Cultural Sustainability
How to preserve crafts traditions in a world that favors smooth, shiny status-symbols over slowly crafted artefacts
At the moment I am deeply engaged in creating a sustainable brand. I am focusing on traditional hand-weaving and natural textile dyeing in various regions of Indonesia, and my vision is to preserve endangered crafts traditions and engage in women’s empowerment in the villages I am collaborating with.
The immensely talented craftswomen with whom I work are masters at hand-weaving, for example the complicated art of songket weaving (which is an immensely time consuming textile weaving-technique) as well as traditional large-scale-loom weaving called endek weaving. The organic cotton yarn they use is dyed with local plants.
Their creations are beautiful! Tactilely nourishing and aesthetically sustainable. And yet, they struggle. The battle is not only with mass-produced fabrics and fast fashion, but also with a culture that favors smooth, shiny status-symbols over slowly crafted artefacts, and a society in which young people find it hard to imagine themselves as artisans.
