We are a consortium of women’s groups, academics and volunteers who are running an oral history project, ‘Greenham Women Everywhere’. We have obtained a Heritage Lottery grant to support volunteers who will interview 100 of the remaining living women involved in the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp. We will collate and organise these testimonies into an archival website, run twenty pop-up interactive exhibitions to help publicise the website on a local and national level and a permanent home for the digital collateral at The Women’s Library at the London School of Economics.
While this is an inspiring, worthwhile and long overdue project, there is so much more we could do. We have been overwhelmed by the response – in addition to the 100 Greenham women we have selected for interview as part of the Heritage project, another 150 have come forward to share their fascinating stories – and we want to hear from them all.
We want to make the best of a unique opportunity to tell this chapter of women’s history and develop new resources to make it available to a wide audience and a new generation. To do this, we need more funds – and that’s where we hope you can help.
Here’s what else we would like to do to promote a better understanding of the impact and legacy of Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp:
- Interview all additional 150 Greenham women and record their testimonies in high quality audio for broadcast use;
- Develop education and outreach audio-visual materials that are free to download for schools, colleges and universities;
- Create a permanent archive of the homemade banners, newsletters, photography, art, poetry and songs that characterised the non-violent direct action employed to such great effect by Greenham women.
Today, it is well understood that women in history have not been fairly represented in our educational curriculums and our cultural narratives frequently fail to champion women for their intellect, bravery and talent. Where there is little documentation on the first-hand experiences of some groups of women, there is still a lack of recognition of their achievements.
That is why we are asking for your support with our costs to cover volunteers’ expenses, purchase audio equipment, develop educational materials, create a new public archive and other costs. Even a small donation will help us to record and chronicle the diverse, creative and influential contribution of Greenham peace women to the world in which we live for future generations.
- Just £25 would fund the travel expenses for one of our volunteers to interview a Greenham woman
- £500 would allow us to organise a ‘memory sharing’ event with Greenham women and the community
- £1,500 would fund us and Greenham women to accept invitations to speak at conferences or take part in panel discussions at educational events across the UK and Europe
- £2,670 would allow us to purchase the broadcast quality audio recording equipment we need
- £10,000 would enable us to provide a permanent archive space for the objects and artefacts being given to us by Greenham women, such as this hand-embroidered banner from Derby Peace Women:
- £20,000 would enable further expansion our work to explore the connections between Greenham women, domestic/sexual violence and women in the various prisons where Greenham women were incarcerated in their hundreds
For more information on our project, please visit www.greenhamwomeneverywhere.co.uk.
With sincere thanks for your interest in this vital project and for your support,
Kate Kerrow and Rebecca Mordan
Project Leaders, Greenham Women Everywhere
