilst she or he talked about how to use a condom. However, if the information is presented in a play, the topic can not only be introduced in what is perceived to be an acceptable context, it can also be subsequently addressed in a post show, question and answer discussion (Gaskell and Taylor, 2007, 15).
On a related point, Walker commented in an interview that information and messages must be “practical given the realities of day-to-day life in the community. It’s even more disempowering to be told you’ll avoid this problem if you do such and such; e.g. use a condom and there is no supplier for miles around” (Interview C). It is clear from this that WSB are aware of ‘the realities of day-to-day life,’ the extent to which the problem/issue defines the method and communications approach (as per Quebral 1988 and Tufte 2017), and that material resources are involved – the reason for WSB’s own branching out beyond its original theatre activities to the areas of health, sport, and education.
In previous pages, it has already been documented that WSB actors also perform the role of facilitators when it comes to after-play discussions. Gaskell and Taylor add another layer to this, “These actors, all of whom are ni- Vanuatu, view themselves as social workers, making a difference and effecting positive change within their larger community” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004,13). This is a heavy burden of responsibility, and one not taken lightly
had made them think about the issue of conservation and protection of natural resources” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2004, 8). 53
by the actors. The actors acknowledge “their ability to open up a taboo topic for discussion, by first presenting it in a non threatening way” Gaskell and Taylor, 2007, 19). In an anonymised actor’s own words:
And we‘ve opened... yeah ... a lot of places where people couldn‘t talk about subjects. Like the health people, even though they have nurses a lot of the nurses are very scared to talk about family planning and condoms and stuffs in the villages they work at. Even if they‘re from the same place (WSBM12 in Gaskell and Taylor, 2007, 19)
In calling back to attitudes exemplified around fisheries management in Twist Mo Spin, female WSB actors, underlined that the plays were especially effective because they reached the whole community, including women and children: “If an expert comes to talk to a community, then often this discussion is considered ‘men‘s talk‘ and intended for the decision makers of the village. However, through a play, the theatre company accesses the whole community” (Gaskell and Taylor, 2007, 20). This is a crucial aspect of WSB’s ethos and practice and the far reaching implications of its implementation are evident.
Play 3: Zero Balans (2011)
Much of the findings outlined above related to Twist Mo Spin (2019) and Something For Nothing (2002) are also reflected further in extensive ethnographic research conducted by Woodward-Hanna in her 2014 work A Patchwork of Participation: Wan Smolbag Theatres Big Plays in Vanuatu. In it she explains that WSB’s big plays are pre-scripted annual set-piece large productions that mark the centre point of their creative calendar. Her research focused on Zero Balans, which was staged in 2011.
54
Wan Smolbag actors during a performance of Zero Balans. Photo credit: Dan McGarry (2011).
The plot of the play centres around a corrupt politician, Ezekiel, who finds himself challenged by two god-like figures who force him plead his case and account for a decision he made that would see the communities he represents forced from their land to make way for foreign investment. A time travel trope/theatrical device is used to document what has brought Ezekiel to this current juncture. A related plotline later in the play addresses the sexual assault of Ezekiel’s current girlfriend Lisa, by a group including her former boyfriend Willie. Woodward-Hanna documents the significance of a song sung by Lisa where she stands up to her attacker Willie, which acts as a way of engaging the audience in sensitive and taboo subjects such as gender based violence, power imbalances and Kastom traditions: “It is feminism with Melanesian characteristics that is produced by intertwining cultural codes and ritual in the acting with song and dance” (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 240).
55
Wan Smolbag actors during a scene in Zero Balans. Photo credit: Dan McGarry (2011).
Woodward-Hanna documents how, formally, the play incorporates a hybrid of elements where “music, song and dance interact with forms of melodrama and realism, heightened emotions and slapstick comedy” (Woodward-Hanna, 214, 235). As part of WSB’s iterative process, the script was shared with the cast “to comment on culture, language, story and format” (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 234). This again bears out the process-driven and open-ended nature of the productions: as against tightly orchestrated scripts handed down by the script-writer, WSB’s practice of “inclusive writing and rehearsal process” (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 225) is central in its appeal to audiences. While the pieces are pre-scripted, they are informed by consultation and collaboration with the WSB community of actors and staff, and the wider community in Port Vila and further afield, depending on the topic. It is in this sense, Woodward- Hanna concludes, that “more-or-less conventional, pre-scripted narrative theatre can be participatory in Theatre for Development contexts if it incorporates and draws upon the local people and their culture” (Woodward- Hanna, 2014, 225), the staging process of dialogue and interaction ensuring the audience/community is involved in the actual performance of the play:
56
While this play is not ‘participatory’ in the Boalian sense, its evident effectiveness can be attributed to the consistent commitment of Wan Smolbag to work within local contexts and its ability to tap into the different cultural sensibilities of Port Vila…. Wan Smolbag achieves this by incorporating local forms of communication (Bislama, popular music styles of the region and the church); and by employing, and then developing, local actors to perform within locally scripted, and locally tested, scenarios that resonate with, and include, its audiences. (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 240-241).
