The Peace Protector Uniform was an interactive display located on a pier in Halifax during Nocturne 2023 and it included a reconstructed military uniform, a recruitment office run by Raging Grannies and an activity table. The military uniform will continue as a display piece.
New recruits into the ‘Peace Force” designed their own medals for what they love and hope to protect. Medals represented human security, housing, Indigenous perspectives, trans and nonbinary rights, diversity and inclusion, climate mitigation through protection of oceans, forests, species and wildlife. Many medals showed homes and families – instead of service over self, self was integral to service.
Scroll down to find:
- “Peace Protector Uniform”
- Share your top priority for a transformed Canadian ‘military’
- The Peace Protector Uniform on Display
Peace Protector Uniform
The uniform is on display at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax from January 17 to February 24, 2024.
Please contact us at nsvoiceofwomen@gmail.com if you would like to display the art piece. Postcards are available that can be sent to politicians urging them to demilitarize and to spend on a culture of care and peace. We will send you some!
The QR code on the postcard includes this link. Please take a moment to complete the feedback activity regarding transforming military culture.
Project Details
“The military uniform is as uncomfortable as it is inspiring. It is far more than just threading, stitches, buttons and badges that gleam — it is earned over a crucible of trial and test…. Deeds and qualifications rest with perfection on the chest and sleeves of the wearer, telling a story.” Veteran M. Henneghan
The Peace Protector uniform tells another story. The surface is shaped by trees and waves. The exterior includes easily understood references, crucial to a culture of inclusion and care – purple ribbons calling out violence against women, red dresses and a sleeve of feathers made from khadi cloth. The hand spun, hand woven Gandhian cloth is a reference to the up-currents of reparations, reconciliation and civil rights. The small hearts with footprints, worn on the sleeve, remind us of Residential school children and the healing that needs to be done.
Birds nesting on the epaulettes of the uniform refer to Hartlen Point, now under threat by the DND planned land based testing facility. The image of the Earth calls out what is sorely overlooked in war mongering – the climate crises that would be well served with a skilled battalion of eco-protectors. The white poppy reminds us of the defenceless carnage of war – civilians and the land itself. A watch dangles representing the doomsday clock, set at 90 seconds to midnight, suspended over an exposed heart that brings us to vulnerability, of loving and being loved.
The interior of the uniform is lined with ‘what we need for this role’ of peace protectors. Packages of seeds, health care, housing, food, a naloxone kit, access to forests, clean water, mental health supports, are just a few. This uniform does not distinguish a civilian from a force as protectors. Dressing the part means to secure the planet’s health, and thereby our health, through nonviolent action.
The Peace Protector Uniform on Display
Artist, Kathrin Winkler, pointing to a “Doomsday Watch”.
As an interactive display, viewers are invited to “Make your own Military” by choosing a pocket on the Raging Granny skirt as an alternative to today’s ways of spending military funds.
Group of members NS Voice of Women
MAKE YOUR OWN MILITARY: Interactive Feedback
Nonviolent solutions to conflict challenges the industry of warfare. The purpose of the military has shifted. Share your input of what you would like to see in a transformed Canadian military.
Sources Cited:
*Minister of National Defence Advisory Panel on Systemic Racism and Discrimination – Final Report – January 2022
* the history of racism
*External Review Authority (the ERA)
* “Military police report 257 sexual misconduct incidents at cadet camps, units from 2016 to 2019.”
Notes:
MILITARY SPENDING Canada’s 88 F-35s will cost $14 billion (at least) just for the planes, but $74 billion in total. The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates the cost of 15 new warships at $84 billion for Canada’s. Combined with the $74 billion for fighter jets, that’s $158 billion, for 103 entirely unnecessary, dirty, and dangerous war machines! By contrast, last year Canada spent $8 billion on overseas aid, around 0.35% of its Gross National Product, half of the 0.7% target set by PM Pearson decades ago. So, to begin with, scrapping either the warplanes or the warships programme now would generate enough savings to finally meet or surpass the 0.7% target.
Do we want to follow in the footsteps of our southern neighbour? The Pentagon budget will be $844 billion: $2.3 billion a day; $96 million an hour; $1.6 million a minute; $27,000 a second. The Pentagon spends more each fortnight than the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) each year.
Instead we could have:
- affordable housing – community housing where people can play, support and live together and incorporate food production
- a city filled with urban farming, community gardens, food forests and edible landscaping.
- free public transportation with roads that prioritize that transportation along with walking and rolling
- free public arts – abundant encouragement and funding for arts of all kinds
- free healthcare – that includes dental and eye care
- public green spaces – increased health and biodiversity with less pollution, noise and concrete
This is such a wonderful, creative idea! I’m hoping to share it, and maybe have something like this for my community for the Campaign Nonviolence Action Days (Sept. 21 – Oct. 2).