When the Rana Plaza collapse occurred on 24 April 2013, I was working at the trainstation, selling coffee and snacks to mostly rushing travellers. I read in shock and sadness about the eight-story Rana Plaza commercial building collapsed due to a structural failure. The search for survivors lasted for 19 days and ended on 13 May 2013, with a confirmed death toll of 1,134.
In the months after the disaster, I saw people coming out of the trains with big bags full of cheap cloths. The first * Primark in the Netherlands just opened in Eindhoven, and the news of what happened to their clothing makers apparently didn’t stop anyone from shopping. I swore I would never shop at Primark, not even enter, or at any of the known Fast Fashion brands.
I was at that moment in time the most broke I ever was, but I mostly wore secondhand cloths. And still do. It wasn’t until 2016 I got my first custommade batik clothing. A luxury I saved for to buy and let make. Clothing pieces I still own and wear now.
Mended armpit in my favourite batikdress
But a piece of the same fabric behind it
The batik dress I wear the most, got damaged. And I repaired it to keep on wearing it. I usually save pieces of the batik my cloths are made from. I ask the tailor to keep the cut off. They are useful when repairs are needed as with my favorite dress.
I always mended cloths, at first mostly to alter them or make them fit better. As I started buying more cloths that were pre-loved, I noticed I don’t mind previous mends. They are actually a plus sometimes, knowing someone enjoyed the outfit before me.
Since mending is an act of resistance against Fast Fashion and a tool used in the Fashion Revolution as protest. I wanted to share this day my thoughts on mending with examples from the past. These mends bring the wearers closer to us and show how caring for what we wear has been part of our history, and is hopefully part of our future too.
Mended parts in batik TM-616-1
For the talk I gave at UvA I showed how mends can actually help us with provenance research. The mends tell us the clothing piece was worn and not just collected. An important distinction to make when dealing with objects collected in an colonial setting.
So how can we find out more about the provenance of a batik without knowing who made it. Here some details of a batik from the Wereldmuseum collection in Amsterdam, inventory-number TM-616-1. It is designed as a sarong, so a hip cloth, with a kepala on the left, with a motif build up in squares and triangles, and a badan, the largest part, with a bird of paradise repeated on it. When I got to see it in the depot I found several mended parts. Small holes were carefully sown with matching thread. The selvedge, the edges of the batik were damaged and bigger tears were sown up. Clearly the wearer mended these parts so she could keep wearing the sarong.
Sarongs were and are worn as hip cloths. It was usually worn by women together with a kebaya, a kind of blouse. The kebaya developed from the beginning of 19th century from a long length to a shorter one ending at the hip. The outfit was not complete without a pair of slippers, which were often decorated with beads. These slippers would damage the bottom of the sarong, giving the tears we often see repaired on batiks. So this batik was worn.
The digital database of the museum gives just a small insight in the actual data available, see here the info on this Batik. It will have the date: That can be when it was donated/gifted, acquired, or made. Location, this is often added by a curator or conservator later. When objects were acquired during colonial times, they didn’t really care about the people making it or wearing. It was just another object to display. At the Wereldmuseum they have of most objects still the original inventory-cards. The older ones are handwritten, the newer ones are typed on a typewriter. Through the inventory-cards I could find who donated the batik, which gave me a possible wearer, and through that info a possible location it was from and clearer way of dating the batik.
Mends can tell us also about if the clothing was worn multiple times and was important to maintain, even maybe expensive or precious, so mending was needed to keep on wearing it. This reveals to us something about the wearer. With the research on the white kebaya (link previous post), we got in our hands many kebaya’s of which the wearer was unknown. Not because there wasn’t someone who was living at the right time at the right moment to be the wearer, but because their children were told they never wore such a garment or didn’t tell them anything about it.
The fact it was often carefully stored, already tells us, it was important enough to keep. It could either be the wearer kept it as a memory of a past time, or as as a keepsake of loved ones. This is often the case with batiks, when researching their provenance in museum collection. They were donated not by the wearers themselves, but by their husband or children.