The extent to which this speaks not only to but in the voice of the community is evident in the quote used at the beginning of this research: “It’s us on stage” (Woodward-Hanna, 2014, 241). This also reflects the cultural awareness of the actors/facilitators, in keeping with Manyozo (2002 and 2012) and Syed Jamil Ahmed’s (2002) observation that “indigenous theatre performers build within themselves… an acute perception of how best to communicate with the people” (Ahmed, 2002, 217). The crucial issue here is that the ‘representations’ are at one remove from the community not in an escapist or illusory manner, but in the critical or reflective sense that they allow a space for standing back. An ‘external intervention’ may be needed to bring to the fore issues the community may not be fully conversant with, or have not been able to address – to process – due to the routines and pressures of every day life. Kastom itself is renewed and energised, belying the misleading perception that it is inherently static and fixed in time. Theatre as employed by WSB is an ‘external’ form but bears out Ahmed’s (2002) contention that exposure to innovative forms of drama, Western or otherwise, are powerful modes of social intervention when adapted to local cultures. 57
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Theatre is only a tool, an external intervention, that plays a part in the long process of communities striving for self-reliance. Theatre itself cannot solve the problems, it can only illustrate and expose them. It is up to the people in the audience to take up the challenge and use their indigenous ways of communication and decision-making to shape their own development (Boeren, 1992, 262).
Ad Boeren’s pointed words act both as encouragement and warning. This project set out to examine how the process of edutainment, and more specifically TfD, is produced via the intersection of communication, culture and development. The limited scope and exploratory nature of the research was designed to give it a precise, concrete focus, and to indicate the rich potential of the Pacific region for future research in both the realm of edutainment and in the wider field of CFDASC.
That a theatre group has become such a relatively large-scale NGO attests to the role of edutainment in implementing many of the principles of CFDASC in practice, but as shown above, in a culturally specific manner that adapts them to the region, making the best of available cultural and material resources. WSB’s activities (in keeping with other related entities such as Soul City in South Africa) shows how theatre, video, television, and social media, can enhance communication as a two-way process, empowering both senders and receivers in conveying ‘messages,’ and addressing specific social issues. Instead of concentrating on the product, there is recognition that the dialogic, participatory process should be regarded as a result by itself, just as much as the final outputs or outcomes.
When specific issues (e.g. sanitation, domestic violence, reef fishing) are placed in larger social contexts, the use of story-telling employing framing perspectives, character development, and plot lines, is of considerable value in raising awareness of causal connections between actions and events. This brings wider factors (‘underlying causes’) of social change into focus, relating to poverty, gender inequality, unequal power relations, and the environment 58
and climate change. HIV/AIDS prevention, for example, is not only facilitated by a ‘focus on gender imbalances’ but would have only a ‘minimal impact’ without it (Obregon and Tufte, 2013, 53). The holistic emphasis on a ‘whole way of life’ demonstrates that power in communication is not something ‘up there,’ held by elites, but is dispersed at micro levels throughout society. Even when there are message-driven, information based initiatives, as in public health contexts (HIV/AIDS or COVID-19), the practice of WSB has been to convey these in terms of ‘communications-driven solutions’ (Tufte, 2005, 172), mediating, in a two-way flow, messages with a global import. The power of the sender is only as good as the receptivity of the receiver, and messages have to make sense if they are to strike home in the life-worlds of communities undergoing social change.
