“We are all artists” – Renowned human rights educator visits University of Melbourne

Internationally renowned human rights speaker and educator Professor André de Quadros recently presented the public lecture ‘Freedom dreaming, storytelling, and reconciliation: The arts in a new world’ at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Music.

Professor de Quadros is visiting from Boston University as a 2024 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow. Based on decades working in some of the most marginalised settings, he anchored his presentation in the tradition of ‘freedom dreaming’. He called for a new construction of social systems and grassroots participation, founded on radical compassion, dialogue, reconciliation, and community engagement.

A gifted storyteller, his lecture took the audience on a narrative trajectory of the personal and the political, touching on the power of music and the arts to bridge divisions in an increasingly fractured world.

“To talk about freedom dreaming, we must situate ourselves first. What kind of world do we live in now?” Professor de Quadros said in his presentation.

“To draw attention to the brutality of today's world is stating the obvious.... People are dying in incessant wars… millions of people are displaced every day by violence, poverty, lack of safety… and governments all over the world continue to violate the norms of international law.”

“At the same time, we see a world of people who sacrifice their lives for peace. We see radical compassion and kindness all around us. We are moved by the powerful and ineffable beauty of the arts. And we hold these truths in contrast, and in sharp contradiction.”

Professor de Quadros said the arts are where both creative practitioners and everyday people can be empowered to find creativity and courage.

“As artists, we have immense power to challenge and interrogate, and to inspire, and so much more,” he said. “When you go to the margins with humility and open hearts, you will be transformed. And this transformation becomes the engine for powerful artistic work. We are all artists, all of us. We are all storytellers. We are all dream catchers.”

Dr Gillian Howell, Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music, says Professor de Quadros’ presentation offered powerful examples of the role of the arts in the struggle for a more just and peaceful world, drawing on his decades of work as a music leader and activist in war-impacted places, prisons, refugee shelters, and the concert stage.

“André is one of the most influential thinkers and practitioners in the field of music-making and social change, and the need for his voice couldn’t be more urgent,” Dr Howell says.

“At a time when peace feels increasingly distant, there is a need to muster all our resources and be courageous in our efforts to create spaces for dialogue, connection, listening, and empathy. André’s work as scholar and artist in many diverse and complex contexts offers an inspiring example, and demonstrates the potential of artists and artistic action to help build the dialogic spaces and mindsets that are so greatly needed.”

Professor de Quadros will also give a keynote presentation at the Faculty’s Fostering Creative Health Conference on 19-20 April. The conference will explore ways in which the arts, health, social care and education can collaborate to produce positive results without high costs. Speakers at the conference will address core questions including how do we best foster creative health across diverse settings, and how we can amass policy and financial support for partnerships and programs.

About 2024 Miegunyah Distinguished Visiting Fellow Professor André de Quadros 

Professor André de Quadros has been described as “one of the most inspiring human rights educators of our time” by the Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights. He is a human rights activist, conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and writer whose work has taken him to the most diverse settings in 40 countries including professional ensembles, projects with prisons, psychosocial rehabilitation, refugees, and victims of sexual violence, torture, and trauma.

He focuses on race and mass incarceration, peacebuilding, forced migration, LGBTQ+, public health, and Islamic culture. He uses music for peacebuilding, reconciliation, and empowerment. Dr de Quadros directs three international choirs – in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the US. He also directs a peacebuilding project, Common Ground Voices (Israel, Palestine) and a forced migration project Common Ground Voices / La Frontera (Mexico-US border). Dr de Quadros is a professor of music at Boston University where he holds affiliate faculty positions in African, African American and Black Diaspora, American and New England, Asian, Jewish, and Muslim studies, as well as the Center on Forced Displacement, and the Prison Education Program.

His work with rival prison gangs and divided communities has served as a model for reconciliation work. In addition to hundreds of international workshops, seminars, and performances, he has numerous publications to his record, including ten books, book chapters, articles, and at least 50 choral editions. He directs The Choral Commons, a justice-focused media platform, that produces podcasts, webinars, and creative work. In 2019, he held a distinguished faculty position at the University of Cambridge.