The white kebaya’s were often still with the actual families, providing us with possible data on the wearer.
Kebaya of Annie Glaser on display at KB in Den Haag, October 2024
Photo by Koen de Wit
For the exhibition at KB we showed the white kebaya’s together with the wearers stories and a photograph of the wearer, sometimes also in white kebaya. The oldest kebaya we had on display had such wonderful mends. It was the kebaya of Annie Glaser, the grandmother of Isette Min-Buyn.
Annie Glaser was born in Semarang on Java in 1877 and passed away in in 1959 in Doorwerth in the Netherlands. She was a Dutch teacher who befriended Raden Adjeng Kartini and her sisters in 1902. They often met and wrote letters to each other. The kebaya is of a high quality, made of fabric from European decorated with handmade lace possible from Sumatra. The kebaya was kept her granddaughter Isette Min-Buyn and we hope to find a place for it in a collection were the story of the kebaya can be told.
Small careful mends in the white kebaya of Annie Glaser
The next Mend In Public Day will be on 26th April 2025!
The idea is simple: get out into your local community and stitch in protest against disposable fashion. Amidst busy Saturday shoppers, we will repair our torn pockets and broken seams and spark conversations on making Loved Clothes Last. Read more here!
Happy Mending!
* The first Primark in the Netherlands was opened in 2008 in Rotterdam
After picking up my badge for the symposium in Laos
Talk at De Lakenhal in Leiden on 6 April
about the Leidse Cottonprinting Company (Leidsche Katoenmaatschappij)
Photo by Koen de Wit
Talk at the International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles
(IASSRT) symposium in Laos
Sorry for not updating, I have been sharing stories, but not here on my blog, so time for a much needed update. After returning from my journey abroad end of November 2024, I had right away a depot visit, worked on a private collection and gave a guest lecture at the university in Amsterdam.
I took time off in January and February to catch up on all the things I didn’t get to finish before I left, but mostly spend it making new plans, writing blogs for Modemuze and preparing for talks.
Showing batiks from my own collection and brought by the audience on 16 March
during a talk on Batik influenced by Chinese culture
Photo by Koen de Wit
End of February I gave my first talk of this year, and after that I gave 4 more, all on different topics. It felt like a lecturer’s life for me. I do enjoy sharing stories in the form of a talk. Selecting images for the slideshow, digging in my archive of own made photographs and historical pictures. Thinking on what talk about, what angles to address and with what to conclude. To create a flow in which the audience can go with me, following my train of thought and can have hopefully the same ‘aha’ moments as I had when researching it. Apart from selecting images to show, I always try to include actual textiles, books and making tools. Depending on the space, I either show the textiles myself, ask someone to show it around or just pass it along. So people can really get a closer look. I also enjoy dressing up for the gig. Of course in style, either in batik, or kebaya, to make Batik Statements on stage. The suit I let made for my exhibition ‘Masa depan Batik’ opening is a fan favorite. I am always asked by the audience if I can tell something about my outfit, which is so nice. The kebaya my friend Liesna made for me has been wonderful to wear during two talks now on the researchproject ‘Meaning of the white kebaya’. The colorful flower-design modern kebaya gives the right contrast with the herstory of the colonial, yet still relevant white European style kebaya we talk about.
My talk on the herstory of the white kebaya at KB on 3 October 2024
Photo by Koen de Wit
Dido Michielsen and I looking at the white kebaya exhibition
we made at KB in Den Haag.
