Primary Artist: San Francisco Fireworks
Created: San Francisco Collective, 1992
Medium: Offset printed
Dimensions: 17″ x 23″
Governments in both North and South America were set to observe October 11, 1992 as 500 years since the “discovery of the Americas.”
However, Indigenous people throughout the continent decided to mark it as “500 Years of Colonialism and Resistance.” Starting in 1990 with the first continental conference of Indian peoples in Quito, Ecuador, Indigenous organizations began to organize for an entire year of demonstrations, campaigns and education. See the Declaration of Quito July 1990
Women Against Imperialism (WAI) joined the effort and made this quilt in honor of women’s resistance. The central square is a weaving together of all the others shown in the periphery. It also honors the weaving done by indigenous women throughout the ages. WAI began its year of actions in solidarity with the “500 Years of Colonialism and Resistance” with International Women’s Day 1992, followed by other events and marches scheduled through the whole of the year. The nationwide protests changed the observance of “Columbus Day” to that of Indigenous Peoples Day within many communities and was declared as such by the US in 2021.
Image: Photograph of a quilt with 11 squares: Top Left to Right: 1) Left band of wood grain with gun target shaped as a women’s symbol with blue band on left of square with half-moon. 2) Image of a woman’s body with two hands, one covering the top of the torso and one covering the bottom, 3) Drawing of two stylized women, one with barbed-wire in her fist the other with her fist in the air, the right women is wearing the flag of Ireland as her head scarf, a third woman in the background is wear a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf around her shoulders. Center row from Left: 4) Representational person holding a torch done in an ancient Aztec style surrounded by a snake done in the same style, 5 & 6) woven piece of material, Bottom row from the left; 9) Puerto Rican flag on a flag poles in front of a blue sky and poke dot ground, 10) image of a stylized Central American women in native dress of the region. 12) Image of two people, one with a stylized chain around their neck with African fabrics in the background, 12) Stylized head of a women with one fist up inside a double set of women’s symbols coming out of a stylized closet.
Words: On quilt squares: 1) Stop Violence Against Women 2) Our Bodies Our Lives 3) End all Occupations, from Ireland to Palestine 4) Second Continental, Chasiky of Auto Descubrimiento 7) 500 Years of Resistance, 8) Native American style shield with spiral decoration with feathers to the left and right of the shield, 9) Puerto Rico Libre, 10) Que Viva El Pueblo de Centro Amerika, 12) Lesbians are Out for Liberation,
Color: black, blue, yellow, red, on white paper
Event: Demonstrate Saturday, March 7, San Francisco CA,
Event Sponsors: Chicano Moratorium, International Indian Treaty Council, International Women’s Day Committee, and MUMBRAS (Brazilian Immigrant Women), Mujerío’s International Committee, Sistah Boom, Women Against Imperialism
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