As Troops Withdraw, Drums Arrive: Transforming Drums of War to Drums of Peace in Iraq
Inspired American Team Creates Successful Programs through Music Empowering Youth and Emerging Women’s Movement in War-Torn Country
A different story yielding a phenomenal break-through has just emerged from Iraq – one that deters from conflict, and highlights a unique peace inspired by… the power of music. Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Sufis, Yazidi and Assyrian Christians from Kurdish and Arab Iraq – many of whom would be enemies simply by definition of race or religion – recently came together in the name of peace in a training program orchestrated by a three-person American team bringing music for conflict resolution to northern Iraq.
Team leader, Christine Stevens, an author and music therapist has just returned from northern Iraq, where she lead Ashti Drum or peace drum, an instrument making and drum circle program for conflict-resolution, youth empowerment, women’s empowerment, leadership development, and economic development. She and her team of ethnomusicologist Dr. Craig Woodson and videographer Constantine Alatzas were hosted by Kurdistan Save the Children and supported by co-sponsors, the Rex Foundation, REMO Drum Company, Kieron Sweeney and NAMM, the trade association for the international music products industry.
On this trip, the American team went on-location to places unseen by most Americans; Halabja, Darbandikhan, Suliamania, and Koya to start regular drum programs at Youth Centers. In addition, Stevens worked with the Kurdistan Women’s Union to bring women’s empowerment drum circles to women’s centers in the rapidly developing Iraqi women’s movement. Stevens also launched the first music therapy program in Iraq at a Children’s Rehabilitation Center.
According to Mr. Mohammed, director of Kurdistan Save the Children, “we Kurdish people in Iraq have suffered too much. We have a root in the history of the drum; religious, social, emotional and psychological roots. This program shows that drums are weapons of peace.”
In the town of Halabja, where twenty years ago, 5,000 Kurds were killed in the horrific act of chemical warfare, the Ashti Drum program received phenomenal comments from youth. One young man stated, “I was able to finally let go of my grief through the drum.”
“The key to success of this program is participation. It is inclusive, which is the philosophy of recreational music making,” adds Stevens. “This trip exceeded our expectations with the overwhelmingly positive response and the generosity of the Iraqi people. Music rebuilds the human soul. This is the greatest testimony to the healing power of music I’ve ever seen.”
For more information on the power of music and how to incorporate drum circles into your community, go to www.namm.org.
For more information on the Iraq mission go to http://www.ubdrumcircles.com/about_iraq_kit.html.