weaving Voices 01.04.2025 issuu - Flipbook - Page 35
Weaving together to mend our collective
wellbeing
Rosa Smits
Introduction to communal weaving
Six years ago, I spent a week alongside my fellow textile students
and a handful of teachers in a rural Amazigh community of traditional
weavers in Morocco. One of my most vivid memories from that week
was observing the Amazigh women collaboratively preparing a
warp and setting it on their vertical tapestry loom. Their combined
effort, requiring minimal words, deeply moved me. They toiled
in silence, their minds focused, executing repetitive movements.
Laughter echoed at the slightest misstep or a well-placed joke. Their
expressive faces revealed the physical toll – back pain from bending
over and weariness from the heat. Occasionally, the women would
spontaneously involve a student in a task. Most of us stood around,
observing the women at work in an unfinished space that neither
had a roof nor a floor. Various building details protruded from the
walls at random places The space housed several tapestry looms,
their side beams firmly embedded in the earth. The vertical looms
were supported by the earth’s force and sturdy wires well-knotted
to the protruding details of the unfinished walls. The level of skill
these women possessed and the ease and humane way in which
they worked together, including the space itself and some of us, was
breathtaking. That moment for me, unveiled the profound power and
significance of weaving together.
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