White poppies on Remembrance Day
As someone with fallen soldiers in the family I am quietly happy to wear the Red Poppy but I am even keener as mother to wear the White Poppy. Various mothers groups after WW1 lobbied the British Legion to change the Red Poppy centre from having the ‘Haig Fund’ on it to ‘No More War’ but this lobbying failed to address the desire of women’s groups to have a symbol that represented the pacifist desire for no more war along with the recognition of both the civilian and military victims of war. The Haig Fund was finally removed from the British Legion Poppies in 1994.
One of the walls of remembrance at the
Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
The White Poppy has been around just as long as the Red Poppy but many do not know or understand its origins in the pacifist movement. The White Poppy symbolises the belief that there are better ways to resolve conflicts than killing strangers and recognises all the victims of war.
Simpson’s Donkey Statue at AWM
So how can craft activities help with Remembrance Day and expanding peace round the world. We as crafters can support organisations that support the people who are affected by violence such as Médecins Sans Frontières. As part of the creed of this organisation they provide medical aid where it is most needed regardless of race, religion, politics and gender.
In the UK, Pennies for Hours of Pleasure better known as P/Hop has just celebrated their second anniversary. Happy Birthday Gang! We get pleasure from our crafting and we can support the effort of this organisation through our crafting activity. So from our pleasure we can make a difference in this world to help many of the nameless victims of war and other world events.
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Thank you for your very timely blog post Kotaatok.
Here’s a reminder that MSF doesn’t just treat people affected by conflict, MSF speaks up for them too.
We’ve extended the blog-a-long to Friday 12th November. If you would like to join in (the more the merrier) details of how to take part are here.
You can get all the blog-a-long updates by following p/hop on twitter and in the p/hop Ravelry group.
November 11th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Great post – I had never heard of the white poppy so found this really interesting. Always important to remember *all* victims of war so will look our for this in future years.
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