Threads of peace

The Crochet Collective Goa and Mumbai Educational Trust have recently launched The Peace Sash Movement. NT BUZZ details

CHRISTINE MACHADO

While Cannes is currently abuzz with the film festival in full swing, there’s another curious sight in the city. A crochet sash in hues of white, blue, green and yellow is slowly doing its rounds. People are donning it and expressing their thoughts and concerns on peace in the world. Done in the mosaic stitch technique, what’s interesting is that this sash has been created by a 50+ group of enthusiastic crocheters from Goa.

Indeed, the Crochet Collective Goa are no strangers to creating pieces which have become the talk of the town. Having begun with the crochet Christmas tree at the Museum of Goa, Pilerne, last Christmas, the group has been doing thought-provoking crochet installations at different venues around the state. Their last creation ‘Unshackled Within’ is currently still on display at the ‘Show of Strength’ exhibition at Fort Aguad, Sinquerim.

“After we had finished up installing this piece, we began pondering on what we could do next. We wanted to do something meaningful with crochet,” shares co-founder Sharmila Majumdar. With the US-Iran War causing much anxiety and far reaching impacts, their thoughts turned to doing something along the lines of peace.

“At first, we thought of doing a jacket which would travel across countries but we finally settled on a peace sash,” says co-founder Sophy Sivaraman while Majumdar adds that they chose the sash for its celebratory connotations. “We wanted the sash to be a celebration of peace and spread the message of peace far and wide,” she says.

The different patterns and colours on the sash denote how people of different ethnicities, languages, and belief systems are all one humanity.

The Peace Sash Movement has been launched in collaboration with Mumbai Educational Trust. “Since most of us in the group are senior citizens and this campaign needed to be on social media to have an impact and wider connect, I got in touch with the director of Mumbai Educational Trust on this and she showed a keen interest to collaborate. Now, the students there are taking this project further,” says Sivaraman.

This intergeneration tie-up, points out Majumdar is also noteworthy as it shows that people across generations can also collaborate for peace.

While the sash has presently travelled to Cannes, they are hoping for it to travel to other parts of the world. “We are building a data base of travellers who would like to be associated with this message of peace. Anyone interested can wear this sash and share their thoughts on camera on peace in the world. The individual then hands it over to the next person,” explains Majumdar. The group has already received some videos from people who have participated in this.

After a year, the sash will return to Goa and the group will hold a multi-media presentation featuring the videos and detailing the journey.

According to Sivaraman crochet can be a very peaceful way of sending a message across. The art form too, she says, is very calming and one that can do wonders to a practitioner’s mental health. “I feel that mental health is such an important subject in the world today with all the unrest and climate crisis. So it is wonderful to bring in a crochet item into that dialogue, which is also useful for your own mental health.”

“Our hope is that in a very small way, we will be able to make some difference somewhere,” says Majumdar. We are not important people who make policies but we speak a language which many people would like to speak- the language of peace.”