By Liliana Marambio
The technique of embroidering feelings on pieces of sackcloth was born in Chile at the end of the '80s, when the voices of the relatives of prisoners and the "disappeared" of the military regime — the majority of them women — were not listened to.
This work of denunciation was called arpilleras. It set a historical precedent as a protest in an era when freedom of expression and constitutional rights were restricted.
Today, arpilleras have crossed the borders and play an important role, not only in Chile, but in all Latin America where they are also used as a means of denouncing and facing problems such as domestic violence, sexual abuse and destruction of the environment, among others. This craft also reached some countries in Europe, where it is presently used as a kind of therapy.
In Australia, a group of Latin American women are doing this work, inspired by the Chilean arpilleras created by the Relatives of Prisoners and the Disappeared Association, which has allowed the craft to be taken up in this country for the first time.
The result of this work is part of the decorations of the Maternity Ward at the Liverpool Hospital, in NSW, where an "arpilleran" mural, woven by the group, decorates one of the walls of the hall.
This work was part of a project called "Art to Break Isolation", organised by the Hoxton Park Community Health Centre and the Green Valley Community Centre.
The Spanish worker at the Hoxton Park Community Health Centre, Hilda Valenzuela, explains that it all began when the coordinator for the renovations at the Liverpool Hospital, Marilyn Opperman, asked the ethnic workers if they could participate in community art activities for the hospital. At the same time, the Department of Health Promotion asked them to take part in Mental Health Week.
"At that time I talked with Miriam Fenero, the community worker at the Green Valley Community Centre, about these suggestions and we decided to work together on the arpilleras workshops", says Hilda Valenzuela.
To this end, community artist Leticia Castro, who had done this work in Chile for eight years, was contacted. With the help of the coordinator for the renovations at the hospital, a small grant was given to cover the costs of material and child-care for the participants.
"This has been a real community development activity, since it involved everything; even the child minding was done by a sackcloth craftswoman. It is entirely a community group, for the workers are not the coordinators of the group but part of it, as a community artist is."
She explains that the theme of these works was emigration. The first part included reasons for migrating (Memories) and the second part life in the new environment (Hope).
'Changing Life'
During the workshop, a bilingual worker from the Department of women's Health facilitated the course "Changing Life", which deals with the problems arising from emigration, what was left behind, the traumas women face when leaving their country.
For Leticia Castro, all this has been a very enriching experience and process. "At the beginning it was hard to open up and bring forth the memories of what we used to do in our countries. It was all a bit slow, but after a while we were eager to say and do things; we found that time flew when we were together."
She says this has been a beautiful activity for her, since she never thought that all the experience she had from years of workshops for prisoners in Chile would ever be put into practice. "I hadn't done an arpillera for seven years. I brought two unfinished from Chile, and every time I brought one out I would end up crying, so I would fold it up and put it away again. But the group helped me overcome this, and for this reason it's been good and enriching for me to have been here."
Today they feel very happy because the Mercy Foundation Ltd has given them a subsidy to teach their work to other women in the community and to allow them to continue weaving arpilleras in their workshop.
The community worker says that from now on they'll work on children's games from Latin America, in a bid to counteract the invasion of TV into children's world.
"This goes to show how this kind of work is spreading and awakening the general interest not only of our community. Proof of it is the support the Mercy Foundation gave us so that other Hispanic women could join in", states Leticia.
Hilda Valenzuela points out that this same organisation offered them the chance to hold an exhibition, in November, with all their works, and the possibility of selling them to the public. There are also plans for another exhibition in the Australia National Museum, in Canberra.
"All this is very important for the group, because the project is growing, and offers opportunities to those participants who are interested in selling their work and obtaining an income from it, especially at this time of high unemployment. It will also allow us to consider other possibilities, like, for example, creating small cooperatives", she added.
Means of expression
Nancy Rivera, one of the participants in the workshops, despite being aware of the benefit of being able to sell the work if the person so wishes, wouldn't like this project to become merely commercial.
"I see it as a means of expressing our views on a political situation we lived in Chile. The arpillera is nothing new for me. I wove one in Chile when I was in prison, but I couldn't finish it, because I was released. I would like everybody to grasp its real meaning."
For this reason, she said it was important to explain to people their origin and the importance they had, not only in Chile, but in all Latin America.
Regarding the mural that decorates one of the walls of the maternity ward, she indicated it was an example of how Latin American people could contribute and show their art in an ongoing way, since the hospital is thinking of extending their participation. "It's good they are aware of our existence, of what we think and of our history. I'm very interested in what I have to say through my arpilleras, and that's why I'll continue taking part in this project — and, if my timetable doesn't allow me to, I'll send my work in", declared Nancy.
Meanwhile, for the community artist, keeping this project going is also something very special. "It means pouring out all we learned from our experiences. So we are using this as a channel to transmit these experiences, at the same time that it is a kind of therapy for us. Sometimes in life you make a great effort, you have to leave your country and your work. If I had had a choice, I would never have left it, but I had to; that's why I feel the arpilleras are my present contribution from everything I did for my country."
[Reprinted from Nosotras, an Australian Spanish-language women's magazine.]