As part of Refugee week 2024, Routes organised a Banner Making Workshop with artist Aram Han Sifuentes.
The UK has a long history of using banners as a tool for activism, as a way of people expressing themselves, and a means for people to share their stories. Banners were made by all sorts of organisations that had a marching tradition, but perhaps particularly most recognisable will be the trade union banners of the labour movement. Looking back on the history of banners in the UK, we can see the history of the struggles that people have fought for; to support the miners strikes, to protest nuclear war and poll tax, and to secure many of the worker rights we all have today.
The asylum system that we currently have in the UK has been designed to create a hostile environment for those who are seeking safety. In the last few years we have seen countless bills passed through parliament that have made conditions worse, culminating in the recent Rwanda Bill. There have been many campaigns, protests and solidarity efforts in an attempt to change things, and the fight continues.
This Refugee Week, we invited participants to create their own banners, with a slogan of their choice.
Protests are not a safe place for everyone; for asylum seekers, or anyone with insecure immigration status, the consequences of being arrested could be deportation. And with the increase of police powers at protests under the Police Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, the risk of arrest at protests has increased. Our hope was that this workshop gave everyone the chance to make a banner, and get involved with the issues that they care about, regardless of whether they feel able to go on a march. The workshop itself was centred around creativity, fun and self-expression.
We were honoured to be joined by artist Aram Han Sifuentes, who runs banner making workshops as part of their Banner Lending Library project. In Aram’s own words:
Banners are a way for me to resist what is happening in the United States and in the world. It is a way to put my voice out there and not stay silent. I cannot be silent. However, as a non citizen and a new mother, I cannot always go to protests. And in these workshops I realized that there were many people who came because they needed to find a way to participate, resist, and speak up but also couldn’t always go to protests because they too were mothers, non-citizens, undocumented- those who would be at great risk if caught up and arrested. My protest banner making workshops has become a place where people come together in solidarity through making. And making is, in and of itself, a form of resistance.
Here are the beautiful banners made by participants in our workshop
You can read more about Aram’s work, and lending libraries here.
If you are a refugee or asylum seeker and worried about your rights when attending protests, please read this guidance from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants.
