The Soundseekers Audio Festival, in partnership with UCC98.3FM, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI), EDI Unit UCC  and 40 community radio broadcasting partners, won gold earlier this year at the CRAOL Achievement Awards.

The Festival is an online and FM broadcast series multimedia festival that aims to inspire conversations with community radio broadcasting and European audiences  (via multimedia dissemination)  with the aim of critical engagement and reflection on issues of international displacement. This research activity examines the ability of Refugee/Asylum/Migrant/Undocumented communities to participate and engage in culturally immersive projects in multi-mediated spaces online, in Ireland, and across Europe to create their own narratives. Learners engage in 21st-century skills of creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking, allowing these communities to represent themselves through community radio platforms. Upon completion, participants and facilitators applied for digital badge accreditation from University College Cork. The badge was explicitly designed for this purpose.

The project is part of PhD student Kathy O’Hare’s research. Kathy also teaches in the Digital Arts & Humanities Department in UCC. The research attempts to go beyond the “capacity building” of digital skills and transgresses into evolving critical consciousness for participants and facilitators. The project’s pedagogical approach is deeply rooted in a Freirean understanding that “education is not neutral”.

Some words from the judges: Very important project involving Refugees and Migrant Communities. Along with partnerships with a vast number of stations and pushing the boundaries of making radio involving multi-mediated platforms. This programme shows strong devotion to community ethos and social benefit, giving voice and access to a marginalised community.

Doria Sibanba, a participant in the project and current postgraduate student in Dairy Technology at UCC, represented the Soundseekers at the awards ceremony.