Tenby-based Artisan Avenue and Stand Up to Racism West Wales members made a second attempt to deliver a giant, six-foot by four-foot postcard to the UK Government, on Tuesday; this time via the Whitland Office of local MP Simon Hart.

The first attempt, on September 5, to the UK Government Home Office buildings in Cardiff was to coincide with the start of a legal challenge being brought against the policy to deport some people claiming sanctuary to Rwanda: “a country in the middle of Africa with an appalling human rights record,” campaigners point out.

Despite both first and second delivery attempts being met with locked doors, the group remains undeterred.

Local artist Anna Waters, explained:

We made a second delivery attempt, to draw attention to the second legal challenge being brought against this policy. This time by Asylum Aid. The High Court will give its ruling on this and the earlier challenge brought by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) and others, back in September, at the same time.

The giant postcard is the result of, ‘A Hand in Protest’ an online protest, organised by Artisan Avenue. They invited their small social media audience to express how they felt about the Rwanda plan, within online drawings of their own hands for inclusion in the postcard. Over the few weeks the project ran, over 40 participants submitted ‘hands in protest’, a substantial number choosing to remain anonymous.

“Time, finance, geography, accessibility and fear factors can all place restraints on people protesting in person at organised events. We wanted to create another avenue to allow people to have their voices heard,”  said Anna. “Those of us who do protest in person have appreciated the extended solidarity from those who are unable to and we’ll continue to create avenues for all to protest against policies which run counter to our ideology in Wales.”

The message on the back of the giant postcard, contains a poem written by participant Mark Lewis, which draws together the relevance of the hand images with the wider ideology of many in ‘the land of song’. It’s an ideology backed, campaigners say, by numerous legislative measures from the Welsh Government. These include The Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, with its goals of the creation of a “More Equal … Globally Responsible Wales of Cohesive Communities”, the announcement of Wales as the World’s first Nation of Sanctuary in 2019 and The Race Equality Action Plan of 2021.

Anna added: “In our opinion, enforced transportation of vulnerable people, thousands of miles against their will reeks of our colonial past and far-right wing dictatorships: Only the establishment of safe legal routes for claiming asylum in the UK, will bring an end to the channel drownings and illegal actions of people smugglers.”

The ‘Hands in Protest’ have also been taken to London, by a participant, on a banner to the first phase of the court hearing on September 5. Combined with the HTV Evening News Reporting of the Cardiff protest on the same day, the ‘Hands in Protest’ are speaking loudly: demonstrating that art is certainly an avenue to protest ! 

The group has more delivery dates planned for the giant postcard and invites all wishing to find out more about organised protest events to follow the Facebook Page for Stand Up To Racism West Wales: https://www.facebook.com/SUTRWestWales/

Simon Hart has been contacted for comment.