Photo by Koen de Wit
So what have been sharing in my talks. Last year I got to give a total of 10 talks. Mostly on my research done on the Dutch influence on Batik, specifically the impact of the imitations, but also to share new research I done with Dido Michielsen on the white kebaya. On 3 October we organized a full day program to explore this clothing piece, that is part of our Dutch colonial history and is still worn in Southeast Asia. The reason to start researching was the private collection of Dido Michielsen, in which batiks and kebaya’s have been saved worn by familymembers. But who exactly worn them hasn’t been passed on. We joined forces to research the pieces and hope in this way to unravel their provenance. Of the batiks I knew a lot already, but of kebaya’s I knew little. The 10 kebaya were all white with a straight bottom edge, mostly decorated with lace. This is here considered European style or even ‘Indisch’ (Indo-European). I started looking for information, reading in books and articled. The same, short narrative of this garment seemed to be repeated everywhere. That this kebaya was to emphasis the wearers position, specifically as a position above everyone else in the former Dutch East Indies, nowadays Indonesia. The garment was also according to most authors better, more expensive and luxuries than what was worn traditionally locally. This Eurocentric point of view was highlighted by the end date of the white kebaya, after the 1920’s no lady was wearing it, certainly not outdoors, only perhaps Indo-Europeans still wore it at home. Europeans frown upon it and in literature, mostly novels, of the time this differences between the upperclass groups is highlighted at every possible moment. Although the ‘Indische romans’, novels on life in the Dutch East indies, were often written by women with roots in the colony, most historical writing on kebaya’s has been done by men. I got curious, is this really the story and meaning of the white kebaya? Could we find out more? We applied for funding, and got it! A funding by Vfonds specifically for Indo-European and Moluccan intangible heritage projects in the Netherlands. The literature we examined gave more questions than answers, so we came up with a plan to gather more data. With an open call we asked people to share wearers stories with us. We asked if people still had actual white kebaya’s or photographs of wearers and could tell us more about the weaerers. From this we started to get a sense of the divers background of wearers, but also a clearer timeline. The wearing of the white kebaya did not at inn the 1920’s, it continued into the 1950’s for sure. We also talked with different experts, both in the Netherlands and in Indonesia and Singapore. From Indonesia we got to most interesting respons, the garment we thought was in the colonial past, was actual currently still being worn, mostly for special occasions and even trendy for weddings. Also the popularity of the white kebaya was more linked to an actual Indonesian wearer, the Javanese women’s rights activist Raden Ajeng Kartini. We spoke with slowfashiondesigner Riri Rengganis on this topic and she recorded a great video for us.
Our research was suppose to be shown at the Tong Tong Fair, with an exhibition and program. When they were declared bankrupted, we went looking for a new location since most preparations were done. We had 11 kebaya’s on loan of which we knew the possible wearer and their story. I made a timeline, starting at 1780 and continuing into now, with images, drawing, paintings & photographs from archives and send in after our open call. Luckily KB in Den Haag saw potential in our project and offered us space to organise an event, but also a pop-up exhibition. To see more, read more here (both posts are in Dutch, but with photos of the exhibition & event): ~ 'De witte kebaya in de KB' ~ Modemuze blog 'De witte Kebaya'
Talk on batik & imitation Batik on 5 October 2024 in Arnhem
Photo by Koen de Wit
Talk in Deventer on 26 February about the cottonprinting company Ankersmit
Talk at De Lakenhal in Leiden on 6 April
about the Leidse Cottonprinting Company (Leidsche Katoenmaatschappij)
Photo by Koen de Wit
Next to the kebaya, I have been working on the Dutch imitations, the real Batik Belanda. At the end of 2023 I started working with Textielmuseum Tilburg on a project to disclose one of their oldest museum collections, the Driessen collection. This collection was bought in the 1950’s and consists of textiles, literature on textile, sample- and dye recipe-books, correspondence and more archive material from and collected by the last director of De Leidse Katoenmaatschappij (Cotton printing company Leiden, LKM), Louis Driessen.
