WEAVE A REAL PEACE

Image: The Gardens Thobe produced by Feryal Abbasi-Ghnaim and completed in 1996, as featured in “Tatreez & Tea: Embroidery and Storytelling in the Palestinian Diaspora”, published in 2018.

Mission: Weave A Real Peace (WARP) is a catalyst for improving the quality of life of textile artisans worldwide. An inclusive global network of individuals and organisations who value the social, cultural, historic, artistic, and economic importance of textile arts.

With 500 members in 25 countries, Weave A Real Peace is members sharing stories of their experiences working in textile communities, many traditional and/or indigenous, seeking and providing ideas and help through conversation. Before Zoom, WARP’s networking took place through three primary avenues – mail, the quarterly newsletter, and the Annual Meeting, a gathering of like-minded people that was the original inspiration for forming the organisation. Now WARP members can participate in monthly activities as well as annual.

Panel Presentations give air time to presenters from many cultures, and Meet a Member Fireside Chats, in both English and Spanish, provide an opportunity to get to know other members in small conversational groups. The Annual Meeting continues to be the jewel in WARP’s crown, with over 100 people attending the last live meeting and 250 registering for virtual meetings, which allow for attendance from all over the planet. Topics presented in all of these programs are wide-ranging, from preserving traditional techniques and the creation of Fibersheds to the present-day threats of cultural appropriation and textile waste. All of the Zoom programs are recorded and posted to WARP’s YouTube channel for anyone to see; just look for Previous Events on the website. Fair trade is the focus of many members, for which the Business Networking Group has been a great asset. And for everyone, the quarterly newsletter, 12 pages of inspiring stories available on paper and/or digitally, is a knockout, always the highest rated attraction on member surveys.


Image: Asma, a young weaver trained in Himroo weaving by WARP member organisation LoomKatha in India.

Reaching beyond the membership, in the past two years WARP has given out 27 Emergency Covid Grants to both individuals and groups of artisans in 12 countries. Totalling almost $17,000, the funds could be used in any way they chose; most went for food or seeds for crops. Many of the grantees learned about WARP and the grant program on social media, Facebook or Instagram.


Image: Double Raven Chilkat Dancing Blanket being danced by weaver, Lily Hope, Keynote speaker for WARP's 2022 Annual Meeting. Image courtesy of sydneyakagiphoto. 

Other programs are aimed at expanding members’ resource network. They include scholarships and assistantships to attend live meetings, a Community Leadership Award to honour especially inspiring members, opportunities to volunteer with many projects, and listings in Artisan Direct Connect and the WARP Author Book and Film List, both on the website and open to all the world. (The website is undergoing a major update, so some names will appear differently, depending on when you look).


Image: Guatemalan artisan partner, Francisca, and Kakaw Designs founder, Mari Gray, wearing naturally dyed rebozos.

Next year’s Annual Meeting will be held in June at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, USA. It will be hybrid, with activities in the Cleveland area from Thursday through Sunday and virtual presentations on Saturday. Full information will be on WARP’s website, weavearealpeace.org, which has information on all of its programs, both future and past. If all of this piques your interest, check it out sooner and later. More is happening all the time.

Find out more about Weave A Real Peace (WARP): weavearealpeace.org