Blog by Lindsey Colbourne
Our autumn Blaenau Ffestiniog Merched Chwarel exhibitions in y Llyfrgell Library and Llechwedd Slate Caverns were an opportunity to reflect a little more on how the herstory of quarrying and women reflect in the present. We’d found more stories in Blaenau of contemporary ‘quarry women’ than anywhere else in North Wales: including the first woman ever to work underground (albeit working as a tour guide rather than mining), stories of women ‘secretly’ going in to help their families make up their quotas, women working/striking in the strike in ‘85/’86 and some surprising connections between rocks and kitchens.
Although we had our exhibition in Llanberis already, our exhibition in Llyfrgell Blaenau felt the first one that was embedded within a quarrying town. Contemporary life in Blaenau ambled through the doors an live-streamed through the windows: the slate-roofed houses, the cliffs and quarries, zip wires, washing lines. Coming home. It felt good to be back. We were, to be honest, a bit surprised by just how well the exhibition worked in the space, and in the context of a library.
Y Dresel Griddfan felt at home in the library too, loaded with objects people had donated, together with their stories (on index cards) of where and why they’d added them, and stories about their own connections and memories of dressers.
Meanwhile, at Llechwedd, under the gaze of the “Cofiwch Llechwedd!” graffitti (part of a thankfully successful campaign to stop Llechwedd being re-branded ‘Slate Mountain”) women’s work and stories appeared for the first time, in y Hen Banc and Dressing Shed. “Cofiwch y merched!”
There is no doubt of the centrality of the rich cultural legacy of slate quarrying in North Wales, and we’ve explored this throughout the three years (!) of Merched Chwarel. The “Cofiwch Llechwedd” sign being an example of just how important it still is.
But it is also possible - essential even - to look at the significance of quarrying on a more global scale. Not least given the way that the industry ‘roofed the world’ and was at the forefront of the development of steam power, with much of the large scale funding and ownership driven by colonialism and slavery (most obviously, through the Penrhyn estate). And this came centre stage when Lisa and I were working with National Theatre Wales over the summer on their ‘EGIN’ international climate change residency (along with Elin Tomos, Dafydd Gwyn and Lisa Heledd Jones).
EGIN residency visit to Dinorwig with Lindsey, Lisa, Elin Tomos and Dafydd Gwyn. Photo by Steve Peake
Vikram Iyengar performing in Chwarel Dinorwig, 2019
Vikram Iyengar performing in Lisa’s Gwisg Mam, Capel Curig 2019
During the EGIN residency it became obvious just how strong a 'symbol’ of our predominant culture of imperialism, colonialism, extractivism and exploitation (towards both human and non-human beings) are the quarries, a symbol of an attitude that has given rise to an era where all the ‘promise of progress’ is falling apart in an age of the Anthopocene.
In my video, ‘Quarry Women’: The First 100 Results, I explored that tale of our [societal] complicity in the ongoing exploitation and consumption of ‘human and non-human resources’, including our attitude to women at the same time. Created from an internet search of that title, the film was created for our exhibition at Llechwedd:
I am not sure if it ever was screened. Perhaps it is too slow, or too controversial, or too disturbing. But it feels a fitting end, like an end without a happy ending… unless we go deep and change our relationship with the world around us. I have wondered, throughout this project, whether quarries could be subject to a ‘truth and reconciliation’ commission, using this sort of process to openly address some of the difficult issues, and continuing divisions that still plague our communities. It is, after all, within the strong tradition of Welsh women’s leadership for peace.
It is possibly only through this kind of healing that we can heal our wider relationships with the world we live in.