Louis André Driessen (1890-1954) run the based in the city center of Leiden cotton printing company until it was declared bankrupt in 1936. Driessen also working as a colorist (specialist in dyeing of fabrics), hold the collection together. I knew and already worked with this collection, also for the Things That Talk zone I made, so it was great to help out and guide the volunteers who processed the collection. Working on this project it made me curious about the lasting impact and the connection with the still very high on demand fast fashion of Batik Print (machine printed textiles with batik motifs). Most focus has been on the influence of Wax Print in West-Africa, but the impact in Southeast Asia has been researched far less. When I saw the call for papers for the upcoming International Association for the Study of Silk Road Textiles (IASSRT), I knew it would be good to send in a proposal on this topic. Since it was held in Laos, it would be a could place to address the other less known markets for the fake batiks. The main focus was of course on Indonesia, at that time under Dutch colonial rule. The products went to Batavia, nowadays Jakarta, to Sumatra, Malaysia and Singapore. But they also went to other places such as Cambodia and Myanmar. The compagnies also adopted and copied other textiles made with techniques like ikat and tie-dye. To my surprise and delight I got selected. Although nothing was compensated and I had to pay everything in full, I thought it would be good to be there in person, and it truly was! Seeing textile colleagues & friends from all over the world. I combined the symposium with exploring batik, imitations and other textile traditions in Bangkok, Laos and North Vietnam. It really gave me a new perspective and clarity to my journey to Batik, as I shared in my posts while traveling.
Talk at SEA Junction, in Bangkok, Thailand
speaker at the event 'Unravelling Colonial Textiles' on 27 March
in the Kartini room in Amsterdam
Textiles from the study collection of UvA on display
in the former VOC room, renamed Kartini room
My journey was also noticed back home, resulting in being booked for talks, as a guest lecturer at the university in Amsterdam and for workshops, but also in a great double article in my favorite newspaper De Volkskrant. In the articles journalist Vanessa Oostijen explains my practice in which I use lessons from our colonial past to understand current processes such as Fast Fashion. And the important lessons we should and could learn from craftwomenship.
Articles in the magazine of De Volkskrant, written by Vanessa Oo
It is great to share the stories with an audience and being payed for my time & research. It is not the most sustainable or practical way of keeping my work going, but it is at least keeping me afloat. I really hope I can do more in depth research, got many dreams such as publishing books, making exhibitions, practicing batik making and much more. I am very proud my journey brought me now on stage, but I need to figure out how to survive in the meantime. This is not me complaining, far from it, but keeping it real on this blog, as you know.
My blog is 16 years old on 21 April... I graduated in 2007, working now 18 years as an artist. I feel my journey to Batik is getting all grown-up. I am exciting for what is coming up this year; like the first journey to Batik you can actually join (more info here), my first Masterclass on making & dyeing Batik together with masterdyer Loret Karman and I am bringing ‘Masa depan Batik’ to the Netherlands!! You heard it here first! In October at Indonesia House in Amsterdam!
Although I might have not seen anything outside of the touristic Luang Prabang in Laos, I really enjoyed my two visits here. I will not describe everything I saw and done, will focus on the textile-part of my journey, which is as expected the largest part. Went to Luang Prabang first with the ATTS 9 Pre-Symposium Study Trip, and after the symposium with my friends Klaus Rink & Tony Sugiarta (of aNERDgallery).
Our Pre-tour started in Vientiane in Laos on 31 October. After a short flight from Bangkok, I landed in the afternoon where we first checked in the massive Landmark hotel. The hotel that was also the venue for the symposiums of ATTS 9 & 8th IASSRT. After check-in & a quick change we headed to the Lao Handicraft Festival.
The Lao Handicraft Festival is a yearly event in Vientiane where all craftspeople gather to show, demonstrate & sell their goods. Of course, or apparently, half of it is textiles. Most is woven, made out of silk, but some cotton too. Some Hmong batik pieces here and there. Most craftspeople & resellers are from Laos, but there were also sellers of Pineapple fibre from the Philippines.
