For two years, from May 2013 to April 2015, more than 100 individuals and 20 community groups have met, chatted, knitted and written at PeaceKnits events and workshops about the many sides of war and peace experienced since 1915.
Through PeaceKnits Pop-Up preparations, we've considered direct impacts on men, women and communities of WW1 and subsequent conflicts. And we've also considered the different impacts on those left to manage the home front.
Women's responses in Australia to impacts of WW1 varied widely – from those who fully supported the British Empire (and the need for more men to join the volunteer Australian Imperial Force) to those who considered war an inadequate way to resolve differences between empires.
Women here and in other countries found many ways to express their different views, and to support the many organisations (for and against the war) that flourished in spite of, or due to, threats presented by the world's first total war.
A flourishing of art, poetry, and handmade / knitted products to help "make-do" by women of the WW1 period (and again in WW2) help us understand how women found ways of expressing and engaging their energies, fears and needs.
See a chorus of women website for full program.
See a chorus of women website for tickets and pricing information.