In keeping with Tufte’s third generation framework (2005 and 2017), it may be that certain developments have not taken place due to the need for greater levels of social change, in marked contrast the more discrete or ‘stand-alone’ results of earlier social marketing, top-down developmental models. This is a limitation, to be sure, but change that does not establish roots in a community is at most transient or even counter-productive, as was the case with earlier behaviourist or one-way models of communication. It is of course, also true that consciousness or awareness-raising does not directly result in empowerment. The desired social changes envisaged by WSB are likely to take time, to be generational and incremental. The extent to which ‘the subaltern speaks,’ or rather writes, is a case in point (Spivak, 1988). While there has been considerable success in giving local expression to dramatic forms, in using Bislama, and in local actors learning their craft and coming to the fore as professional writers, there is still some way to go in script writing and directorial skills emerging from within the community. Poetry and the writing of fiction have to some extent found creative outlets in the community (Interview D1 and D2) but as collective and institutional projects, requiring material resources, theatre and drama require more sustained organisational efforts of the kind being cultivated by WSB, and its dispersal of its activities through the community. 59
Areas for further research
This body of research has examined a number of areas worthy of further exploration including (but not limited to): (i) analysis of WSB productions via live or filmed performances; (ii) further ethnographic research on the production process with increased focus on post-play workshops; (iii) integrating closer observation and engagement with WSB actors and how they navigate the diverse roles they take on in performances and in the community; (iv) the future of edutainment and the full impact social media may have on its form and efficacy. In addition, notions of voice and representation warrant more sustained analysis when it comes to the topic of edutainment and sense-making in a Pacific context: complex issues of genre, narrative form, myth and legend, and who is speaking in whose voice, require further analysis in times of rapid social change.
60
Appendices
Appendix 1: List of WSB Grey Literature and Content
Publications • 2020 6-month Report (Jan – June)
• 2019 Annual Report
• 2018 Annual Report
• 2017 Annual Report
• 2016 Annual Report
• 2015 Annual Report
• Monitoring and Evaluation Strategy (2018)
• A Roadmap for Change: Wan Smolbag Theatre Strategic Plan 2014-25 (2013)
• Love Patrol, Series 1 Evaluation Report (2008)
• Wan Smolbag Website, https://www.wansmolbag.org/
Wan Smolbag Theatre Productions Examined
1. Twist Mo Spin, 2019
2. Zero Balans, 2011
3. Something for Nothing, 2002
61
Appendix 2: WSB’s Core Values
All of Wan Smolbag’s work is motivated by a core set of shared values. These include active and organization-wide support for:
o A commitment to the principles of respect, openness, inclusivity, non-violence and equity. o Promoting and modelling democratic and dialogical practices, modes of engagement and management, within the organization and in their work. o Remaining committed, and responsive to, the communities in which they work. o Valuing, supporting and actively lifting up people within the organization, as a core part of their work. o Maintaining an ongoing sense of creativity and innovation, and shared values, across a broad and dynamic organization.
(Wan Smolbag, 2013, 2)
62
Bibliography
Ahmed, S J. 2002. ‘“Wishing for World Without “Theatre for Development”: Demystifying the Case of Bangladesh.’ Research in Drama Education, 7:2 (2002).
Anfara Jr, V. A. 2008. Theoretical Frameworks. The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Banerjee, A, La Ferrara, E and Orozco, V. 2018. The Entertaining Way to Behavioral Change: Fighting HIV with MTV. Oxford University and The World Bank
Bicchieri, C. 2015. Why Do People Do What They Do? A Social Norms Manual for Zimbabwe and Swaziland. UNICEF. https://www.unicef-irc.org/research/pdf/429- Social-Norms-Manual-ESARO.pdf
Blatter, J K. 2008. Case Study in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Boal, A. 1979. Theatre of the Oppressed. London: Pluto Press
Boeren, A. 1992. Getting involved: communication for participatory development, Community Development Journal, 27 (3), 259–271.
Brecht, B. 2006. The Radio as an Apparatus of Communication in Communication for Social Change Anthology: Historical and Contemporary Readings (Eds). Gumucio- Dagron, A and Tufte, T. South Orange: Communication for Social Change Consortium.
Buckmaster, L. 2015. Tanna review – volcanic South Pacific love story shot entirely in Vanuatu. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/nov/05/tanna-review-volcanic-south-pacific- love-story-vanuatu
Burke, K. 1941. Literature as Equipment for Living in The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action. 1941 Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.
Cheek, J. 2008. Foucauldian Discourse Analysis in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Conrad, D. 2004. Popular theatre empowering pedagogy for youth, Youth Theatre Journal, 18.
