Hand Papermaking Statement on Equity In Response to the Palestinian Crisis

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At Hand Papermaking, we preserve, inform, inspire, and celebrate the transformative act of hand papermaking. Our work is guided by four principles, one of them being Equity, which states that “We acknowledge that we have been operating within a culture that perpetuates social inequities...we are resolved to challenge unjust systems so that we can truly reflect the field’s full breadth of work and practitioners.”

As publishers of cultural heritage, we are committed to advocating for the livelihoods, safety, and human rights of all people within our global community, with the understanding that the field of hand papermaking cannot exist or flourish under imperialism, war, oppression, or genocide. Hand Papermaking is part of a cultural and humanistic global ecosystem. As such, we consider it our responsibility to respond when the ecosystem is threatened, by using our platforms and presence in the world to uplift stories and voices of those who are most impacted by and connected to those threats.

While we acknowledge that humanitarian crises are taking place throughout the world, we are moved in this present moment to help preserve and bring attention to Palestinian papermaking, artists, and culture. The Palestinian people are currently enduring a horrific existential crisis, which follows over seven decades of displacement from their land and water, and efforts to disrupt and erase their culture. As hand papermakers, we work intimately with land (fiber), water, and culture; we can’t imagine the loss of these essential elements, and we marvel at the resiliency of the Palestinian people.

Hand Papermaking commits to using its platforms to amplify the work and voices of Palestinians who have been historically underrepresented in our publications and to work with colleagues in the papermaking field and beyond to use our collective networks and combined platforms to help preserve and support the continuation of Palestinian culture. In addition, this humanitarian and cultural crisis has caused us to examine our editorial policies more generally. Hand Papermaking will be incorporating policies to ascertain how scholarship that is being proposed for our publications is being funded; additionally, Hand Papermaking will not accept funding or offers of collaboration with institutions that are complicit with human-rights violations.

We envision a world of just and lasting peace and safety for all humans. May our work as hand papermakers move in alignment with our guiding principles, and continue to uplift and preserve the full range of the field’s work and practitioners around the world.

We offer the following resources to learn more:

Amnesty International

BDS Movement

Human Rights Watch

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights

We are grateful to the publications, organizations, and individuals who served as models in our discussion. We welcome dialogue with our readers. Please be in touch with us at equitycommittee@handpapermaking.org.

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