Documenting women’s role in war and peace
A Polish World War II resistance fighter is featured in a new Senedd exhibition detailing the impact of war on women in Wales. Thomas Deacon reports...
THE effect of war on women in Wales and how they have contributed to peace in the last 100 years is on display in an exhibition at the Senedd.
Women, War and Peace looks at the impact of war on women through various case studies and historical documents including a little-known petition signed by hundreds of thousands of women in Wales calling for peace in the 1920s.
Created by the Welsh Centre for International Affairs through their Wales for Peace project, the exhibition features work by photographer Lee Karen Stow who documented the stories of women affected by war.
Lee said: “In 2017, Wales for Peace asked me to photograph some of the many women in Wales involved in or affected by war and conflict, along with a fraction of women who have campaigned and who continue to work and hope for peace.
“The faces on the walls will only be a few examples of the many individuals out there whose stories have yet to be told and shared.
“We hope this exhibition can begin a conversation about the historic and ongoing presence of war on our lives, and the ongoing search for peace.”
One case study documented by Lee describes a Polish WWII resistance fighter, now living in Penrhos, near Aberystwyth.
Danuta Wardle-Wisniowiecka said: “For four years we had been harassed by the Germans. Shooting us in the street – for four years! We were ready to fight. We used under ground sewers.
“It was macabre. You can’t believe. It was very small. You could only crawl like a dog.”
One of the documents included in the exhibition is the Women’s Petition for Peace 1923-24 where over the course of a few months 390,296 women in Wales, around 60% of the female population, signed a petition calling on American women to use their influence to ask their government to join the League of Nations to try an avoid another world war.
The exhibition also includes the Welsh National Book of Remembrance that contains the names of around 35,000 names of men and women who died in the First World War, with the exhibition focusing on the women listed under the Queen Mary Army Auxiliary Corps.
Ffion Fielding, exhibitions and engagement coordinator for Wales for Peace, said: “When we became aware of Lee’s work we jumped at the chance to bring such a high-profile photographer to Wales.
“As a project we work with communities to find and share their hidden histories and we often felt that women’s stories were missing, particularly in relation to the First World War.
“We hope the exhibition will inspire families to research their own stories and share them with the nation through the Wales for Peace project.”
Women, War and Peace will be on display until September 30.