Costantino, T.E. 2008. Constructivism in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Colle, R. D. 2008. Threads of Development Communication in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
63
Crossley, M., Barrett, A., Brown, B. J., Coope, J. and Raghaven, R. 2019. A systematic review of applied theatre practice in the indian context of mental health, resilience and wellbeing. Applied Theatre Research, Volume 7 Number 2
Drysdale, R. 2014. Love Patrol hemi tuff tumas! What role can a Pacific soap opera play in the HIV response? A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales.
Dutta, M. 2014. A Culture-Centered Approach to Listening: Voices of Social Change. International Journal of Listening, 28:2, 67-81.
Dutta, M. 2018. Culturally centering social change communication: subaltern critiques of, resistance to, and re- imagination of development. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 13:2.
Enghel, F. 2013. Communication, Development, and Social Change in Global Communication: New Agendas in Communication by Wilkins, K., Straubhaar, J., & Kumar, S. (Eds.) Hoboken: Taylor and Francis.
Escobar, A. 1995. Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. Princeton University Press.
Fairclough, N. 1993. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fairclough, N. 2010. Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language. Routledge.
Forsyth, M. 2009. A bird that flies with two wings; Kastom and state justice systems in Vanuatu. Canberra, ACT: ANU E Press. Retrieved from http://epress.anu.edu.au/kastom_citation.html
François, A (Eds). 2015. The Languages of Vanuatu Unity and Diversity. Asia- Pacific Linguistics, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University.
Freire, P. 1970. Pedagogy of the Oppressed (English translation). Penguin.
Freire, P, and Shor, I. 1987. A pedagogy for liberation: Dialogues on transforming education. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
Gaskell, I. & Taylor, R. 2004. Getting the Message: Measuring Audience Response to Theatre for Development. Applied Theatre Research Journal. Accessed 3 January 2020. http://theatroedu.gr/portals/38/main/images/stories/files/Arthra/GASKELL- TAYLOR_Getting%20the%20Message.doc
Gaskell, I and Taylor, R. 2007. Turning up the volume: A study of the Wan Smolbag Theatre Company in 3L Journal of Language Teaching, Linguistics and Literature, the Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies, Volume 13, 9-29.
Given, L (ed). 2008. SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
64
Gumucio-Dagron, A. 2008. Vertical Minds versus Horizontal Cultures: An Overview of Participatory Process and Experiences in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Hahn, M. 2011. ‘Theatre for a Change in Malawi: Participatory approaches to Development’, Journal of Applied Arts & Health 2: 3, pp. 317–333, doi: 10.1386/jaah.2.3.317_7
Haviland, M. 2016. Side by Side?: Community Art and the Challenge of Co- Creativity. Taylor & Francis Ltd.
Hegarty, S. 2012. How soap operas changed the world. BBC News. Last accessed 3 January. https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17820571
Hemer, O. 2005. Writing the world in Media and Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development Hemer, O and Tufte, T (Eds). Clasco.
Huesca, R. 2008. Tracing the History of Participation Communications Approaches to Development: A Critical Appraisal in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Jack, A. 2009. Shuga Babi soap opera targets stigmas surrounding HIV in Africa - Broadcast from MTV’s Staying Alive Foundation expands into francophone Africa. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/f487fa0e-f724-11e9-bbe1-4db3476c5ff0
Japhet, Garth. 1999. How to make Edutainment work for you: a step by step guide to designing and managing an edutainment project for social development. Johannesburg: Soul City.
Kamlongera, C. 2005. Theatre for Developemtn in Africa in Media and Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development Hemer, O and Tufte, T (Eds). Clasco.
Lacayo, V and Singhal, A. 2008. Pop Culture with a Purpose! Using edutainment media for social change. Oxfam Novib.
Lockyer, S. 2008. Textual Analysis in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Manyozo. L. 2002. Community theatre without community participation? Reflections on development support communication programmes in Malawi. Convergence, Volume XXXV, Number 4, 2002.
Manyozo, L. 2012. Media, Communication and Development. Sage.
Malikhao, and Servaes, J. 2008. Development Communications in an International Perspective in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change (pp. 96-157). New Delhi: Sage Publications
McEwan, C. 2009. Postcolonialism and Development. London and New York: Routledge.
McEwan, C. 2018. Postcolonialism, Decoloniality and Development. Taylor & Francis Group.
65
Mitchell, J. 2011. “Operation restore public hope”: Youth and the magic of modernity in Vanuatu. Oceania, 81(1), 36-50.
