A NEW project recreating the Occupation Tapestry in paintings risked changing history with “absolutely awful” changes, one of the original supervisors has said.
Philippa Romeril (85) criticised the changes which included replacing a person’s details with the names of the young people who worked on the piece.
The “Colour Our Collection – Occupation Tapestry” project saw community groups recreate stitched panels representing life under the Occupation as acrylic paintings. Over 100 Islanders took part.
Mrs Romeril was one of the stitchers who made the original tapestry in the 1980s and 1990s after seeing a newspaper advert and, after a few lessons, submitting a trial piece.
She became a coordinator for the St Helier stitching team, meeting on Thursdays at the St John’s Ambulance Headquarters on Midvale Road.
Though she had done some embroidery and dressmaking before, she learnt to stitch specifically for the Occupation Tapestry. Others who had made tapestries before struggled with the technique used, she added.
The St Helier panel, called “Restrictions”, uses vignettes to show what life was like during the Occupation. It is on display with the rest of the tapestry at the Maritime Museum and depicts how curfews were enforced with military presence in the streets and how the JEP was censored.
But a new project that saw youth groups recreate the tapestry changed details to the panel’s centrepiece, Mrs Romeril said. Where the depiction of an identity card shows the details of a real woman – Louise Chevalier – youth groups had replaced the text with their own names.
Mrs Romeril condemned the change as “most disrespectful” to Ms Chevalier’s memory and to her family.
Elsewhere in the panel, Mrs Romeril said, pictures of leaflets dropped by the RAF – one of few sources of British news during a time of heavy censorship – were filled in in the new artwork with the text of “Beautiful Jersey” in Jèrriais and English.
“The plane didn’t drop ‘Beautiful Jersey’ – why would they?” Mrs Romeril said.
She added: “It’s absolutely awful. I couldn’t believe they’d done that, and put those children’s names on instead of Louise Chevalier’s details.
“The Occupation Tapestry is history, really.”
None of the other panels were changed and Mrs Romeril added that she didn’t want to criticise the young people who took part in the painting project, merely the design.
Mrs Romeril said she had heard about the Colour Our Collection project, but chose not to take part, having put in so much work the first time around.
When the paintings are given to parishes and community groups, she said she worried that this inaccurate depiction would be displayed without people having the original to refer back to.
Jersey Heritage said two staff members had spoken “at length” with Mrs Romeril. But she said her complaints had fallen on deaf ears.
Head of programmes Vic Tanner Davy said it was “such a shame Mrs Romeril did not embrace the ‘Colour our Collection – Occupation Tapestry’ community project with the same enthusiasm as other people who stitched the original tapestry.”
Others, he said had painted panels and socialised with other stitchers.
He added that the project was “designed to be an artistic interpretation of the original tapestry” and that community groups of all ages had taken part.
“We were delighted the Youth Arts teenagers joined in with such enthusiasm and were so proud of their painting that they wanted to add some artistic touches that resonated with them and to sign it,” he said.
The piece will displayed at the Youth Centre, he said, which was “rather wonderful” and would provoke discussion among young people and leaders.
