ABSTRACT
After many years of working with Arsi Oromo communities in Ethiopia, in small discussion groups, young women began asking for a project that could be theirs, teach them skills, and help address challenges in their daily lives, including butaa (marriage by abduction). They also wanted their project to lead to real social changes. These conversations led me to put the research into the young women’s hands through a reciprocal, collaborative process. This chapter uses an ethical lens to explore the logistics, planning, and final results of setting up a collaborative arts project. I also explain how in this project, young Arsi women used collaborative and improvisational video to look at challenges they face, to express themselves, and to work toward changes they wanted to see in their communities through the use of expressive arts (e.g., songs, dance, rituals, narratives) and public presentations of their artistic creations. In order for this project to be successful, we set up a strong collaboration with a local team that included survivors of abduction marriages, cultural and women’s affairs office workers, other local team members, and Oromo student project assistants and managers. For this project to be ethically sound and truly collaborative, we had to continually discuss through feedback sessions and reevaluate the project and the goals.