Neihapi P, Sokach A, Koran D, Devine J, Dorras J, Andrew N and Steenbergen D. 2019. ‘Twisting and spinning’ theatre into coastal fisheries management: Informing and engaging communities to address challenges. SPC, Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin #30, September 2019.
Newton Cain, T and McGarry, D. 2020. Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing – 31 March. The Guardian. Last accessed 8 August, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/01/coronavirus-in-the-pacific-weekly- briefing
Obregon, R. and Tufte, T. 2013. Towards a paradigm shift in Entertainment- Education: Exploring the emergent conceptual underpinnings in African Communication Research, Volume 6, No. 1 May 2013.
Obregon, R. and Tufte, T. 2014. Rethinking entertainment-education for development and social change: In search of new directions in K. Wilkins, T. Tufte & R. Obregon (Eds). Handbook of development communication and social change. Malden: Blackwell-Wiley.
Pacific Community (SPC). 2010. A community-based ecosystem approach to fisheries management: guidelines for Pacific Island countries. Pacific Community.
Pacific Community (SPC). 2016. Pacific Island Populations/ Les populations du Pacifique 2016. Last accessed, 8 August 2020, https://spccfpstore1.blob.core.windows.net/digitallibrary- docs/files/f6/f68c2b69b946e38f82175e40416f2c55.pdf?sv=2015-12- 11&sr=b&sig=uvP6EbmmQN4tHHQU3XciIZnd6MQ2T7OHr9DTYMQDelI%3D&se=2 021-01-31T14%3A34%3A03Z&sp=r&rscc=public%2C%20max- age%3D864000%2C%20max- stale%3D86400&rsct=application%2Fpdf&rscd=inline%3B%20filename%3D%22Paci fic_Islands_2016_Populations_poster.pdf%22
Potter, J. 2008. Discourse Analysis in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Prentki, T. 1998 Must the Show go on? The Case for Theatre for Development. Development in Practice Vol. 8, No. 4 (Nov., 1998)
Quarry, W and Ramirez, R. 2009. Communication for Another Development: Listening before Telling. Zed Books.
Quebral, N. 1988. Development Communication. Laguna: UPLB College of Agriculture.
Rogers, E. 1995. Diffusion of Innovations. New York Free Press.
Sabido, M. 2003. The Origins of Entertainment-Education in Singhal A, Cody, M, Rogers, E and Sabido, M (Eds) in Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
66
Sandelowski, M. 2008A. Research problem in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Sandelowski, M. 2008B. Research question in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Sen, A. 1999. Development as Freedom. New York: Oxford University Press.
Servaes, J. 1996. Participatory Communication Research from a Freirean Perspective. Africa Media Review 11(1): 73-91
Servaes. J. 2008. Communication for Development Approaches of Some Governmental and Non Governmental Agencies in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Servaes, J and Verschooten, C. 2008. Hybrid Interactions: Human Rights and Development in a Cultural Perspective in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Shannon, CE, and Weaver, W. 1949. The Mathematical Theory of Communication. The University of Illinois Press, Urbana.
Singhal, A. & Rogers, E. 1999. Entertainment-Education. A Communication Strategy for Social Change. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Singhal, A. and Rogers, E. 2002. A Theoretical Agenda for Entertainment-Education. Communication Theory, 12:2, 117-135.
Singhal A. 2004. Through Participatory Theater: Freirean Strategies for Empowering the Oppressed in Entertainment-Education and Social Change : History, Research, and Practice. Singhal A, Cody, M, Rogers, E and Sabido, M (Eds). Routledge.
Singhal A, Cody, M, Rogers, E and Sabido, M (Eds). 2004. Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Routledge
Sloman A. 2012. Using participatory theatre in international community development. Community Development Journal 47(1):42–57.
Sood, S, Menard, T and Witte, K. 2004. The Theory Behind Entertainment-Education in Entertainment-Education and Social Change : History, Research, and Practice. Singhal A, Cody, M, Rogers, E and Sabido, M (Eds). Routledge.
Spivak, G. 1988. “Can the Subaltern Speak?” in Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, Ed. Cary Nelson and Lawrence Grossberg. Chicago: Univ. of Illinois Press.
Taachi, J. 2016. When and how does voice matter? And how do we know? in Voice & Matter: Communication, Development and the Cultural Return, Goteborg, Sweden: Nordicom.
Thompson J. 2009. Performance Affects: Applied theatre and the end of effect. Palgrave Macmillan.
67
Thompson J. 2012. Applied Theatre: Bewilderment and Beyond. New York: Peter Lang.
