Transforming relations through oral history performance: restorative justice and the DOHR project

Central to restorative justice is a commitment to sharing and listening to first voice. This is required for the work of transitioning to just relations. The Restorative Inquiry for the Nova Scotia Home for Colored Children (The Home), and its Digital Oral Histories for Reconciliation (DOHR) project, offers a significant example of the power of restorative justice for transitional justice through the performance of oral histories. DOHR has created a curriculum centred on a virtual reality experience of former residents’ oral histories. This paper examines how this curriculum supports restorative justice through a pedagogy of listening and relational scenography.