Why Waymakers?
We choose empowerment over charity, dignity over pity.
Labels are powerful, labels create a narrative, a story. Labels can also rob a person of their true identity and their humanity.
In this TedX Talk, Tim proposes a new way of seeing and naming those forcibly displaced from their homes, and invites listeners to join him.
People on the move.
When it comes to the world’s displaced — the labels and narratives our society has created are beyond disparaging.
Those seeking asylum are labelled illegal immigrants, boat people, cue jumpers. They are called displaced, placeless, stateless, undocumented migrants, and acronyms like IDPs.
More recently the phrase “people on the move” has been used to lump all displaced people under a single category.
The worth and true identity of refugees has been hijacked by labels. In the process, some of the world’s most vulnerable to poverty and exploitation are being dehumanized.
A new way …
Refugees have been forcibly displaced from their homes; they have bravely led their children and elderly, their extended families, to safety and provision.
They are people who are making a way where there is no way, determined to find safety and peace for their families. They are Waymakers.
When we see them in this light, we move from pity to compassion. We empower them with dignity, with hope.
The kind of creativity and courage it takes to not only survive, but thrive through crisis and great change, is inspiring.
Will you join us in seeing and calling the displaced … Waymakers?
“The global response to the refugee crisis is broken. Perhaps at the root of the problem, is the grossly inaccurate way the media, politicians, and world perceive and label the now 82.4 million displaced people in our world. Will you join me in seeing and calling the displaced ... Waymakers?”
— Tim Buxton