An ongoing exhibition in Ulster, Northern Ireland, is about the textiles that memorialise conflict.
Threads of Empowerment: Conflict Textiles’ International Journey brings together 29 pieces from across the globe, some of which are in the Museum’s collection. The textiles represent moments of of violence and conflict, violation and poverty, oppression and environmental issues as seen through personal, poignant memory and making.
In 2005 the Zimbabwean Government launched a “clean-up operation” called ’Operation Murambatsvina’. The translation of the Shona is to refuse dirt”, colloquially “”Get rid of the filth” and it was framed as a way to combat illegal housing, disease and illicit activity. Thousands of people were displaced and the activity disrupted millions of lives and caused huge economic damage. There was considerable opposition to this destruction, locally, nationally and internationally as can be read here.
In 2012 a group of girls from the suburb of Killarney in the southern city of Bulawayo where protest and anti-government feeling was strong, came together to create an arpillera called The Day We Will Never Forget. The textile is part of this exhibition, a commemoration of this traumatic history.
With thanks to Shari Eppel, facilitator for the Zimbabwean work, and to our regular South African contributor.
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Learn more:
https://www.assayjournal.com/tracy-floreani-8203sewing-and-telling-on-textile-as-story-61.html
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