The Sustainable Future Lies in Indigenous Tradition

[Music]

thank you

[Applause]

there is a mid-1970s photograph of an

old man

on the beach in gaza around him a halo

of vibrant bundles of yarn in blues

yellows

reds stretching all the way back to the

point

at which water meets sand the photo is a

tantalizing glimpse of a palestine

which has been crystallized in history

and almost

forgotten when i first saw this

photograph

i had absolutely no idea what this man

was doing

but i was captivated after a few weeks

of research

i learned that each individual bundle of

yarn

had been washed in the sea water behind

this man

in order to preserve the colors and that

before they ended up on the beach here

the yarns which were probably wool or

linen or cotton

had been naturally dyed with plants and

spices that were native to palestine

eventually all these yarns would make

their way to weavers all

over palestine to be woven into clothing

rugs and ultimately into the fabric of

our heritage

this man was just one link in a long

chain an intimate creative network

between palestinians

and their land as a creative who works

at the intersection of fashion

culture and politics i found this

photograph

both beautiful because it’s a part of my

culture that i didn’t know existed

and heartbreaking because it’s a part of

my culture which no longer

is common practice

learning all of this falling in love

with this way of being and creating

i couldn’t help but ask why have these

practices and indigenous practices in

general

been pushed to the edge of extinction

trying to answer this question led me to

the palestinian town of al-majdal

located on the mediterranean sea some 20

kilometers north of ghazia

is the town of almajdan arguably the

heart

of palestine’s textile industry famous

for its hand looms

it was said that collectively wove

enough fabric to cover the whole

of palestine i was fascinated by this

town

because it’s a window onto a world a

world in which

we used and made natural linen

cotton wool which was naturally dyed and

hand woven with care a world in which

all of that was the status quo

now if you haven’t heard of al-majdal

that’s because

it no longer exists when palestinians

were forcibly expelled from their homes

and their land in 1948

the palestinians of al-majdal became

refugees

their town was raised to the ground and

their textile traditions

were threatened with extinction

we saw this happen in india indonesia

mali guatemala with the chuchua peoples

of the andes

with the first nations we see this

happening

now with indigenous peoples all over the

world

now i know you might be asking what’s

the big deal it’s just yarn and fabric

right

well it’s a lot more than that and

is a microcosm of something a lot bigger

at play

something that’s continuing to unfold

today

and it’s inherently connected to the

climate crisis

for generations the west has invalidated

and erased indigenous knowledge

and ways of being knowledge which is

deeply rooted

in communication and active

collaboration

with mother nature this type of

relationship

fostered a balance between us and

the earth but the refusal to listen to

and center

the indigenous perspective has pushed us

way

out of balance and it turns out that the

world depends on this indigenous

knowledge

to protect a planet on the brink of

disaster

for example

traditional palestinian embroidery is

typically done in what we call

tatriz circles in which embroiderers

work together in a circle

often storytelling and singing and each

individual

stitch is done by hand this means that

some garments can take up to six

months to complete and the garments

often stay in our closets

for decades if not generations passing

from mother

to daughter now with a world that now

experiences

52 seasons a year this can be pretty

hard to wrap your head around

and when i say 52 seasons i’m referring

to the micro collections that brands

release

every single week that’s a pretty

radical departure from the world that

our grandparents

or even our parents knew in which we had

clothes for hot weather

and clothes for cold weather now with

brands turning

out collections every week in

combination with the throwaway culture

that we’ve developed

it’s estimated that we throw away 92

million tons of clothing every

year and that’s a number that’s expected

to keep rising

in the coming years now most of that

clothing waste contains polyester

the most commonly used fabric in the

fashion industry today

so polyester is made from oil which

means that it’s essentially plastic

in the form of fabric and it takes

hundreds of years for it to decompose

now if any of these facts are hard for

you to wrap your head around

or to process it could be because we

have the privilege to not have to

process these facts

the global north ships and dumps

most of this waste into countries

throughout

africa and asia leaving the global south

to deal with the problems created by the

global north

now the green movement has started

taking up practices

to challenge and change this reality

practices which by the way

have been native to black indigenous and

people of colors

for centuries the irony is

that as these countries countries

throughout europe

and america replicate these exact

practices

it is black indigenous and people of

color who are affected by

and devastated by the impacts of climate

change the most

the fight for our survival as a species

has been declared

and endeavors to save the planet are

finally getting more and more attention

