Tuesday 28 October 2014

Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest

Les Tricoteuses: The plain and purl of solidarity and protest

Liz Stops

 KNAG banner
Photo: Clare Twomey 2013


Abstract This paper focuses on the use of knitting as a protest tool by the Knitting Nannas Against Gas (KNAG), a group formed to combat the development of Unconventional Gas Mining (UGM) in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales. KNAG is socially and politically motivated, but not aligned to any political party. The group’s ‘Nannafesto’ emphasises care for community and country while protesting against corporate greed. I situate KNAG within a broad historical and contemporary framework of similarly motivated movements that have used knitting as a tool for social, cultural and ideological influence. I also elaborate on the act of knitting as a form of witness bearing, a means to facilitate calm persistence, a strategy for processing ideas and an instrument for reinforcing the threads connecting community. Read full paper


Full paper published in craft+design enquiry: issue 6 Issue 6 2014, Craft.Material.Memory

Knitting nannas, political, CSG, craft, activism

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