Partnership led by Academi Heddwch Cymru The Women’s Peace Petition: Project Centenary

A nationwide project to promote peace-making in communities across Wales and beyond

Between 2023-24, Academi Heddwch Cymru (Wales’s national peace institute) led and managed a major project partnership entitled Hawlio Heddwch that worked to commemorate the centenary of the Women’s Peace Petition 1923-24.

The project partnership, which was supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, was made up of various groups and national organisations such as the Welsh Centre for International Affairs (now known as Cymru Global), Women’s Archive Wales, the Smithsonian Institution in the US, Heddwch Nain Mam-gu, the National Library of Wales, Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales, and more.

Between 1923 and 1924, 390,296 women from Wales – around a third of the country’s female population at the time – signed an appeal to the women of the United States of America calling for world peace following the horrors of World War I.

The Hawlio Heddwch project worked to remember, celebrate and realise the dreams of the remarkable female peace ambassadors from one hundred years ago, utilising the petition’s legacy to promote peace-making today in communities across Wales and internationally.

This included the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, USA, gifting the original petition and oak chest to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth; engaging in outreach talks, workshops, conferences; transcribing creative responses to the story; and uncovering hidden histories – ancestral, community, national and international.

Participants discovered ancestors and individuals from their own communities who had been involved, and played a part in preserving a generation of Welsh women’s stories – some of which are now archived on the People’s Collection Wales website. The independent evaluation of the project showed that 91% of the 48 people interviewed had developed their understanding of
women’s history in Wales.

Educational resources and tools have been created and are being used in primary and secondary schools to introduce this example of Wales’s peace heritage to a new generation of children and young people, and to inspire them to find out more and to take action for peace themselves.

This previously hidden history now brings to life the vision of Welsh women whose legacy aspired to be “the proud heritage of a warless world”.

It has thus inspired the creation of the Rhwydwaith Gwireddu Network, a space for people motivated by the Welsh Women’s Peace Petition to come together to work towards a vision of Wales as a Nation of Peace.

Other states that follow the Nation of Peace model, such as Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, see peace as something that evolves as part of a national dialogue, and its hallmark is the manner in which they conduct their relationships, internally and on the international stage.

Becoming a Nation of Peace would have a positive impact on how Wales governs itself as a devolved nation with diverse communities and interests, which would in turn stimulate discussions on peaceful communities and cohesion.

Not only would becoming a Nation of Peace be of intrinsic value, but, above all, promoting and championing peace has a value in its own right.

Watch our film encapsulating the spirit of the project below.