Cultural Detective Profile on Liz Grover

By Dianne Hofner Saphiere

One of the biggest blessings of working with Cultural Detective is the incredibly talented, passionate and interesting people that I have the great pleasure of working with and getting to know. One of them who has really stood out for me in the past few months is Liz Grover. By her own choice, Liz has repeatedly, purposefully and independently (without institutional support) put herself into areas torn by war and ethnic strife. She talks with an excited glow in her eye and warm love in her heart about the people she has met and the experiences she’s had. Yet she’s survived a suicide bomber attacking her office and many other quite frightening experiences. Why put herself at risk in such a way?

“I grew up in a violent family environment. I have a strong desire to figure out peaceful communication,” she says. And what better way, I suppose, than by sharing the stories of those who practice peace in the midst of war? At 22 years old middle class, USA-born Liz departed for Afghanistan with US$100, a backpack, a one-way air ticket, and a whole lot of trust, seeking to go beyond western stereotypes of Afghanis, holding a deep-seated conviction that she would find like-minded people, even among those she perceived as most different from her on this planet. There she recorded the Buddhist history of Afghanistan, in addition to working for the UN and creating the website for the national elections.

Liz tells me she “helps people share their stories.” The media outlets she works with are writing, film and photography. She speaks Nepali, Dari, French and English. Liz spent time in East Timor photographing and chronicling the elections there. She travelled to Cambodia to document the stories of genocide survivors. There she also interviewed activists and community rebuilders, furthering her personal quest for learning and sharing it with us via powerful visual media. “Crazy experiences help me wake up,” she says. She recently helped tell the story of a woman who’d been harassed and raped over her 25-year career in the military. “The woman emailed me afterwards, saying the storytelling process had been so exhausting and also very healing.”

Moving back to the US in 2006, Liz helped organize the peace movement and installed a major public art exhibition on the Washington Mall, “Walk in their shoes,” to commemorate all who died in the Iraqi War. She is very excited by the powerful connection between art and activism.

How can we get more people like Liz in this world? What helped form her passion? “I was born an activist,” she says. At nine years old she approached her state governor to complain about the dumping of chemical waste in the local river, which he denied but which of course was later proven to be true. Fresh out of university she traveled to France to harvest grapes, and be next to Nepal where she studied with a Hindu mystic.

Liz’ advice about living and working productively in new environments is nothing new or earth-shattering: “don’t take anything personally, be as easygoing as possible, and realize the codes are different.” As a good Cultural Detective, she feels social class is one of the strongest cultural pulls out there. Liz sees the differences and wonders where, under all the differences, do we get to “the basics of language,” the real connections between people. She is truly a gift and adds powerful visual communication competence to an interculturalist message. But what’s most powerful about Liz, for me, is the fact that she is guided by her passion and commitment to tell the stories we don’t often hear. She has faith, she knows, and she acts on it. How many of us can say that in our daily lives? I hope that, generally speaking, I can. And Liz is a good reminder and inspiration.

Recently exposed to the intercultural field, Liz tells me, “There are many scholarly people and PhDs in the field. But it is important to have a balance with the not-so-scholarly approach.” She feels Cultural Detective is an essential, powerful and very practical tool for people going into new cultures; “I wish I had Cultural Detective before I went through all I did to learn the hard way. It provides a process for learning and collaborating.”

Eight years after that first trip to Afghanistan, Liz is currently looking for connections or projects that could take her to the Middle East. She tells me, “I miss the culture and I want to be there to use my intercultural skills in what could be one of the most transformational periods in the history of the region and the world.”

She has written a book, Butterfly On The Road, and is currently looking for a publisher. “I desperately want to share these stories,” she says. A link to the promo for her book provides more insight and information about her life story.

“I am also most excited about my current film project, Scarlet Poppy, which I'm co-producing with my former UN colleague and friend Peter Bussian, who wrote the screenplay and is the film's director. The film has already been selected by the prestigious Asian Project Market.”

Thank you, Liz, for being such a terrific Cultural Detective, and questing to spread peace and understanding around the world!