Quilt Project

“Our country, Lesotho, has got a disease
We need blankets of grass and trees.”
— African children’s poem

SOLID (the Salt Spring Organization for Life Improvement & Development) invited Canadian communities to participate in a unique art project that links people and organizations with communities in sub-saharan Africa.
We have all heard of the AIDS pandemic that is claiming the lives of 8,000 people every single day, 6,000 of those deaths take place in sub-Saharan Africa. In Lesotho, a country Stephen Lewis has recommended as an ideal place for Canadians to make an impact, life expectancy has plummeted to 34, and of the country’s population of 2 million, there are 180,000 children who have been orphaned by AIDS. These devastating statistics can be turned around by communities in Canada; art and social justice are the backbone of our culture.
Our organization, SOLID, (the Salt Spring Organization for Life Improvement & Development) has been sending members to Africa for years, to take on and witness the AIDS pandemic on the front lines. Projects have sprung up out of Salt Springers’ connections and friendships in Africa; community gardens, reforestation projects, and AIDS awareness in schools are some of the initiatives we are committed to. Here at home, SOLID aims to educate people about what they can do personally to help people in Africa affected by AIDS, and how they can use their own resources and talents to make a difference.
We know art and ceremony move people in ways that the evening news doesn’t…. in this spirit SOLID has created a public art display called “A Day of AIDS”. 8,000 red and white flags, each one representing a life lost to AIDS, are arranged in the shape of an AIDS ribbon. This powerful tribute was displayed on Salt Spring in July of 2006; similar displays are being installed in 8 communities across Canada to co-incide with the 2006 International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

The flags themselves are little 8x6 inch squares of cotton/polyester broadcloth. Once the art installation is taken down, where do these little flags end up? Inspired by the poem at the top of the page, we decided to invite the artists, quilters, knitters, textile creators and crafty folk from all over Canada to make quilt squares out of ‘leftover’ flags. People’s individual quilt squares, appliquéd with fabric, painted, embroidered, felted, beaded, collaged or silkscreened, were sewn together into collective quilts and donated to a residential centre for orphans and handicapped children in Lesotho.