sempozyum_bildiri_kitabi

other people, that were there from Africa, they were part of the movement, but then
Nelson Mandela got freed and it was in George Square and they had a rally and it's the
first time I’ve bowed my head to anybody. I wouldn’t do it for [whispers] the Queen
[laughing] and there he was, I had stood three hours waiting for him coming.
This participatory project opens up new pathways for engaging women (especially those remote
from cultural capital) in the work of (women’s) archives and libraries whilst adding important
historical contexts and perspectives to the knowledge on women’s campaigning histories.
As the project was getting underway Delphine Dallison, one of 21 artists who had been
commissioned by GWL to create work inspired by our collections to mark our 21 st birthday chose to
use the badge collection as source for her work. She had noted the heterogeneity of the GWL badge
collection and illustrated the diversity of campaigns that women were involved with over and above
those with a direct feminist focus. Dallison was moved by the expanded field of women’s and
feminist actions from campaigning against pit closures to addressing inequalities around disabilities
and racism. She invited the staff team to name an issue that they were active in campaigning around
other than feminism. From this list Dallison created a print work and 20 new badges with the slogan’s
culled from the staff team’s specific personal concerns including composting, the right of asylum
seekers, opposition to toxic waste, digital rights and access to literacy. 10
Using the ubiquitous, banal artefact of a badge as a starting point for triggering memories and
hidden histories of women’s agency a wealth of information about how women become active
citizenships has been released. The Badges of Honour project has made this accessible through
online resources, transcripts and video and aural recordings that go some way to charting women’s
spearheading and active involvement in some of the movements and groups that has changed
Scotland’s history.
This paper concludes with two short extracts from video testimonies captured for the Badges of
Honour project that featured in the Badges of Honour exhibition at GWL, May 2014 and illustrate the
diverse topics mapped by this project, the first is from 93 year old ‘Vera’, the second from veteran
peace campaign veteran, ‘Alison’:
It was after the war, I think it was 1948, and they formed the Scotland‐USSR Society.
We had premises in Glasgow, eventually (it took a little while to get the premises). We
used to meet every week and we had visitors from the Soviet Union as well. The cruise
boats came in to Leith or Glasgow and we would have a big event maybe in the Central
Hotel or Central Halls in Glasgow, and we made a lot of friends that way too, from the
Soviet Union. We went nearly every year, and we had Burns Suppers in Moscow and
Leningrad; the best Burns Suppers we were ever at! We had to take the turnip and
potatoes with us, and the haggis, because the winters in Russia were so cold you couldn’t
get potatoes. We used to see at the airport in Leningrad, Moscow, all the turnips coming
off the plane, and all the whisky as well; that was important! Yes, I’m very proud of the
badge.
‘So, quite a lot of [my] badges do refer to women. So, some of them refer to particular
demonstrations, some that took place I think before ‘Embrace the Base’[Cruise missile
base at Greenham Common]. This is one of these, probably in 1980 […], and it simply says
‘I was there.’ October the 22 nd . That was quite a memorable demo, and the others made
reference to the specific weapons that… this one is SS20 (which were the cruise missiles
that were going to be sited at Greenham Common). And this one is about pensioners:
‘Pensioners for Peace’‐ I mean, that didn’t seem relevant to me at the time but it does
now! And a definite reference to the cruise missiles on that one ‘Diffuse Cruise’, and that
kind of thing. This one’s interesting as it makes reference to the GLC, which of course was
abolished by Margaret Thatcher.