Every day Earth day, Maahi Roj is celebrating our Pale Blue Dot. We are one of a kind. So is this planet. The festival understands this and is sparking discussions, conversations and creative works that let us be our expressive selves in conformance with mother nature.
“An alternative vision of how we can live in a sustainable and beautiful manner with our materials, culture and our lifestyle,” explain the organizers. Take textiles, for example! Would I have ever thought of garments and clothing being sensitive to life? Does your shawl whisper to you? Can our sensitivity and compassion to textiles make us Eco-Heroes?
It isn’t just scientists. Earth day matters to people who love design as well; people in love with fabrics and textiles. The workshop held at Anantaya was all about memories and clothing, facilitated by Dr. Skye Morrison who is a folklorist and a designer.
Introduced by Ayush Kasliwal of AnanTaya, Dr. Skye Morrison looked a lady in love with her needles and threads, wearing a neckpiece of scissors and miniature yarn spools. She is a Canadian researcher and educator. Her love story with India started when she was here to teach design students of NID the art of making and flying kites. Every piece of cloth has a story to tell. And the story changes the way you look at it. The workshop involved sharing memories of textiles in a manner of storytelling and experiencing synesthesia thereby changing our perception of the meaning of cloth in our lives. We were all going to be making rumaals by the end of the session.
“Look at this shawl right here.” A black piece of cloth with red embroidered threads in it. She got the shawl from Kutch she said. Immediately, the cloth had a place of origin. To us, it was a traditional Rabaris shawl. To her, it was communal harmony. “You see, the Rabaris supplied the Vankars with fleeces from their sheep. In turn, the Vankars (the weavers) made veil clothes, skirts and blankets and sent it further to the Khatris – the dyers to dye the cloth. Once dyed, the cloth was sent back to the Rebari women who embellish it with dense and elaborate bright colored embroidery.” A circle of love, compassion, work and cloth making that I get to be a part of.
She bought this shawl in 1992 and how wonderful that she made sure she got to know each one of the community members of the circle who made this cloth personally.
A piece of cloth carrying memories of the people who made it and of those who own it now! What a wonderful story, what a wonderful journey!
Textiles become our second skin. We all have that favorite blanket of soft toy that we refuse to part with. Why? Comfort? The problem is as we grow and turn more ‘worldly’, we begin to hoard more textiles and lose that emotional sense with our belongings. Celebrating Earth Day, Dr. Morrison reminded us about the value of less, longer, lovelier.
And now, it was our chance to turn into storytellers. Seated in a circle we were all asked to write down and describe a piece of clothing, what it smells/feels or tastes like and a food we associate with it. What people shared was absolutely heartwarming. Feels like loud, tastes like honey, reminds of ras malai, soft as a cloud, as honey, of grandmother, of generations, grainy…
I remember thinking of my black tracks that feel soft and smells of dirt and roasted coffee that I once sipped on after movement classes with my dear ones. The track has holes in it today. But it is my most precious piece of cloth I fall back on. My mother better not even mention discarding it. Memory and textiles and sentiments – that is exactly what Dr. Skye wanted us to experience and create. Emotionally durable designs. Memories can make clothes come alive and have their own kinda history.
The question then comes – do we need more? Dr. Skye has an incredible enthusiasm for getting to know the people behind every piece of clothing she owns. She wants to bring back the sense of touch and connection with the clothes she wears. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if that is how conscious we were about purchasing and selling products to other people? Understanding the story behind it.
It isn’t surprising that nomads connect to the places they visit by owning a piece of native textile. It is rooted and a community’s identity. She hopes there will be a day when we would all adopt cotton sarees and give up on polyester ones, for ourselves and for our Earth.
She narrated the story of a village in Bihar where she worked with weaving ladies and got them to mark attendance by stitching a small piece of saree fall on a rumaal. One rumaal for one weaver. By the end of the month Dr. Skye realized she now possessed flags of textiles that were manifestations of their weavers, each unique because no two weavers stitched alike. Stitching is a very intimate process and it reveals a story that only you can tell.
The participants now picked up their rumaals and began weaving their stories on cloth. A story only they could tell.