In Conversation with Mathilda Della Torre about "Conversations From Calais"
We recently had a conversation with Mathilda Della Torre, a long-time Breadwinners volunteer mentor and founder of @conversationsfromcalais to talk about the launch of her first book - “Conversations From Calais: Sharing Refugee Stories” ! Enjoy our conversation (scroll down for video) and make sure you get your hands on her book!
Can you introduce yourself and Conversations From Calais to our Breadwinners community?
Hi, I'm Mathilda and I am a designer based in London. I come from an illustration and graphic design background, and I spend a lot of my time drawing.
I started @conversationsfromcalais in 2019 and it came from my experience as a volunteer in northern France. Whenever I came back to the UK, I felt very frustrated by the media and politicians and how Calais was being represented. So I decided to start sharing my conversations that I was having with the people seeking asylum that I was meeting there.
For those who don’t know, can you explain the project?
It's a very, very simple concept. I just write down the conversation. They're always, from my perspective as a volunteer, which is really important because I'm not retelling the story of any refugees and I would never be able to do that and I don't want to be doing that. So it's it's just snippets of conversations and it's really aimed at re-humanizing the issue and just showing a different side I think of what is often represented as Calais.
In order to get them out as quickly and cheaply as possible, I just print them out and make glue at home with flour and water, and then just paste them up on the street, take a photo, and share them on Instagram.
What made you want to turn it into a book?
One thing that I really wanted to do, is to make a permanent archive collection for this project because it felt like these conversations needed to be remembered. But also, I wanted to create something that could be used in schools and libraries and our homes and all of that. So that's why I created this book.
The book, Conversations From Calais: Sharing Refugee Stories, is a collection of a lot of the conversations that we have shared. They've been submitted both by myself and other volunteers in Calais and northern France. And alongside each of the conversations, there are eight essays written by different people with lived experience, as well as people that have worked in refugee rights in the space, talking about their experience and the themes that relate to the book.
“This is a very serious topic but there’s a lot of joy and connection and laughter and kindness that comes out of it and that is present and needed in these very big topics. ”
Do you have a favourite conversation?
It’s hard because obviously I remember the people that I've had the conversations with, but I think I'm going to pick this one (pictured left) - it's not one of my conversations but one that was submitted to the project .
I think to me, this shows really well how ridiculous the situation is and adds like a sense of lightness and almost humour into it, which I find is really important and sometimes also missing in this conversation. And I hope that is something that is portrayed in the rest of this book, that this is a very serious topic but there's a lot of joy and connection and laughter and kindness that comes out of it and that is present and needed in these very big topics.
What was the best part about creating this book?
Taking the time to read over every single conversation that I've shared and remembering those conversations and remembering the beginning of that project was a very emotional journey, but one that I really enjoyed because it really reminded me of kind of the impact that I hope this project can have by creating a more holistic view of what people experience in Calais.
How can people support Conversations From Calais?
I really want people to read what is in the book and engage with it and pass it on and use it to have conversations and to just engage with this topic and use this as a first step to then engage with more work by people with lived experience.
Also all of the conversations are available to print off for free from our website. You can print them and paste them anywhere in the streets. You can translate them. They've been translated in 16 languages. They've been pasted in, I think 70 cities. So, use them. Use them to have conversations and to remind people that this really can't be forgotten and we really need everyone to be involved in this movement in order to make sure that we're allowing people to live a happy and safe life in whichever country they choose to.
“Use [the conversations] to have conversations and to remind people that this really can’t be forgotten and we really need everyone to be involved in this movement in order to make sure that we’re allowing people to live a happy and safe life in whichever country they choose to.”
We’re very lucky to count Mathilda as one of our incredible volunteers who has been a part of our community for a couple years now, giving 1-to-1 support to one of our young people as he progressed through all three of our programmes. Thank you Mathilda for telling us more about this moving project! Make sure. you visit her website or Instagram to get involved in the conversation!
Watch our full conversation with Mathilda below or on our Instagram :)