The Hmong Batik I had to have
At the first booth I saw of Véo I spotted a 6 meter long handdrawn batik dyed in Indigo & embroidered with yellow silk. I didn’t buy it at first, what to do with so many meters, but it was stuck in my mind. I asked my friend Klaus to get it for me the last day of the festival & lucky me it was still there.
The Katu weaver showing me how to wear her scarf
The next thing caught my eye were these Katu weavers. One proudly explained in English the work was all done by themselves. It is a weaving with a loom that is put on tension with the feet. Next to motifs in cotton, they weave in little white beads. The one speaking English made abstract patterns. The other one animals like elephants. I bought a natural dyed scarf with in little white beads butterflies. Kindly they showed me how to wear it, and maker posed wearing it.
Bats & other animal by the ethnic group Akha Nuqui
Asked if I could take a picture
Next booth was one filled with stuffed animals, in colourful fabrics embroidered with details. Holding a bat, another bat was given to me by this woman dressed sooo absolutly stunning. A Akha Nuqui woman who makes them. They sold traditional pieces too. Later I spotted their animals in every shop!
Dance during Lao Handicraft fair depicting Silk Weaving
Naga designs Fashionshow
After the shopping, we got to see a fashionshow. It opened with a dance displaying silk weaving. The fashionshow was great & everyone was dressed beautiful in the audience too. After traditional modernized wear, ambassadors & their familymembers showed ‘naga’ inspired silk fashion.
UNESCO has inscribed Lao traditional Naga motif weaving as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in February 2024. Women across Laos weave Naga designs onto their traditional skirts for protection and strength. The snake-like mythical beings Naga in Lao folklore are generally benevolent and believed to protect humans from illness, hunger, and spirits, but when angered, they unleash floods, storms, and disasters.
Linda McIntosh showing us a 'ladder cloth'
Elephants in the middle
Old Hmong Baby carrier / or cover
The next day we left for Luang Prabang. Got to see so many amazing textiles, meet craftswomen, hang out with fellow symposium go-ers, have boat rides and try local Lao food.
Arriving in Luang Prabang we took a boatride to visit Linda McIntosh, Lao textile researcher & organizer of the symposium ATTS 9 symposium. She prepared for us a selection of her collected pieces. Especially the ‘ladders to heaven’ long woven cloth struck something with me. These ‘ladders’ are either hung outside on the house or wrapped around the poles of the bed. They function as a divide between our world & the spirit world. On it are all kinds of animals, mystical and actual, to guide the dead to the next world.
Second day we visited many places. First Uxo Lao, a museum on the many bombs that were dropped in Laos. Such a sad sad history that still causes many issues till this day. In the giftshop little objects are sold made of the bomb material that has been neutralized. Bought a little buffalo/karbouw. I think such a simple, effective thing, turning something ugly into something beautiful.
Weaving at the Uxo Loa Museum
Veo welcoming us at Ban Sang Khong during the Pre-trip
Weaver at work at the Mae On Living Museum
Next stop was Ban Sang Khong, a village where mulberry paper is made & silk weaving. Set up for us was a little fair with demonstrations of the different crafts including the making of the flower offerings. I got to sit with the two making. Anna was placing dried flowers onto a base made from the stam of a banana plant. With banana leaves the edges are decorated.
Across the street is the Mae On Living Museum. Natural dye, silk spinning & weaving is demonstrated. There is a small museum and a shop full of gorgeous textiles. Across the street again, we had lunch at the newly created Tea House.
Weaver at work at Simone Handicraft
Looms at Patta textile gallery
Returned here on Sunday 10 November after the symposium. Run into Linda & owner Veo. We had a lunch together and shared our shared symposium experience & stories from the life of a researcher. It is really wonderful to get to know Linda and her textile colleagues a little better.
After the lunch, that was 10 out of 10 again (fresh vegetables, especially the pumpkin & winged beans), we walk through the streets. Veo explained the weaving place of her mother Mae On, the other weavers & mulberry paper making were already in the street. It grew naturally in what it is now, with stores along the street. Very nice to re-visit and see the other stores. It was pretty quiet on Sunday and not everywhere makers were at work, which I found comforting actually.
