Everything is political

A discussion about the choices we make, plus social justice and climate action colouring sheets.

Last week I shared a few posts in my Instagram stories sharing information about the current dire situation in Gaza. It’s no surprise, I received a deluge of negative messages, rudeness, conspiracies and general nonsense. One theme amongst these messages was that people were angry at me for getting political. I was told to stay in my lane, that they had followed me for craft ideas and were disappointed or annoyed that I was sharing political content and my personal view points on my Instagram account.

My response to those comments is that: EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL!

Every choice we make about how we live our lives is political. How you treat your partner and friends, how we care for loved ones and neighbors, how we show up, or not, in our communities, if we give money to charity or volunteer our time to help others. All these choices have a political meaning and consequence.

Where we shop, what brands we buy or boycott, where we bank or save our money and even the type of job we do reflects how we show up in the world. Do we buy fast fashion or shop second hand; purchase from Amazon or support a local store? Do we fix and mend broken things or throw them out and buy something new? Again, political.

How we use or abuse the natural world around us is political. Do we pollute and destroy or try to preserve the natural world? Do we view ourselves as above or part of nature? Do we recycle rubbish? Do we care for animals?

The food we eat is political. Do you choose to eat meat, buy local or grow your own food? Do you share what you have with others?

If we decide to have children or not, and how we raise children is very political. Are we authoritarian, permissive or somewhere in between in our approach to parenting? Or do we choose to step outside that paradigm and raise our children with an emphasis on autonomy and consent?

How and where children learn is political. Do our children go to a private or public school? Does the school follow a specific pedagogy or share religious teachings? Or maybe you choose to step outside of mainstream education and home educate. Again, these choices are political.

Do you follow a religion and if so, the ethos of your place of worship you choose to attend is again a political choice.

The type of books, newspapers, magazines or websites we read effects how we think and has political consequences. Do we ban books or use literature as a way to learn about people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences?

Our decision to use social media or not, and what kind of content we follow is political.

Do we choose to vote or protest?

Even our decision to talk about or ignore politics is political.

And yes, children’s art and crafts can be political too. The way we engage in creative projects with young people effects how they feel about themselves and can be a reflection of how we treat children in general. Do we create projects where we expect cookie cutter replicas or do we value personal expression and creativity? Do we correct, control, judge and grade? Or do we create a space for artistic exploration and creativity to flourish without judgement?

No only is our approach to art with children political, the kind of topics or artists we learn about is a political choice too. Do we just look at western, white artists or actively seek out diverse voices? Art has always been used as a was to express ideas and through engaging in projects inspired by artists from different cultures, we can empathize and learn about the experiences, opinions and experiences of others.

I will say it again, every choice we make about how we live our lives and show up in the world is political. If we avoid or ignore this, we become passive participants rather than actively shaping the kind of world we live in.

WE CAN USE ART TO PROTEST TOO!

On my website, I have a range of colouring pages and activity sheets exploring different social justice and environmental themes. All of these can be downloaded and coloured in to create posters to share in your home, school or local community.

Lets make some art and share some love with the communities around us! If you have a particular slogan or theme you would like me to make colouring sheets about, leave a message below.

For paid subscribers, I will share links to download all my social justice and climate action colouring sheets below: