We can only build social cohesion if we have taken the time to heal and reconcile with differences within our worlds, our relations, families, communities, our difficulties and differences.
This has been highlighted by Assistant Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection and the Chairperson of the Truth and Reconciliation Steering Committee, Sashi Kiran while closing the Negotiation and Mediation Skills Training workshop organized by UNDP.
The training was facilitated by Clingendale Academy which is the Training Department of the Netherlands Institute of International Relations.
She says the process of consultation for the Truth and Reconciliation Bill which they hope to bring to Parliament has been heart-wrenching.
Kiran says in every session, people were sharing their deep emotional wounds as if they were the Commission.
She says there is so much pain, and young people also told them that they are impacted by the past not only through the narratives they have heard but suffering they have seen in their parents and grandparents.
The Committee Chair says it was very obvious to them that we are a country that has been carrying our wounds and pain and we need a space to help with sharing, unburdening and healing.
She says they hope to open these safe spaces with the establishment of the Fiji Truth and Reconciliation Commission and if they do not, we gift our children with narratives of pain; our future generations continue to live in the past narratives and we rob them of the future of hope and peace.
Kiran says she is hopeful that when we have started the conversation on healing, it gives us the opportunity to look deep within ourselves and our nation to see what are the dark spots and what are the painful things we need to let go because when we forgive, more than others we free ourselves from anger, pain and negativity.
