peacemaking

By Alison Phipps

I was born and grew up in South Yorkshire. A county of dialects and proverbs and poverty. The City I am from – Sheffield – declared itself – like Aotearoa New Zealand – to be a Nuclear Free Zone. We had our own folk traditions, popularised by the singer Kate Rusby in Christmas Carols, of singing at Christmas in the streets in local pubs, local radio stations, into care homes, and community centres – taking cheer and traditional Yorkshire carols into places of hospitality and care.

It was always cold when we sang. I remember layers of scarves protecting my voice and bobble hats and knitted jumpers and stamping my feet on frosty pavements, and collecting coins door to door, and being given mince pies. It was mostly work done by women, the peace making, the caring and community centres, the serving of ale behind the bars, the plating up of mince pies, and it was mum who made sure I wrapped up warm. And mum waiting with a hot water bottle and hot juice when I came back in.

The phrase ‘Were tha born in a barn?’ in Yorkshire dialect accompanied my childhood. I’d often leave doors open as I went in and out and around the house. The family were trying to save on fuel costs so when I did leave the door open freezing cold air would blast through the home. The same with the care homes and community centres and pubs as we all traipsed through intent on singing and forgetting etiquette of door closing to protect one another from the cold.

The question ‘Were tha born in a barn?’ was like a refrain, a constant, non-too-polite reminder, almost a greeting. It brought laughter and action whenever we heard it. Because, no, I wasn’t born in a barn. My next door neighbour delivered me into this world, my Auntie Madge, as I knew her. It was too icy for mum to get to hospital that cold November day or for the midwife to reach our home safely. But when I forgot what has since become an ingrained habit, and left the door open, I was opening us all up to elements that would render us more vulnerable, and also bring conflict in with them.

Peace-making in CUSP is focused on the work of women and on the work of transforming conflicts or potential sources of conflict. Our work with meso-level cultural institutions like theatre groups, reading groups, libraries, cafés, dance companies is work with communities, at grassroots, so close to the drafts – if we think about that metaphor of grassroots more literally. It’s work where the cold air of the temperate zones needs to be kept at bay for the sake of the well-being of all. The scene I describe with Carol Singing around Sheffield is one where much of the cultural labour – dressing up warm, feeding and watering, and visiting – is embedded into cultural routines. This, for me, though, is where the real work of peace maintenance, of conflict prevention takes place.

‘Were tha born in a barn?’ Is a reminder, in earthy humour, of the need to conserve, preserve the peace and warmth of places where life happens. It’s culturally contextual of course. In hot countries doors are happily left open to allow cooler air to circulate, there might not even be doors. Peace making and maintaining peace, is gendered and temperature dependent too. But what I love about the humour in the phrase, the intonation moving towards laughter in the questioning accusation is that humour is what is being used to take away the sting. The Pyscho-therapist Beverley Costa of Pasalo Project https://www.pasaloproject.org/about.html says “we aren’t going to change anything without humour” and I am struck as I read the impassioned, intent, advocating work against gender based violence and femicide, against discrimination and the gender pay gap how vital that element of humour is to gentleness despite it all, to being still within a structure that is strong but which can elicit a change of behaviour.

So International Women’s Day 2022 comes around I’m celebrating the earthy humour, the small acts of maintaining the peace and the way this work, world wide, is largely undertaken by women…. The scarves, the food, the opening and closing of doors.

The Culture for Sustainable and Inclusive Peace (CUSP) is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) as part of the UK Governments Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).