Memory as Resistance: A Tribute to WHRDs no longer with us
AWID’s Tribute is an art exhibition honouring feminists, women’s rights and social justice activists from around the world who are no longer with us.
In 2020, we are taking a turn
This year’s tribute tells stories and shares narratives about those who co-created feminist realities, have offered visions of alternatives to systems and actors that oppress us, and have proposed new ways of organising, mobilising, fighting, working, living, and learning.
49 new portraits of feminists and Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) are added to the gallery. While many of those we honour have passed away due to old age or illness, too many have been killed as a result of their work and who they are.
This increasing violence (by states, corporations, organized crime, unknown gunmen...) is not only aimed at individual activists but at our joint work and feminist realities.
The stories of activists we honour keep their legacy alive and carry their inspiration forward into our movements’ future work.
The portraits of the 2020 edition are designed by award winning illustrator and animator, Louisa Bertman.
AWID would like to thank the families and organizations who shared their personal stories and contributed to this memorial. We join them in continuing the remarkable work of these activists and WHRDs and forging efforts to ensure justice is achieved in cases that remain in impunity.
“They tried to bury us. They didn’t know we were seeds.” - Mexican Proverb
The Tribute was first launched in 2012
It took shape with a physical exhibit of portraits and biographies of feminists and activists who passed away at AWID’s 12th International Forum, in Turkey. It now lives as an online gallery, updated every year.
To date, 467 feminists and WHRDs are featured.
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Will there be accessibility measures at the Forum?
In short, yes! AWID is currently working with an Accessibility Committee to ensure that the Forum is as accessible as possible. We are also conducting an accessibility audit of the Forum venue, surrounding hotels and transportation. Detailed information about accessibility at the AWID Forum will be available in this section before the registration opens. Meanwhile, for any questions please contact us.
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As part of our commitment to engage more deeply with artists and the practice of co-creating Feminist Realities, AWID collaborated with an Artist Working Group to advance and strengthen feminist agendas and realities in their communities and movements through their creative expression. Our intention here is to bring feminist creatives together in a powerful and brave space where they grow and live freely, and where they shatter toxic narratives to replace them with transformative alternatives.
This exhibition gathers the work of artists and collectives from across the globe, those who are actively creating the difference that we want to see in the world. These feminist creatives include Upasana Agarwal, Nicole Barakat, Siphumeze Khundayi, Katia Herrera, Ali Chavez Leeds, Colectivo Morivivi, Ika Vantiani, and the curators behind the #MeToo in China exhibition. Their voices stand strong in their refusal to accept the limitations imposed by patriarchy, and amplify their commitments to the communities they are working in and with. In their own way, each artwork represents daily acts of resistance, untold stories and identities, connections to land and ancestry, and most importantly, the solidarity that exists within and amongst feminist movements and struggles. These artists are both inspired by and inspire creative strategies of feminist resistance and initiatives that show us how we can all live in a more just world - a world that centers care and healing.