All across Australia, knitters are uniting in protest against what they see as an undeniable turn towards misogynistic and right wing politics. How, you might ask, are they accomplishing that? By crafting in protest. 18 craft groups and 100 + other knitters have joined forces to create two huge knitted, protest banners and are preparing to take them on a road trip, the likes of which Australian politics have never seen. Spurred on by the media outrage over PM Gillard’s knitting photoshoot, they chose to make a political stand using knitting and proving once and for all that crafty women are a force to be reckoned with. You can learn more about their quest on their facebook page, including how you can get involved. If you’re not an Aus native, but you’d like to show your support for craft protesters standing up against misogyny, you can still donate to their campaign here.
Good luck, Knit Your Revolt!
I am Australian and a knitter. After reading this it left me wondering what relevance this has to helping me with my crafting and why was it even included.
I don’t think that it is neccessary to demean a political leader by including such a photograph and to even include the political views of any particular group in a crafting website.
Not all women hold these views, in fact I am looking forward to getting rid of a Government that mismanaged this country to such an extent that they have taken us from a massive surplus in funds to a massive deficit in a few short years.
I’ve been an email subscriber of CraftGossip for a long time -and am truly thankful for the utter wealth of information your daily links have provided. You have been a much-welcomed island of politically-free inspiration and education. Until what I read today.
Maybe I’m unclear or naive about the purpose of your indie crafts column. What I imagine are links to help for start-up crafts businesses/ crafting to help the less fortunate like Hurricane Sandy victims. But promoting a clearly political cause feels out of place here- as is it’s potentially divisive nature.
Clarifications: I do NOT support misogyny. I do support this group’s right to their views and their clever, creative vehicle to make their views heard. But are left/right labels and a group that talks of women “sticking their knitting needles into their uteruses” *really* a good message fit for CraftGossip? There are so many other venues for political activism and debate. And so few no-spin places that can bring together such a variety of people who simply love to craft.
Hello Ronnie and Lucy,
I’m sorry you were offended by this post. I merely wanted to share the interesting methods used by these protesters. I do not have any connection to these people, nor do I have any opinion on Australian Politics. (I’m an American.) I have written about activism using crafts before in this column several times, however this is my only post that touches directly on people protesting in response to an election. It is not a trend within the site, nor is it something I plan on writing about frequently. The Indie Crafts column is about people using crafts for different purposes, whether that is to support themselves in a business, to raise awareness about a topic, to make a statement through art, or to help others in need.
Thank you for sharing your opinions,
Rosie Bromberg
Thank you for your response, Rosie. I’m glad to know that this was a an indie-crafter-column anomaly rather than a trend.
Best regards,
Lucy
Rosie,
Thank you for the clarification.
Ronniie
I’m Australian but sadly I didn’t know about this so called ‘revolt’ within my own country – maybe that is because I’m a crochet person… ha ha Please folks don’t take this to heart too much after all we are Australian women with a wicked sense of humour as our menfolks… putting down of women or any bad treatment of women[misogyny]is not a goer in any country [as far as I’m concerned] & if you knew the actual lead-up to this ‘revolt’ you would understand the reason for the angnst felt by many, inclucing men.
Please… Just enjoy the ‘creativity’, it is Australian politics & you may be a bit like me & don’t often understand why some politics are played out the way they are in different countries – I keep saying it is a language difference… <3