Mum’s The Word is a collaborative arts project between creative practitioner Rebecca Livesey-Wright and communities of parents and children (both young and grown-up) from Camelon and Tamfourhill.

Developed over a series of workshops in the spring of 2022, the core focus of the project was to use conversation, words and phrases to explore key themes and feelings from motherhood. From the light-hearted and humorous to moments of reflection and contemplation, the groups came up with slogans which were drawn from their experiences of being parents, or from their relationships to their own caregivers, later applying these slogans to a range of clothing. Each member of the groups took home a tea-towel, tote bag or T-shirt printed and decorated with fabric paints, wood-cut letters and fabric pens.

The Mum’s The Word banner functions as a collaboration of collaborations, featuring one phrase from each of the 6 groups that participated in the project. Each group decided on a phrase which they felt best represented their collective experience.

Growth and the natural environment became the central theme of the banner, beginning with the Muslim Women’s Rainbow Group’s Urdu phrase which, translated, means “the mother is a cool shade”, a metaphor for the protection and comfort a mother can always provide for her children. From there, the Supporting Falkirk Young Parents Project added “growing up together”, the large and small flower symbolising the growth of both the mum and child. The Baby and Toddler play group at Tamfourhill Community Hub added “a dirty wain is a happy bairn”, which was a very appropriate phrase given that theirs was the group who added the leaf-like painted handprints.

The Tamfourhill Parent Programme, who had children of all different ages, spent time talking about the challenges that come at each stage of childhood. They had all been told, “it gets easier” but weren’t sure if it actually did! They chose to rephrase this statement as a question, placing it at the top of the banner in blue, symbolising the ‘blue-sky thinking’ of the sentence. A group of women who meet weekly to cook together in Tamfourhill, added a food related phrase; “broccoli are trees and make you grow tall”, a playful look at the little white lies all parents tell their kids to keep them healthy (and make their own lives a little easier). Finally, THRIVE to Keep Well, at Camelon Community Centre, a group that meets to develop their confidence, motivation and self-esteem added their phrase, “believe in yourself and you will grow”, a beautiful representation of the skills they’ve learnt and their journey not only as mums but as people in their own right.

Rebecca Livesey-Wright is a Glasgow-based queer community-focused creative practitioner, working in facilitation & coordination with a curatorial lens. They are driven by an approach of unearthing hidden narratives by putting into dialogue individual experiences & works. Rebecca is committed to working with communities to enhance social inclusion & social justice through the arts & culture. Inspired by their own experiences of single pregnancy and parenthood, they are currently developing a project which will bring artists and single parents together to explore the specific experiences of raising children and existing in the world as single parents.

Special thanks to: Samina Ali (The Rainbow Muslim Women’s Group Falkirk), Adele Deely and Kenina Williamson (Supporting Falkirk Young Parents Project), Lynne Boslem (Tamfourhill Community Hub), Jackie Turnbull and Catriona Morrison (THRIVE to Keep Well), and Paul Eames, Carol Whyte and Evelyn Boyle (Falkirk Council).