By Yan Chen and Joshua Low at Cherwell
On Tuesday 26th October, a local rendition of a global child displacement story unfolded in Oxford as crowds packed the streets to participate in ‘The Walk’, a public performance centered on ‘Little Amal’, a 3.5-metre Syrian refugee girl in giant, mobile puppet form.
The Walk, spearheaded by Good Chance Theatre, draws together local stories and artistic expressions to depict the experiences of unaccompanied refugee children around the world. After travelling more than 5,000 miles and making stops in villages, towns, and cities across Europe, Little Amal was first greeted by a jovial crowd outside Oxford Botanic Garden before she ventured inside to meet a giant puppet of Lewis Carroll’s Alice, provided by the Story Museum, Lead Producer of Amal’s journey in Oxford.
In the Botanic Garden performance, the Red Queen, one of Alice’s key nemeses, angrily scattered Amal’s memories across Oxford after interrogating her and demanding to search her bag. The two girls were compelled to search the city for the lost memories, making stops along High Street, Broad Street, Cornmarket Street, and Christ Church Meadow.
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Header image: taken by Asylum Welcome’s volunteer photographer: Pedro Dieguez