I will dedicate another post to my stay in Vientiane & the symposium. So let me continue on my second stay in Luang Prabang.
On 7 November we took a train to Luang Prabang. In two hours, through an amazing landscape & many tunnels, we arrived. The trainstations are a bit outside of the cities, but still more convenient than taking a plane.
We walked around the historic city center. In between two rivers, this little part of Luang Prabang is a mixture of tourist village and tempels. The houses that are turned into guesthouses, fancy stores, bars & restaurants look like how New Orleans looks in tv-shows, with wooden balconies and shutters. Many of the organisations that work with textile craftspeople have a store here: Ock Pop tok, TAEC, She Works & Passa Paa. Of course we visited all.
As you can imagine the tourist market in Luang Prabang is big. To my surprise by far most stores sell handmade, quality products and in most cases even refer to the actual makers, by name or as community. Inspiring to see and something I will take with me in my further work with batikmakers on Java.
Label at She Works
Label at Ock Pop Tok
On Friday 8 November, I booked my first Hmong Batikworkshop in the afternoon at Ock Pop Tok.
We had dinner here during the pre-trip and the view at the location is already amazing. Their work with craftspeople and sharing of crafts is really inspiring.
Ock Pop Tok (meaning “East Meets West” in Lao) was founded in 2000 by Englishwoman Joanna (Jo) Smith and Laotian Veomanee (Veo) Douangdala, Ock Pop Tok is an artisan social enterprise based in Luang Prabang, Laos. Over the years they have grown from a small shop selling only a few designs, to becoming one of the most important textile and artisanal institutions in all of Laos and South East Asia. Ock Pop Tok is now a team of over 90 employees.
Our teacher was Hmong Batik Master Mai Lao as she was introduced by the translator Ni. Both are working shortly at Ock Pop Tok. Mai is the daughter-in-law of Mae Thao Zuzong, the recently pensioned Hmong Batik Master active there.
Both are part of the Hmong Der, or White Hmong. Traditionally mothers learn their daughters to make embroidery. Batik is not part of this, but often learned later, or from the Mong Njau or Green Hmong.
The batik by the Hmong is actually called ‘Paj Ntaub nraj ciab’. Paj stands for flower & Ntaub for fabric/cloth. Also the embroidered cloths are called Paj Ntaub. Nraj means to draw and Ciab means wax. Ciab cab means beewax. The name Batik is now used everywhere, but it is a pity really since the Hmong have their own name for this technique, their tradition, textile, motifs and tools.
The tool, the waxpen, is an interesting and new experience. The way it is hold/used really makes it useful for drawing lines & geometric forms. The pen is hold towards you and you pull it with a stretched arm. The three little copper plates in a triangle shape are pushed pretty hard onto the fabric. The fabric being woven hemp, which is pretty rough in texture. The wax itself is very dark of colour, laying mostly on top of the fabric. It doesn’t go through as on cotton. The design is only drawn on one side. The wax was heated on coals in a very small pan. It was moved of and on the heat source to keep the wax the right temperature. When the pen is dipped in, it can draw about 30 cm before running out.
The ease Mai had with the tool, didn’t come natural for me. Finally knowing how to correctly hold the canting, Javanese waxpen, this felt for me if I was holding it upside down & back worths, and my brain couldn’t get it the first few times.
Master Mai made outlines and little starter lines. Getting straight lines is never a skill I had and felt a little bad for making such crooked lines. Because the wax doesn’t seep into the cloth like with cotton, mistakes can actually be removed, up to a point. By pressing hard with the back of the waxpen to the cloth and getting the wax to attache to the pen, it can be taken off. Master Mai removed some of my lines and make me do them again.
