Systemic co-production through participatory theatre: Migrant domestic workers' rights via Waling Waling Drama Project
Original framing: “Co-production as political practice: The Waling Waling Drama Project” — bing news
The project centers the voices of migrant domestic workers, who are often rendered invisible in policy debates about labor rights. By co-producing knowledge with the affected community, it challenges the erasure of their expertise in shaping solutions. The methodology ensures that the narratives produced are not just about the workers but are authored by them, disrupting traditional power dynamics in knowledge production.
The Waling Waling Drama Project exemplifies how participatory theatre can serve as a decolonial tool for redistributing epistemic power in the context of migrant domestic workers' rights, aligning with indigenous traditions of storytelling as resistance and historical precedents like 'theatre of the oppressed'.
By centering the voices of marginalized workers, the project challenges the colonial legacies of development discourse, where 'participation' has often been a tool of governance rather than liberation. The project's methodology—rooted in the symbolism of the Waling Waling orchid and cross-cultural traditions of collective storytelling—demonstrates the potential of arts-based co-production to transform policy frameworks from within. However, its full potential lies in scaling these approaches beyond isolated projects to institutionalize co-production in labor policy, while ensuring that indigenous knowledge systems and worker-led organizations drive the agenda. This systemic shift requires confronting the power structures of academic institutions like IDS, which have historically mediated knowledge production in ways that obscure colonial continuities and prioritize institutional control over grassroots autonomy.