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We’re covering the story of Sophia Duleep Singh, exiled Indian princess who became a suffragette, in two parts. Today, we’re telling the stories of her grandfather, her father, and how she and her sisters came to be dependent upon Queen Victoria for their survival. On Wednesday, we’ll discuss the role she played in the movement for women’s suffrage in Britain. 

Here’s a link to our notes and research. 

The Anarchist Feminist Poster Collective

The Anarchist Feminist Poster Collective (AFPC)-a collection of anarchists, feminists, separatists and budding artists-operated in Adelaide throughout the early 1980s.[i] One of their members, Ann Marie Morrissey, explains “We were much more amateur than our Sydney sisters as we were not trained artists but activists with a desire to write on walls!” [ii] Operating in conjunction with local women’s organisations the collective made posters advertising marches, women’s peace actions and dances; they voiced their opinions on the environment, sexual harassment and nuclear mining, combining bold text with simple illustrations.

Morrissey writes:

“It was an amazing time. Change was happening and we felt we were part of it. We often had lengthy discussions about ownership of copyright, as the screens and ink swished backward and forward . . . Megan [Schlunke], Sally [O'Wheel] and I often chewed over the tensions between having what is now called ‘creative commons’ and the fact that women artists’ often remained historically invisible, in which case, it would be a radical act to claim ownership of our work. As a result of these discussions we evolved very collaborative and fair ways of working together.” [iii]

She goes on to describe the way the group operated, with one member being designated as the ‘main designer’ on each project. In liaising with the commissioning organisation and collaborating with fellow AFPC members the resulting work was both an individual and collective effort.[iv] She writes:

“We always knew who 'authored’ each work although we had produced them collectively”.[v]