Jill Eastland reflects on working with a group of women in Cambridge this June.
‘I unravelled an old blanket and tried to make something out of it.’
‘I made a doll out of an old pad.’
The above quotes are from an Iranian woman who was in solitary confinement in an Iranian prison. She, along with the other participants taught us all, about courage.
She was a participant in a workshop for refugee week at Cambridge Women’s Resources Centre, run by artists Susan Mealing, Redell Olsen and me, Jill Eastland.
The participants were given prompts, quotations and artistic inspiration to respond to in any way that they wanted to, or to ignore. They made simple handmade books
about Courage (the theme for Refugee Week 2026) to take home with them.
The discussions were wide ranging and each of the artists and participants brought a different perspective to bear on the issue of Courage. The artists/organisers have also responded to the theme of Courage and are making artists books, inspired by the attendees to spread their learning and to continue questioning what courage means in these times.
Below are some more quotations from the workshop:
‘I think we can create the love for herself, if we haven’t had.’
Courage is, ‘doing what you have to’
Courage is, ‘recognising your power’
‘Recognising your power on reflection as a positive thing’
‘One way of practising courage is to get rid of distractions and focus. I stitched around the page to focus on what was important.’
Cambridge Women’s Resources Centre valued the workshop and are keen for us to do more work with them. Since the hotel for asylum seekers near Cambridge closed
last year and the women staying with them have been dispersed, their work with asylum seekers and refugees has diminished, but they would like to be able to
reinvigorate this work. They still have many women from migrant backgrounds attending regular activities and accessing support and counselling.
We are grateful for the support from Counterpoints, which helped us to be able to run the workshop. It would be great to be able to get more funding to continue this work.
Redell Olsen who is a writer, visual artist and academic, prepared a booklet to facilitate this workshop. However, we each have very different working methods, experiences and areas of expertise. We would like to learn from each other and provide more focused art activities with groups of migrants and refugees at Cambridge Women’s Resources Centre.
jilleastland.org
redellolsen.co.uk
susanmealing.com
