Our Lives Through Embroidery: Narrative Accounts of the Women's Embroidery Project in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

The study explores the meanings newly employed women attach to the notion of being “emancipated.” It draws on critical feminist and post-colonial theorists to investigate how Black South Africa women (n = 21; age range = 30–55) with experience of oppression and colonialism use embroidery to narrate their personal histories. Three in-depth, individual semi-structured interviews and one focus group were conducted using convenience sampling within the embroidery collective. Lieblich, Tuval-Mashiach, and Zilber's (1998) narrative data analysis model and Overlien, Aronsson & Hyden's (2005) focus group data analysis were employed to explore key themes of renegotiation of gender roles, racial relations and personal stories stitched into bags that travel the world, re-presenting the women to a global audience. Findings reveal that the embroidery project enabled successful re-negotiation of gendered roles at home and in the community. Perceived proxy control by historically privileged others undermined the sense of empowerment in the women participants.