Wang O .Forgiveness Wall with 110 Envelops

Wang O is an Acholi term meaning, burn in the fire, where traditionally people used to sit around the fire and talk openly about their personal issues, sharing unfiltered stories, knowledge and various complex issues that affected the families or communities.

Inspired by the works of Yoko Ono of the wish tree where participants are asked to write their wishes and hang them on the trees, and Rivane Neuenschwander whose interactive installations also explores empowerment and transformation of language. At the GYCO Art and Education Center, we adopted the notion of forgiveness letter writing as a catalyst for creating a new model of working with trauma. Whereby participants sit around the fireplace and reflect on the negative thoughts and emotions caused by others that bring limiting beliefs and also on the positive aspect of the experience and its learning curves.

Both are expressed in two separate letters with the negative inserted in red envelopes and positive in white envelopes and the person’s name written on top of each beginning with two letters to self. And a ritual takes place whereby the letters are burnt into ashes in two separate fireplaces and released into the universe. These ashes were later brought back to Vienna and envelopes mounted on a wall to symbolize the exercise as a way of healing trauma.