The exhibition is named after New Zealand engineer A.M. Hamilton (1898–1972), who is notable for building the Hamilton Road through Kurdistan.
In his book, “Road through Kurdistan,” published in 1937, Hamilton describes the numerous challenges he overcame to construct a route through some of the world’s most beautiful, but difficult terrain in Kurdistan, while also working with a variety of ethnic and religious groups.
The exhibition marks the 100th anniversary of post-WWI peace treaties signed by the imperial powers which created the modern borders between Iraq, Iran, Turkey, and Syria, denying the Kurds an independent state.
The exhibition also covers the Anfal genocide where the former Iraqi regime killed nearly 182,000 Kurds in the late 1980s and the fight against the Islamic State since 2014.
“It’s not a political exhibition, because Gulan is not a political organization and we steer completely away from politics,” Wilding told Kurdistan 24, “but [rather], it is an issue-based exhibition.”
“It’s difficult to organize an exhibition about this region without including the recent struggles with ISIS and all the terrible things that happened such as the persecution of the Yezidis,” he added.