Textiles As Testimony: Stitching Together Stories Of Struggle, Survival And Gendered History

As you enter the Javett Art Centre at the University of Pretoria, you see a towering wooden sculpture standing there, making its presence known.

It is a beautifully crafted sculpture commemorating the women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria in 1956 to protest the oppressive, inhumane pass laws.

It is symbolic of the perpetual silencing and invisibilising of women and their role in society.

Crafted several years ago by artist Noria Mabasa, the sculpture languished in storage in a government museum an altogether too familiar narrative. Like so many contributions made by women, it remained hidden for too long.

Indian scholar Gayatri Spivaks concept of the subaltern highlights the plight of women neglected and impeded, mocked and constrained by colonial and patriarchal structures.