The History Tapestry Project: Narrating the story of Palestine through art

Folkloric panels and spacers were then made illustrating Palestinian heritage and culture, such as the traditional Palestinian wedding panel, the henna party panel, and traditional Palestinian dresses.

Other panels reflected life under Israeli occupation and carried symbols of defiance, such as the Land Day panel, the Handala spacer, and the Steadfast spacer, which was stitched by Samar Alhallaq in solidarity with female Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. She worked on the tapestry shortly before she was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza last summer along with her two sons and unborn baby.

“The war on Gaza put a big depression on the project. We lost Samar and everything came to a halt,” Chalmers said. “But Hasan, Samar’s husband, very much wanted the work to continue, and just like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the women started working on the panels again.”

Threads of identity

Palestinian embroidery has been the traditional handicraft of Palestinian women for centuries. It was passed down from generation to generation and was primarily manifest in the beautiful and skilfully embroidered clothing worn by local women. The design, stitching method and colours often reveal the wearer’s status and place of origin within historic Palestine.

Since the Nakba of 1948 and the creation of the state of Israel, Palestinian embroidery has taken on even more meaning and is seen as a symbol of Palestinian culture, and a valuable way of keeping Palestinian identity and heritage alive.

Its significance also stems from its various motifs and pattern designs that help to show off the diverse history of the land and its inhabitants and date back as far back as the Canaanites, who lived in the region some 4,000 years ago.

Many of those designs bear names that evoke various periods in Palestine’s history, such as the Canaanite star and Pasha's tent.

Palestinian author and academic Ghada Karmi, whose family fled Palestine in 1948, has been a patron of the project and is currently acting as a historical advisor to the UK team.

Karmi says she was was initially drawn to the project because of its celebration of Palestinian women and culture. However, over time Karmi became more interested in the project for its historical significance and rebuttal of the Zionist and Israeli narrative that lays claim to the land.

“Palestine is an ancient land and the people of Palestine, of course, changed over time, as there were invasions and colonial and imperial rulers. Some of those people became Jewish, some converted to Christianity, and many eventually converted to Islam and stayed on the land,” she said.

The next round of panels to be embroidered will embrace a wider span of history. The tapestry’s first panel will be characteristic of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic period, moving on to other periods, including the Stone, Bronze and Iron ages and then to periods of Roman, Byzantine and later Islamic rule, first through the Mamluk Sultanate and then the Ottomans.

It ends with the modern history of Palestine and the formation of the Israeli state and subsequent dispersal and occupation, while also shedding light on the historical Jewish presence as well.

“The message,” Karmi said, “is that there had been a continuity of the land and the people of that land until 1948 when something unprecedented in the history of Palestine happened, which is instead of the new invaders coming in with their particular ideas or style of living, for the first time they took the place of the indigenous population.”

Chalmers said she believes everyone will interpret the tapestry differently, but she also hopes that it will inspire people and make them think about how much they underestimated less well-known parts of the land's history.

Shayma al-Waheidi is a student from Gaza currently studying for a master’s degree at Oxford Brookes University in the UK. She is advising the project’s UK team, but on her return to Gaza she plans to become coordinator for the project’s Gaza branch.

“The importance of the project springs from its beautiful skilled artwork, cross-stitch embroidery and its preservation of the history of Palestine,” she told MEE. “Hopefully, it will be able to bring Palestine’s millennia-long heritage to light.”

A positive reception

The project’s treasurer, Judith English, has not had the long-term contact with Palestine that Chalmers and Hawari - who all founded the project together - have had. A newcomer to Palestinian issues, English started reading about the situation when her husband Sir Terence English, a cardiac surgeon, began visiting Gaza on medical trips.

“I was drawn to the idea of a Palestinian tapestry and I particularly thought that supporting other women was good,” English told MEE. “I very much had the feeling that involvement in creative activity, like textile art, can be a valuable way of sustaining hope and helping the women to have a sense of self-esteem as well.”

English said she is learning a lot about Palestine through the project, and she is currently taking the lead on fundraising opportunities and helping out with the project’s local events in Oxford, such as the annual Christmas Bazaar where they sell Palestinian products and embroidery to fundraise and compensate the embroiderers.

“It is certainly a project funded through smaller donations,” English said. “It has appealed to a wide range of people, and quite a lot of people have been giving small amounts of money.”