The Ododo Wa exhibit has been situated within a survivor centred approach by several of our media sources. YorkU’s yFile situates the exhibit within the context of United Nations Security Council’s adoption of Resolution 2467 on April 23, 2019. This resolution “articulates a survivor-centred approach to the prevention and response to conflict-related sexual violence.” Like this resolution, the exhibit prioritizes a survivor-centred approach, meaning that survivors are empowered to seek justice and reparations. 

Take a deeper dive. Listen to Grace Acan explain what justice means to survivors of sexual violence in conflict. CMHR Audio clip goes here.

News media has similarly situated the exhibit as timely, and its association with dialogues for survivors as necessary. For example, the arts magazine GalleriesWest places the exhibit in relation to the Nobel Peace Prize winners, Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, and their efforts against the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war. This is also shown in the University of Manitoba’s news, which represents the exhibit in the context of Uganda’s transitional justice policy of June 2019. 

Collaborative and curatorial approaches to the exhibit were also based on a survivor-centred approach. For example, CMHR curator Isabelle Masson acknowledges that for activists organizing around issues of sexual violence in war, it is important to reduce opportunities of re-traumatization or even further traumatization (Bitu Tshikudi). For these reasons, the exhibit aims to establish a sustainable and supportive storytelling process and environment that focuses on survivors’ needs, their voices, and their leadership towards justice and reparations. News media grappled with place-based tensions emerging from the conversations surrounding the exhibit, as they learned that conjugal slavery in war is a widespread issue that requires specific supports addressing each survivor's context. The traveling exhibit, based on Grace Acan and Evelyn Amony's storytelling, was designed to engage with both broad experiences and individual experience. As a result, the exhibits help support local reclamation of the stories of girls in war within survivors’ communities.