Belfast Market photography project 'breaking stigma' on trauma for residents

A community in Belfast are breaking the stigma and silence that exists in their area surrounding substance use, trauma, and mental health issues through a photography project.

A recent rise in substance abuse and suicides in the Market area led to community workers considering new ways to improve health and well-being. The latest initiative is a photography project called The Market: A People's Tapestry, with people of all ages taking pictures of the area then meeting in discussion groups to talk about what they love about the area, and issues they would like to see resolved.

The Market, located close to Belfast city centre on the banks of the River Lagan, is one of the oldest working-class communities in the city. It is historically linked to Belfast's industrial revolution in the 19th century.

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The Troubles impacted the Market and other inner-city working-class communities whose traditional occupations were lost. Gradually many of these communities were lost to city centre shopping and financial development, while their residents moved out to housing estates on the outskirts

Áine Brady, the lead worker on the project, said it has already achieved results in its early stages. She said: “It was great to see people coming together to share their stories about life in the Market, what it is like to grow up here, to live here and to raise their families here. The arts based workshops helped them to open up and discuss important local issues. It was powerful to see residents from different generations get involved and share their stories.”

Speaking to Belfast Live about their involvement in the project, Molly O'Reilly and Lucy Flynn said it has helped them get to know their neighbours better, while tackling the nitty gritty issues people deal with on a daily basis.

Lucy said: "I was interested first as it was labelled as a photography project. But I didn't know it was going to go as deep as it did, as in depth about the Market as it did.

"It all started making sense when we were told to bring something meaningful from home. We were told to bring something that means a lot to you, that you can tell a story about for the next group.

"That's when we started getting into the nitty gritty of what's going on in the Market from our perspective, because obviously we're the younger people. Not a lot of people think us young people see a lot of the things that go on in the Market, like the stuff with addition, people don't think we see what's going on.

"But the MDA [Market Development Association] and residents are starting to realise we do see and it's happening with people our age as well."

As the weeks went on, the groups began to discuss issues in the area, how they're impacted by them, and ways they can resolve these. They soon began to discover the majority of residents were dealing with the same issues surrounding addiction and trauma.

By opening up and sharing how such issues have impacted them, residents are hoping to break down the stigma surrounding the issues.

Molly said: "I lost my mum recently about a year and a half ago, and it was stuff we were talking about in the group. I was interested in getting involved as it's stuff that has happened in my past, and I can share my story with other people and hear their stories about their life, to see how they feel.

"It's happening in our families, in our community, it's happening in people our age. The addiction stuff nowadays is getting out of hand, it's just taking over people's lives and taking over our kids."

"We started talking about how nearly everyone in the Market knows someone who struggles with addiction. I have family members who struggle with addiction, and I've had family members who have died by suicide because of things that have happened in the Market," Lucy said.

"But the Market's issue was silence. No one in the Market would ever speak about anything that had happened. We're trying to break that silence, but in a positive way.

"We're trying to take the bad things that happen and trying to cope with it in a way we're actually creating something along the way. That's what we were doing with the photos.

"Mostly, we were talking about it getting all the negativity out there in an open space where we knew it was people that were trusted because we had been in the group with them for a little while."

All in all, they're hoping to change how people may view the Market area of the city, to show a more realistic representation.

Molly added: "People try not to talk about it, but it's hard not to when you see it on a day to day basis. You're walking out in the street and seeing stuff happening in front of your eyes, and it's like it's normal nowadays. Where if you were coming into our area from somewhere different, you'd probably think this place is a dump.

"But we're trying to show people we are not the bad people, we're just trying to speak about what actually goes on and don't listen to what you hear to be honest. It's a good place, we love it, I love being from it, and I honestly don't think I'd want to live anywhere else. I've spent my whole life here, made so many friends, so many memories, and my whole family grew up here."

Those involved in the project said their involvement has already changed their perspective on where they're from, and made them proud to be from the Market. Now, their attention is turning to making real, lasting change.

Lucy said: "Growing up, anytime I mentioned I'm from the Market people would say it was a dodgy place. That's where the negative perspective started coming from for me because I would see people in school telling me it's a dump, that's where my negative thoughts about the area started manifesting themselves.

"I just want people coming to see the exhibition, to see the Market in the same way we see it. We want people to look at those photos to look at those platforms that are up there and see everybody's family names on the board to see that it's not this scary place outside the town where all this addiction takes place, it's run down. That's not how we want people to see it.

"We want them to see how it's thriving, how we have fun days, how we raise so much money to have these things going on. We really want the positive perspective to come through as it's so hard when the negative has been so prominent for years."

Molly added: "Growing up, I wouldn't have said where I was from. But now, I'd happily say I'm from the Market, I've never been more proud to say that.

"We want to make a real change. We know people are struggling, and addiction and trauma isn't a nice thing. Seeing my granny having to look after the four kids my mummy left behind, which wasn't her fault, it just breaks your heart.

"I just want people to see from our point of view that people know we're going through all this hardship in the Market, but you can still come together and put out something like this. We want people to know you don't automatically have to turn to drugs and alcohol, you can do something productive, you can deal with trauma in a different way."

The principal investigator on the project, Dr Karen McGuigan (Queen's University Communities and Place Lead for Community Health and Wellbeing) reflected: “The programme has empowered the community to address the stigma and silence around important issues such as intergenerational trauma, deprivation, and substance use.

"The programme utilises Arts based approaches to amplify community voice and recognises the importance of culture in responding to important public health issues. Working with our partners in the programme, we hope this Creative Communities approach will serve not only to empower the Market community, but that the associated learning has relevance and reach within other communities who face similar place-based challenges.”

The photographic exhibition The Market: A People's Tapestry is currently on display at 2 Royal Avenue.

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