Interview with Jeska Grue, Atlantic Canada Organizer
In early April, we got to work with Jeska Grue who organized multiple stitch-ins in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, Canada to raise awareness for reproductive healthcare in Atlantic Canada, as well as our pending Supreme Court case in the U.S. We were so happy to work with Jeska and to learn more about the healthcare conditions where she lives. To hear more about her experience working on this project, please read her interview below. Thank you, Jeska, for your incredible support.
1. How did you hear about 5.4 Million and Counting and what inspired you to host a stitch-in in Atlantic Canada?
I heard about 5.4 Million and Counting over Instagram while going through my feed on a quiet night at a pub in my home of Sackville, New Brunswick. Someone had posted a beautiful photo of a finished swatch and I clicked through to find out about the project and and quickly decided to participate.
Atlantic Canada is predominantly rural and currently its provinces provide very limited abortion services. New Brunswick is the only Canadian province that does not provide funding for an abortion in a private, community-based clinic (and there is currently only one such clinic) – funded abortions are only offered in three hospitals province-wide. Until a very recent announcement, Prince Edward Island did not provide any surgical abortion services (they will begin at the end of 2016). PEI women have to travel to outside the province (which is an island) to receive a funded abortion – a travel allowance is not provided. Women in Labrador and rural Newfoundland travel to the province’s one clinic located its easternmost corner in the city of St. John’s. Currently, almost all Nova Scotian women seeking an abortion travel to Halifax to receive abortion services. Like Texas, a woman in Atlantic Canada could potentially travel several hundred kilometres (1.6 kilometres in a mile) one way to receive safe and legal abortion care.
At the Sackville stitch-in we had a copy of NB Reproductive Justice’s current petition to the province’s legislative assembly to begin public funding for community-based abortion clinics. Recent success in PEI is due to the Abortion Access Now PEI’s decision to take the province to court alongside creative Island activism. Taking a direct stand does work!
Hosting a 5.4 Million and Counting stitch-in was both a way to show solidarity with Texan women and maintain the courage to overcome our current Atlantic Canadian issues.
2. Does reproductive justice or fiber art relate to your personal work in any way?
Issues surrounding reproductive justice, student debt, labour and ecofeminism all enter my work. Recently I have been revisiting rug hooking (a traditional Atlantic Canadian craft of the past 150-200 years) using wool I’ve dyed only with foraged plant dyestuff. Rug hooking historically was a fine craft export product which depicted idyllic scenes but also caricatures of Atlantic Canadian life – sailboats, old barns, shorelines, etc. I hope to shake this up a bit and showcase other realities that are often left outside of tourism Atlantic Canada ;)
3. What aspects did you enjoy about hosting a stitch-in?
I was educated in fiber arts and seamstressing but have always been a little bit too shy to host a public event or workshop. My desire to host stitch-ins on behalf 5.4 Million and Counting was the impetus to finally do so! I really enjoyed the stitch-in’s conversations and the excitement of many participants attempting embroidery for the first time. I saw old friends and made new ones – we sat, stitched and talked about feminist politics, our lives, and where we hope to be going.
4. What advice would you give someone who is interested in hosting a stitch-in?
If you are interested in hosting a stitch-in – go for it! Hosting will only be a rewarding and fun experience. My logistical advice would be to schedule the stitch-in for at least 3 hours because the swatches take time, and everyone will want to stay and hang out anyways. I also collected finished swatches from participants after the stitch-in. If you want to provide embroidery supplies, fabric and hoops to any participants without previous embroidery experience, reach out to organizations and local artists who may have supplies they’d loan. I did not have a personal stash of embroidery hoops, but in Sackville the Owens Gallery and artist Rachel Thornton and in Halifax artist Anna Taylor (who does amazing feminist embroidery - www.annajoantaylor.com) generously loaned hoops.
Also contact your local artist centres and universities. 5.4 Million and Counting is a significant craftivist project that these spaces would love to support! Our Sackville stitch-in was located at Mount Allison University in the Department of Fine Arts and in Halifax we were hosted by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design’s Art Bar along with the Khyber Centre for the Arts.
