The women craft community from across the state came together today to commemorate the International Day of Rural Women here at De Oriental Grand Hotel, Kohima.
The program along with the tapestry exhibition and sale of natural fibres were organised by the Northeast Network and NENTERPRISE Chizami Weaves.
Addressing the gathering as Special Guest, Dr Theyiesinuo Keditsu, assistant professor of Kohima College, stressed on the need to change the mindset of people that women living in the rural areas do not work and also on the need to separate the idea of poverty and deprivation from rural existence.
The participants, organisers and guests of the program on International Day of Rural Women in Kohima.
Keditsu pointed out that in the Naga traditional communities, weavers were the first working women who bought independent income outside of their family and agricultural practices. She encouraged the rural and urban communities to come together and ensure that the skills and knowledge of rural women are not only respected but rewarded to the extent that they can earn real livelihoods. To execute this, the real challenge is to change the mindset that poverty is equated with rural existence, she said.
People living in urban areas should look at the knowledge and skills of rural women not as backward traditional relics that have no relevance in modern existence but as knowledge that will actually ensure the survival of us as people, Keditsu asserted.
She further said the way Nagas make textiles should remain indigenously rooted and remain the way it used to be in days of old.
People living in urban areas should look at the knowledge and skills of rural women as knowledge that will actually ensure the survival of us as people – Dr Theyiesinuo Keditsu.
NE Network is an organization that has been working with the rural communities particularly women weavers, farmers and civil society organisations for several years now. It focuses on issues of development, social and gender justices and environmental justice in Northeast India.
Wekoweu Tsuhah, State Coordinator of NEN, said that NEN together with NENTERPRISE Chizami Weaves came together to organise this particular exhibition of natural fibre products.
Stating that NEN has been working consistently with the weaving communities, she highlighted how a lot of times rural women do not get the visibility and recognition by society for their work. She asserted that this program is an effort to showcase the unique contribution of rural women – the artisans who continue to sustain this particular tradition of weaving beautiful textiles.
The program is “a platform for them to showcase their work and to the market and attract buyers,” Tsuhah said and added: “This is the first time we are launching the organic cotton, a product line by Chizami Weaves after working on it for four years.”
This program is an effort to showcase the unique contribution of rural women – Wekoweu Tsuhah, State Coordinator of NEN.