After all the lines were made, we made little squares within the double lines. In these little squares we made two motifs. The oblique lines to create the pompkin seeds. In the other we put three lines, two big & one small, to make cucumber seeds. Looks in two rows a bit like Kawung which might be based on the fruit of a Sugar Palm, so a nice overlap.
After the seeds we got to fill in the middle. We got to choose from an example with Betel leaves, a butterfly or Temple roof. Went with the butterfly. Master Mai “draw” the design by pushing a kind of blunt knife into the cloth to create a grid. The first corner she draw. To draw this part, the waxpen is hold as a pencil. First you think, ohh more easy, but to draw an unfamiliar design with a new tool was really hard. My spirals were not spiraling, but I was after 3,5 hour. Tried my best, but with the tiny spirals I broke down. Just couldn’t get it done. Master Mai helped me out.
At the end we got to dip our piece in Indigo. Normally it needs several dips to became dark, so we only have a light blue. Master Mai was not too happy, I figure the really dark blue makes in Hmong. But the light blue still shows the patterns in white nicely and it is more convenient to bring it a long on my journey.
Re-dipping the cloth to make sure the Indigo seeped into the hemp
Look at that view!
Master Mai showing the finished Batik
I asked, can you pose with it, it is more your work then mine
Next day on Saturday 9 November, Tony & I went for another Hmong Batik Workshop at Moon Love Batik. Moon Love Batik had a booth during the symposium and I tried to chat with Batik teacher & maker Mee Cha a little bit.
Mee has been teaching Batik for about a year and only recently learned how to make Hmong Batik herself. We would not have know this if she didn’t tell us. As Mai at Ock Pop Tok, Mee is also White Hmong and did learn embroidery from her mother. She started learning to make batik to help with the Moon Love Batik place. It opened two years ago and is run by two brother. One of the brother was running the booth in Vientiane, the other we met in Luang Prabang. He first did the explanation, but gave Mee more room after a while. We asked a lot of questions, about the traditional name, the motifs, the location & Mee's own work. I joked with all our question, it is a workshop for us and an interview for you.
Mee learned in 6 months from a Master. She showed me a cloth by her teacher still in wax. It had very fine lines, I for sure, have not been able to draw.
Mee makes traditional designs mostly, but makes also free work. She was recently commissioned by Linda McIntosh to make a work about the bombings occurring in Lao FDR during the Indochina war and
their destruction. After the wars end, populace returned to agriculture, their main occupation, but they are not safe carrying out this activity since UXOs continue to maim and kill until today.
The first cloth was made after photographs of planes dropping bombs. Mee actually interviewed older generation, widows who lost their husbands in UXO accidents.
Hmong story cloths are often referred to as a form of Paj Ntaub but are aesthetically unique in the Hmong tradition in that they strongly feature elements of figurative representation and fragments of text (often in English) as well as more traditional geometric motifs and abstract symbolism. These distinct and creative embroideries are designed to present a legible narrative and the earliest examples tended to focus on refugee life, military occupation, and forced migration from Laos. Other examples depict popular Hmong folktales, creation stories, and historical accounts of traditional Hmong life and culture.
~ from Wikipedia
Since then Mee also created another piece about the Hmong and their history Watch the making of here.
I think the tradition of the Hmong to make Story Cloths is so fascinating and it is wonderful to see a new generation following in this tradition and bringing it into the Artworld.
At Moon Love Batik the waxpen tool is a little bigger,
specifically commissioned for the workshops &
the wax is heated in an electric stove
Mee had a Javanese canting in between her own waxpens and asked us how it work.
I showed her and she sit next to us trying it out
The cloth was dipped 5 times in Indigo to create a very dark blue.
It is all done by the boss after the workshops and the wax is removed.
I picked it up in the afternoon
Hmong skirts at TAEC
In the afternoon after our workshop we visited TAEC.
The Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) ids a learning centre located Luang Prabang. Started in 2006 as a museum, and fair-trade handicraft shops directly linked with artisan communities. TAEC’s work includes community research, advocacy for artisan IP rights, and heritage training.