Thyagarajan, M. 2002. ‘Popular theatre, development and community’, Carolina Papers International Development, The University of North Carolina, No. 8 Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Tufte, T. 2003. Telenovelas, Culture and Social Change: From Polisemy, Pleasure and Resistance to Strategic Communication and Social Development. UNESCO Chair of Communication: Universidad Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
Tufte,T. 2004. Soap Operas and Sense-Making: Mediations and Audience Ethnography in Entertainment-Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Singhal A, Cody, M, Rogers, E and Sabido, M (Eds). Routledge.
Tufte, T. 2005. Entertainment-education in development communication. Between marketing behaviours and empowering people in Media and Glocal Change: Rethinking Communication for Development Hemer, O and Tufte, T (Eds). Clasco.
Tufte, T. 2008. Fighting AIDS with Edutainment: Building on the Soul City Experience in South Africa in J. Servaes (Ed.), Communication for Development and Social Change. New Delhi: Sage Publications
Tufte, T. 2017. Communication and Social Change: A Citizen Perspective. Polity Press.
UNFPA, 2014. Population and Development Profiles: Pacific Island Countries. Last accessed 8 August 2020, https://pacific.unfpa.org/sites/default/files/pub- pdf/web__140414_UNFPAPopulationandDevelopmentProfiles-PacificSub- RegionExtendedv1LRv2_0.pdf
UNICEF Pacific, 2017. Situation Analysis of Children in Vanuatu. Last accessed 8 August, https://www.unicef.org/pacificislands/sites/unicef.org.pacificislands/files/2019- 10/Situation%20Analysis%20of%20Children%20-%20Vanuatu.pdf
Unwin, S. 2005. A Guide To The Plays Of Bertolt Brecht. Bloomsbury Academic.
Usdin, S, Singhal, A, Shongwe, T, Goldsteing, S and Shabalala, A. 2004. No Short- Cuts in Entertainment-Education: Designing Soul City Step-by-Step in Entertainment- Education and Social Change: History, Research, and Practice. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Vanuatu Daily Post. 2019. Wan Smolbag Theatre - 30 Years On. Last accessed, 8 August 2020, https://dailypost.vu/news/wan-smolbag-theatre---30-years- on/article_f7a0029b-2ba3-51f2-9504-63d0d2650ab8.html
Wang, H and Singhal, A. 2009. Entertainment-education through digital games in U. Ritterfeld, M.J. Cody and P. Vorderer (Eds.) Serious games: mechanisms and effects (pp. 271–292). New York: Routledge.
Wan Smolbag. 2013. A Roadmap for Change: Wan Smolbag Theatre Strategic Plan 2014-25.
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2016. Wan Smolbag 2015 Annual Report. 68
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2017. Wan Smolbag 2016 Annual Report.
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2018. Wan Smolbag 2017 Annual Report.
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2019. Wan Smolbag 2018 Annual Report.
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2020a. Wan Smolbag 2019 Annual Report.
Wan Smolbag Theatre. 2020b. Wan Smolbag 2020 Progress Report, Jan-Jun.
Weninger, C. 2008. Critical Discourse Analysis in Given, L. M. (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Williams, R. 1960. Culture and society 1780-1950. Anchor Books.
Williams, R. 1990. Television: Technology and Cultural Form. London: Routledge.
Whitehead, S. 2017. The rise of edutainment: taking stock of the evidence. BBC Media Action Insight Blog. Accessed 3 January 2020. https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mediaactioninsight/entries/2f2fcdf4-42dd-42f1-89ff- 105bc6558849
Willie G, Roberts A and Ligo G. 2020. First Case of COVID-19 Contained. Vanuatu Daily Post. Last accessed 25 November, https://dailypost.vu/news/first-covid-19- case-contained/article_4a02e710-246e-11eb-8004-5f94406fb62b.html
Woodward-Hanna R. 2014. A patchwork of participation: Wan Smolbag theatre’s ‘big plays’ in Vanuatu. Australasian Drama Studies 64:223–242.
Woodward, R. 2015. Aesthetics, Affect and Applied Theatre - Wan Smolbag Theatre and the Development of Vanuatu. University of Sydney Masters thesis.
World Bank. 2017. In Nigeria, Changing Behavior Through Entertainment Television (podcast). Accessed 18 March 2020, https://soundcloud.com/worldbank/in-nigeria- changing-behavior-through-entertainment-television