Embroidery: A Thread of Healing

About This Photo

Embroidery is a key activity for young girls affected by gender-based violence as it encourages friendship and support between them, as well as learning a new skill together. Pieces are often made collectively to enhance this nurturing and safe environment – Dzaleka Refugee Camp, Malawi. Photo by Helen Storey.

How would you summarise your long-term projects with refugees?

Helen: I am working with those who have been long-term displaced in Dzaleka camp (Malawi) and Maratane camp (Mozambique), while staying in touch with the Zaatari Action work that’s now become self-sustaining with our Syrian colleagues in Jordan.

In Africa, we will be exploring new models to reverse refugee dependency on NGOs through making, adding skills and supporting the refugees to become the contracted suppliers to essential UNHCR procurements. Are we slowly becoming social engineers too? I’m looking at ways in which redesigning systems is as important as the physical work that you co-create.

Francesco: Through Decolonising Fashion and Textiles, we are engaging in a reciprocal process of textile and fashion making. We are shifting narratives around refugees, mapping ways to build resilience within the local community, framing collective visions for the future, and co-creating culturally significant fashion and textile products and artworks.

Lucy: I’ve been working over the last 30 years to bring attention to issues surrounding migration and displacement – specifically how cloth and stitch as a language are intimately connected to our personal identities, memories, and emotions. Through practice, I seek ways to render vulnerable communities visible and to question social acceptance. To challenge the distance between artists and society and advocate for a more connected, engaged and socially responsible approach to making art. Traces: Stories of Migration aims to reveal the stories connected to migrant history in the UK.

Source: Embroidery