Each Child a Light is a participatory fabric-arts project honouring and remembering the children of Gaza murdered in Isreal’s ongoing genocide. Multiple acts of solidarity, of bearing witness, of mourning. A collective promise never to forget Gaza’s children.
From across the UK and internationally, the project brings together hundreds of people of all ages, backgrounds and levels of experience, including artists, crafters, activists; community and faith groups; children and students, to stitch unique decorative squares, each one dedicated to an individual child.
The project was formed in response to the persistent failure of UK institutions – media and government – to acknowledge the identities and stories of the individual children underlying the devastating death toll. In collaboration, and square by square, we are building a large-scale quilted artwork which honours each and every child and records their name – creating an essential record and lasting memorial to so many young lives ended in violence.
Whilst we struggle to comprehend the extent of death and destruction, the project is determined to ensure that Palestinian children are not remembered as numbers, will never be anonymous. At birth each child is given a name that is carefully and lovingly chosen, a name which carries meaning, heritage, a family identity. We will remember their names and remember them as children, sons and daughters who were unique individuals who were loved, who had dreams, deserved to play, to learn, and to live life to its fullest.
Inspired by radical traditions of quilting and fabric arts, our quilt will make visible the scale of the atrocity, creating a space to mark, to mourn and to bear witness. Each stitch an act of solidarity, of sorrow, and of kinship.
You are invited to join Each Child a Light to make your own dedication square, either at home or by attending one of our workshops
Together we will remember.
When I first heard about Each Child a Light, I was eager to take part and soon I was starting my first square, but to me it wasn’t just a square, it was a memory. A memory of the children in Gaza, trying to live their life and being killed for no matter other than their own existence. My first square was of a girl called Meira, 11 years old, just like me, an innocent child, just like me. So why, I thought, why, was she killed, why was it her life that ended, that life could’ve been mine, it could have been my friends at school it could have been anyone. But it was Meira. She got killed because she was in Gaza, because she was Gazan, and that does not make a difference to whether she should have to die. So I set to work on my first square – my first memory. I started embroidering, stitching a candle to represent her name, her light. For me this square was very emotional for me because I care so much about Palestine and about every child that was on that never ending list, I cared about Meira, I cared about Farah and I will never stop caring about Palestine. I will never stop protesting for Palestine until every child, mother, father, aunt, uncle, every person who has witnessed this genocide is free.
Sylvia, age 11
When I first heard about Each Child a Light I was eager to take part and soon I was starting my first square, but to me it wasn’t just a square, it was a memory. A memory of the children in Gaza, trying to live their life and being killed for no matter other than their own existence. My first square was of a girl called Meira, 11 years old, just like me, an innocent child, just like me. So why, I thought, why, was she killed, why was it her life that ended, that life could’ve been mine, it could have been my friends at school it could have been anyone. But it was Meira. She got killed because she was in Gaza, because she was Gazan, and that does not make a difference to whether she should have to die. So I set to work on my first square – my first memory. I started embroidering, stitching a candle to represent her name, her light. For me this square was very emotional for me because I care so much about Palestine and about every child that was on that never ending list, I cared about Meira, I cared about Farah and I will never stop caring about Palestine. I will never stop protesting for Palestine until every child, mother, father, aunt, uncle, every person who has witnessed this genocide is free.
Sylvia, age 11
When I first heard about Each Child a Light, I was eager to take part...
...and soon I was starting my first square, but to me it wasn’t just a square, it was a memory. A memory of the children in Gaza, trying to live their life and being killed for no matter other than their own existence. My first square was of a girl called Meira, 11 years old, just like me, an innocent child, just like me. So why, I thought, why, was she killed, why was it her life that ended, that life could’ve been mine, it could have been my friends at school it could have been anyone. But it was Meira. She got killed because she was in Gaza, because she was Gazan, and that does not make a difference to whether she should have to die. So I set to work on my first square – my first memory. I started embroidering, stitching a candle to represent her name, her light. For me this square was very emotional for me because I care so much about Palestine and about every child that was on that never ending list, I cared about Meira, I cared about Farah and I will never stop caring about Palestine. I will never stop protesting for Palestine until every child, mother, father, aunt, uncle, every person who has witnessed this genocide is free.
Sylvia, age 11
Each Child a Light in Artefact Magazine: Quilting to memorialise Gaza’s dead children.
The project memorialises the children killed by Israel’s genocide, and rises to the challenges and limitations of conceptualising the overwhelming death toll statistics. More than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza by Israel in the last 27 months.
Each Child a Light: Quilting to memorialise Gaza’s dead childrenRead More »