Images of some stones already illustrated. Photo: Courtesy of Barbara Mark.
‘War is much bigger than just the military offensive.’
More’s the pity: Barbara Mark needs young help with a creative approach to war
I would like to ask children and young people who may be reading the Friend for some help, conversation and contacts.
We are a group set up by Southern Marches Area Meeting to support a project to promote understanding and sympathy for the plight of noncombatants during war. You will have been aware of the news coverage of the ‘D-Day’ landings a few weeks ago, and you may also be aware that this country is in a remembrance period for those who fought during world war one.
Our group is looking in a different direction. We are looking at noncombatants and the consequences that war can have for them. This does not distract from the terrible things that happen to the fighting forces, but it brings in a different perspective. As war rages, people are displaced and made homeless. They can be left short of food, or be injured or killed. Hospitals, schools and whole towns are destroyed. Those not in the place where fighting is going on can still be affected by losing sons, brothers, sisters and parents. War is much bigger than just the military offensive.
To look at this we have devised a craft project to paint scenes of war from the noncombatant’s point of view, on a pebble or broken piece of concrete or brick. Illustrated below are the sort of things we have done so far.
Can you help us? We would love you to paint some stones and photograph them and send them to us. These stones can then be collected and displayed at a Meeting house near you or kept in a special place at home. Maybe we can even show some of them in another article in the Friend.
‘The Pity of War’, which is what we have called this project after advice from Meeting for Sufferings, is also raising money to instal a sculpture at the National Memorial Arboretum near Lichfield. A Friend from our Area Meeting observed that there was nothing there to remember the noncombatants: the forgotten, the lost and sometimes the destitute. If we think of Yemen or even, closer to home, the refugees from the Syrian war, we can see the suffering. It will be good to have a place of remembrance for them.
Please get in touch for more information, or with photos, comments, and ideas of other things we can do.
Further information: barbaramark@hotmail.co.uk.
