Abstract

Snubbing the past is always risky. But it can become dangerous when it divides, bleeds, screams, and we are afraid to deal with it. A past that is repressed, unresolved, unspoken, maimed and not shared, can bear poisoned fruits, which isolate people, freeze memories and crystallize communities. Painful, conflict- ed, shameful, ferocious pasts tend to be put under the carpet like dust, in the hope that they will disappear or be silent forever. But it never happens. This is because the past is not inert, but continues to work inside and outside of us, helping to create and make it last in the present and to project emotions, feelings, images of the world and of ourselves into the future as well, thus orienting, without awareness, choices, convictions, directions of life, hostility, proximity and distance, objectives, hopes and despair. We need places where we can give a voice to people, to their encounter, to their narratives. A space to talk and listen. Perhaps in the context of restorative justice. Experience that multiplies in the world in post-conflict situations to allow the reconstruction of common identities and solidarity civil cohabitation. It is a welcoming, respectful and safe meeting place where those who have received and done wrong can meet and talk to each other, with the help of mediators and in the presence of a community that listens and participates