Protest Badges
the story behind them
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Do you recognize our protest badges? Maybe you have seen them but you don't quite understand what are they. Well, today we want to share with you the story behind them.
They are important because they help us to connect with people, raise awareness and support our cause.
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In Juarez, families, activists and local organizations have for decades, fought an untiring fight for justice and change.
No effort has been able to stop the system behind the murders of the women and the violence towards the people, but the fight for justice has been very important, connecting people, helping setting up systems of local protection, arranged searches for the loved ones, established places to come and learn about human rights, provided social help.
NI EN MORE honors this fight by making unique hand embroidered protest badges, formed as a flower with a pink cross in the middle.
The cross references the crosses on all light poles in Cd Juarez, painted in protest by activists and victims’ families. The flower petals resemble hope, joy and life connected to economically independent women, and of course our use of botanical dye.
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It all started with this first sketch and the idea to invite people to participate in our embroidery workshops.
Together, we create the protest badges and meanwhile we embroider them we share stories, feelings and create awareness about the thousands of female homicides in Juarez and violence towards women in every part of the world.
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Workshop at Colona KM20 in Juarez.
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Today 400 protest badges have traveled the world and reached countries like Australia, Japan, UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Azerbaijan, Germany, France, Poland, USA and Mexico.
And we have arranged Workshops in cities such as: Ciudad Juarez, Mexico City, Guadalajara, El Paso, NYC, Munich, Oslo, Trondheim and Huddersfield.
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Protest badges at Colona KM20 in Juarez.
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All ages and genders have participated. A protest badge may travel through many hands and continents before being finished.
Last week NI EN MORE's team of Jane, Lise, Marcela and Claudia have been traveling in Mexico to promote the brand and raise funding.
In Mexico City the protest badge workshop were arranged in two beautiful spaces: Fabrica La Laguna, and Tetetlan Cultural Center. Tetetlan arranged a Venta Nomada for us, specially presenting our garments in their space.
People continued on badges started in a workshop at Huddersfield University held in June.
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Jane and Marcela at Tetetlan Cultural Center.
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The badges then continued its travel and had its next stop in Colona KM20, in the outskirts of Juarez. We were invited to join APPNES, an organization in Juarez, working with families living in vulnerable and difficult conditions. Among tables for painting, dollmaking, and a puppet show, many hands were weaving NI EN MORE protest badges.
The traces of the different hands making the badge tells a story of wandering and sharing, a story connected to the need of engagement and awareness to wander.
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Workshop at Fabrica La Laguna in Mexico City.
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After a workshop is finished participants get to share their experience. We are happy that they go home with a head full of ideas and a heart full of emotions.
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"I like to volunteer in these activities because when I graduate, I plan to work with people with disabilities. Still, I find this embroidery project of protest badges to be truly beautiful. The pink cross and the flower petals symbolizing hope, inspires me to continue even when it gets hard."
College student, Colona Km20 workshop.
"I would love for my young students to have the opportunity to do something similar to the flower protest badges. This embroidery work is calming and soothing. That it also is a way to bringing awareness to difficult situations makes it possible to talk about difficult topics. Thank you for letting me participate in the workshop."
Elementary school teacher, Fabrica la Laguna, CDMX workshop.
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You can buy our protest badges and support our cause in our webshop.
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NI EN MORE is a collective project, if you want to support us, there are many ways to do it:
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