Clair Aldington

(Un) Wrapping Solidarity: the potential for making and gifting within restorative justice

A pre-recorded video presentation on the potential for making and gifting within restorative justice by Clair Aldington (UK) was available during the REstART week.

clair aldington

In her pre-recorded presentation, Clair Aldington presented the findings and handmade artefacts from her PhD, including a series of solidarity wrapping cloths, based on Japanese 'Furoshiki'. The 17 handmade solidarity wrapping cloths have been designed with her research participants, including restorative justice researchers and practitioners, former restorative justice participants (people harmed - victims, and people responsible for causing harm - offenders), restoratively trained artists, and dancers. This will be an opportunity to explore creatively the potential role for gift making in engendering solidarities between participants in restorative justice processes. 

On 1 December 2020, we met Clair on Zoom together with Gema Varona and Marian Liebmann.
On 5 December 2020, Clair took part in the REstARTISTS' common discussion.
The recordings of both talks are available. 

What does solidarity mean to you and how could an object come to symbolise it? 

Clair Aldington

Clair Aldington is a creative and a restorative practitioner in the final year of her PhD in Restorative Justice and Design at Northumbria University, UK. Her research views restorative justice through the lens of interaction ritual and investigates the ability of the co-created handmade object (an artist working alongside a restorative justice participant) to become a symbol of solidarity between participants in restorative justice processes. Clair has worked as an artist in diverse community settings, and as a creative and restorative practitioner with the Youth Offending Service in Oxford, England, and she founded the Space2face restorative justice arts charity in Shetland, Scotland.

In 2020, Clair also collaborated with the team of the European Forum for Restorative Justice for the new design of the European Restorative Justice Award, something we will be curious to present at the ceremony in Sassari 2021! She also participated as a speaker for the RJ World e-conference: watch her contribution below!