As Senior Curator at the Textile Museum of Canada, Roxane Shaughnessy works with a collection of 15,000+ objects, studying the richness and diversity of hand-made textile traditions around the world. Since its founding in 1975, the Museum has developed a global collection that represents a continuum of textile expressions from historic up to the present, and traces the evolution of traditions and practices. Living textile traditions are constantly innovating and adapting, and the Museum has acquired and exhibited textiles from makers and cooperatives in India, Bangladesh, Peru, Guatemala, Mexico and other areas, where craftspeople are creating hand-made textiles to gain income and support their families. Many artisans are re-learning traditional skills that have been lost, or developing new techniques and methods, applying them in original and inventive ways. However, while resilient, textiles and their makers are also at risk.

Roxane Shaughnessy is committed to supporting makers during this time of crisis, helping ensure that their skills and cultural practices are not lost, but endure, survive and continue to evolve into the future. The preservation of the scope and variety of textile traditions is important to global cultural heritage and maintaining the connection of these traditions to all humanity remains vital to the future.