THE CALL OF ORANGE WILD RHEA
Image: Clearing the jungle path to forage Orange Wild Rhea stalks. Image courtesy of Abhirup Dasgupta and Ahmad Shaqulain.
“My work celebrates loin loom textiles that are woven in a traditional ethos with a contemporary expression. The products are off the loom and hand sewn”, says textile designer Kevisedenuo Margaret Zinyu, Founder, Woven Threads, Kohima, Nagaland state, in northeast India. She works with weavers in Nagaland to design textiles and garments with natural fibre yarns.
Nagaland is home to 17 major tribes along with other sub-tribes. Each tribe has its distinct customs, dialect and attire, with Nagamese being the common dialect. Visitors can experience the diverse culture of Nagaland at The Hornbill Festival, held annually in December, that showcases crafts, cultural performances, cuisine and more of different Naga tribes.
Image: Margaret (left) having a product discussion with weavers. Image courtesy of Abhirup Dasgupta and Ahmad Shaqulain.
At the Hornbill Festival in 2017 Margaret stumbled upon a yarn unknown to her. “I saw a man wearing a shawl that had a distinct colour and texture. The colour was darker than shawls woven with Himalayan Nettle yarns and it appeared softer. I asked him about it and he said it was woven by women of the Khiamniungan tribe who live in villages in Noklak district”.
The chance encounter with the shawl turned out to be a mission for Margaret to identify the yarn, its source and the creators of the weave. She later came across an artisan selling bags and stoles woven with Himalayan nettle and the mystery yarn that was called elloinui in the local language.
Image: Weaver weaving with a blend of Himalayan Nettle and Orange Wild Rhea yarns. Image courtesy of Abhirup Dasgupta and Ahmad Shaqulain.
Over the next two years, Margaret came to know elloinui was the yarn of the Orange Wild Rhea shrub (Debregeasia longifolia) that grows in deep dense jungles of Nagaland, where the sunlight often does not reach the forest floor. She learnt that selected stalks of the plant would be foraged seasonally and arduously hand-processed (by peeling the skin, hand-rolling into loose bobbins, taking them home, undoing the bobbins, air-drying the skins, hand-ripping them into fine strands, joining the strands by twisting on the thigh, winding them into a conical bobbin, spinning the yarn as a 2-ply, then making it into a hank, retting, scrunching and breaking by continuous beating, hand rubbing and rinsing, sizing with rice starch and rinsing). Once the yarn hank is dried it goes for final winding into a yarn ball and is ready for weaving on the loin loom.
Over the course of two years Margaret forged a bond with the women; reaching their homes involves an overnight trip and mobile connectivity is often not strong. At first, she bought their weaves and then started working with them to design a range of shawls, throws, stoles, bag, capes and cowl mufflers (taken off the loom) with a blend of Himalayan Nettle yarns that are a bit lighter and Orange Rhea yarns that are darker and softer, giving the textiles lovely colour tones and texture.
Image: A mens shawl women with Himalayan Nettle and Orange Wild Rhea yarns. Image courtesy of Abhirup Dasgupta and Ahmad Shaqulain.
“The colour and softness of the Orange Wild Rhea yarn reflects the soil and moisture of the forests it grows in. The intensity of its colour differs based on the season of foraging the stems. These artisanal hand-woven textiles, with hand-spun yarns, speak of the culture of a tribe. There are perhaps less than about sixty women who work with Orange Rhea yarns, who know how to process and weave it. The youngest of them is in her forties. Only if we create awareness of the yarn and its textiles will the craft survive”.
Find out more at: woventhreads.in and @woventhreads.in
Watch a documentary film, The Lost Art of Artisanal Textiles, following the textile stories of Nagaland, from harvesting to yarn processing to weaving and finally finishing the fabric, highlighting the knowledge keepers of Nagaland's traditional values and wisdom of a textile community that needs conservation.
Blog courtesy of Brinda Gill
2 comments
The film is utterly magnificent in its photography and sensitivity.
Lovely to discover old methods. I have enjoyed being in that part of India, thankyou