but in order for us to make real

progress

we need to first acknowledge the

colonial power structures

which shaped and continue to shape the

world that we’re in today

and we need to center black indigenous

and people of color in the conversation

now reimagining the future doesn’t stop

at our relationship with the environment

but we need to extend it to our

relationship with people

specifically the people who make our

clothes

so last year i designed the dress

which included a belt featuring

traditional palestinian tatris

or embroidery the belts were embroidered

here in a women’s cooperative in

palestine

and there were five different designs

one embroider assigned to each design

and because each embroider had her own

work pace

based on her specific work-life balance

then each design

was ready and shipped out to customers

at different times

so if you ordered the dress in red

then you were amongst the last people to

receive your dress

and that’s because while working on the

belt the embroiderer

suddenly and unexpectedly lost her

daughter who was hit and killed by a

truck

do you see this woman differently now

she is no longer an artisan or a

producer

but she is a mother a wife and a

daughter

who has now lost her own daughter

so where was the space for that reality

in the conversation

between the customer and the brand

where was the space for that reality in

the conversation when i started getting

emails from customers

asking and sometimes demanding to know

why it was taking

so long to receive their dresses

in these moments i realized how much

we’ve

dehumanized clothing how much we’ve

de-centered people

in the production process of the clothes

that we wear

this was a pivotal moment for me and it

established my goal

of challenging and restructuring the

standard consumer producer relationship

which has been set by corporations who

would rather have you know next to

nothing about the people who make our

clothes

so now i want to ask you do you know

who cut and sewed the clothes that

you’re wearing right now

do you know who harvested the plants to

make the fabric that you’re wearing

right now

do you know whether you’re wearing

natural or synthetic fabrics

none of those questions are meant to

make you feel bad

i also don’t know the answers to a lot

of these questions

and frankly the responsibility to answer

these questions

shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of the

people when

shopping ethically is in and of itself a

privilege

it is the system the brands the

legislation and the policies

which should take the responsibility of

providing these answers for us

but we need to put pressure on them by

asking

the questions so we can start by asking

why are the lives of textile artists

hidden

and unknown by us the wearers of the

clothes that they make

why aren’t we involved in the production

process of the clothes which we wear on

our bodies

as physical extensions of our beings

as means of expressing who we are and

where we come from and who we want to be

that day

because if we knew too much about those

people

then we might want to do something about

the ways that they’re being

treated and then companies would have a

really hard time

unevenly distributing their revenue

i recently had a talk with a women-run

ethical fashion enterprise in rural

india

they explained that they have an issue

when people address them as garment

workers or textile laborers

according to them it’s much more than a

labor job

we have to involve all of our senses

it is a creative process of the heart

and the soul the personal stories

of these textile artisans are woven

sewn and dyed into the essence of the

very garments

which then cocoon our bodies made by the

same

hands which pour juice and brush hair

and pick fruit and tuck loved ones into

bed

this is so intimate and this type of

intimacy and connection is the backbone

of a truly sustainable future

now i know you might be asking

what is this talk about i’ve talked

about the environment

human rights indigenous peoples fashion

and the answer is all of the above

true sustainability is inherently

intersectional

none of those issues are isolated in

order for us to make

real progress we need to approach the

idea of

change from an intersectional

perspective

indigenous people create slowly and

meticulously

not because they aren’t educated or

technologically advanced

but because they understand that the

nature

of creation is an inherently slow

and human process they understand

that what we take from the earth must

return

to the earth as food and not poison

in the fight to better the future we not

only need to

learn from black indigenous and people

of color

but we need to center them in the

conversation

indigenous creativity storytelling

and knowledge are our means of survival

so i want to leave you with this fashion

is personal is political fashion is a

window

onto entire communities which often

aren’t seen or heard but are exploited

if we pull the curtain back and just

look through those windows

then we’ll know that fashion is never

just

fashion so this all

brings us back to the photo of the old

man on the beach in ghazni

he is smiling and i can’t help but think

that he knew the gravity and the grace

of his work he was one of the last

remaining artisans

with knowledge of this labor and i can’t

help

but overanalyze this photo just a bit

further

a cigarette dangles delicately from the

old man’s smiling mouth

and he looks up and into the camera

and thus into the future

thank you