TAEC has next to their permanent exhibition, a great temporary exhibition ‘Claiming Inspiration’.
In September I joined a zoom hosted by ThreadsWritten in which Monica Boța-Moisin of Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) who co-created this exhibition shared a little more on it. The base, or the reason for this exhibition were the designs of the Oma ethnic group of Laos that had been misappropriated by a fashion brand, a practice becoming common worldwide. Monica who with her organisation fights this battle for multiple ethnic groups already worked with TAEC to protect Oma for the the future. With the database they creating, they hope to make a format that can work for other groups to insure fashion brands can no longer steal and simple claim inspiration.
The goal of better protections for traditional cultural expressions is not to close off traditional designs from contemporary influence or to mandate that inspiration can only be sought within one's own culture. It is to ensure that the cultural foundation of traditional expressions can thrive, contributing to creativity for generations to come.
However, international law has so far been ambiguous about rights to creative knowledge and work that is traditional and shared by a community and culture in the developing world. It is not uncommon for designers and brands to harvest motifs, materials, and ideas freely from people that lack the resources to have their custodianship recognised. Because of this, the Cultural Intellectual Property Rights Initiative® (CIPRI) coined the
3 Cs' Rule to guide any use of traditional knowledge:
* CONSENT of the craftsperson or community
* CREDIT given to the source of inspiration
* COMPENSATION for use of the traditional cultural expressions
In the exhibition the claimed inspiration source, aka the traditional dress is shown together with the fashion brand product printed in a glossy magazine format. A clever and effecting way to show how silly these brands are with think these communities will either not know or notice their heritage is being used. This exhibition should be traveling as a pop-up in fashionmuseums! Especially in Europe to show this is not okay and brands, let's say people should really do better.
On Sunday after our stroll around Ban Sang Khong, we went to The Weaving Sisters. The sisters had a booth and demonstration during the symposium in Vientiane. They are part of the Katu weavers community and make scarfs, bigger cloths, clothing and accessories with their weaving skills. In their little hidden shop and workshop space, we found their niece (or cousin) Dommai weaving a bigger piece without beads but with intricate small patterns. She explained that the sisters were not back yet, but invited us to ask her anything, while she continued with her weaving.
In the space was an amazing piece with multicoloured beads in the middle and small animals along the edges woven in; a pair of duck, elephants with babies, tigers, frogs and much more. I later got through Instagram from the one of the sisters the message that this was made by their aunt and was very dear to them. I totally understand it is a beautiful made piece and feels powerful for sure.
Dommai weaving at The Weaving Sisters
At The Weaving Sisters,
made by their aunt
On my last morning in Luang Prabang on Tuesday 12 November I did some last minute souvenir shopping. On Saturday after visiting the National Museum the exit leads to a street with little stalls, exit through the giftshop. In between the elephant pants, machine woven sarongs and dried fruit was a woman actually embroidering. In front of her pouches and bags with the colourful Hmong flower cloth images. These products are actually her (and probably more women like her) handwork and you see them in every other store. She showed me she was now making the embroidery for the aprons, that she does not sell herself. I asked if I could photograph her with her work. Couldn't choose so bought several, might keep all, might gift some. She was making little fish too and let me pick one.
Handmade souvenirs in Luang Prabang
Headed extra early to the airport, because I needed to check out the Hmong Story cloths there. I saw them during our return fro the Pre-Trip. The stores at the airport are filled with actually handmade things, next to not so much handmade things. But the seller explained the profit does go to the actual makers. The story cloth I really wanted turned out to be a full size blanket. She kindly unfolded the smaller pieces for me. The smaller one show more happy stories as you will of the village lives and with actually stories with English texts. I choose one that showed three ethnic groups living in Laos. I think I still have to return one day to Luang Prabang to get me the bigger piece.
Hmong Story Cloths at the airport
*book-title I bought in Bangkok at River Books but haven’t had time to read yet
