Travellers of the World
Travellers of the World explores the concept of journeys with children aged between 7–12 years. They tell of their real and imagined journeys, accompanied by their own photomontage. Through a local lens, it touches on global issues, including displaced people seeking a new home. It looks at having respect for the road taken, the reasons for moving and, most of all, for the traveller.
Written and illustrated by children from Drogheda and Dundalk in County Louth.
‘This is an accessible, evocative and provocative celebration of the juxtaposition of experience and creative possibility, drawing on centuries–old and newly experienced cultural diversity in Ireland.’ Cross–Currents magazine.
This book reflects the diversity of movement present in the lives of children today.
The size and shape of the book was made to resemble a passport. To start off with we brought in objects from journeys that we had made. We used these objects as stimulus for our collages and our stories, sometimes we even used the objects in our pictures. We photographed our pictures, and wrote about our journeys and what we did on our journey. Some of us had travelled from very far, from Nigeria, and some traveled to Bettystown.
In a series of workshops, the children had the opportunity to recreate their journey large and small, within and beyond Ireland. The range and variety of the travels that emerged made it clear that traveling is a significant activity for all the children, not only for holidays, or fulfilling a nomadic lifestyle.
Many children in this book described the necessity for movement, through economic, political and religious pressure. Through a local lens the book touches on global issues, the vast number of displaced people throughout the world seeking a new home. All children have dreams for travelling in the future, and it is our hope that these journeys may be realised in freedom, without it being an economic necessity or a flight from danger. We hope Travellers of the World may bring a new respect for the road taken, the reasons for moving, but most of all for the traveler.
