the MAIWA JOURNAL

Tuesday, February 28, 2017 No comments

Friday, February 17, 2017 No comments

The First Pink Bike - being delivered in January 2016.

In 2016 The Maiwa Foundation was able to make a big difference in the lives of rural schoolgirls. Many of you know about the leatherworkers and weavers who together form the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja (AAJ).

Getting started with a little help.

Many of the female children of AAJ artisans have to walk several miles to school. The distance, combined with the time taken and the obligation to do other work in the home can make it difficult for girls to attend school (or to have enough time to complete homework). In these rural Indian families boys usually get bikes and girls do not.

The first ride.

The pink bike project was conceived as a way to assist the village schoolgirls to get to and fron school. These bike are female "style," pink and very sturdy. In collaboration with the Artisans Alliance of Jawaja, the Maiwa Foundation oversees the purchase of the bikes and the distribution in the village. In January of 2016 we made our first delivery of bikes. Now, at the start of 2017 we are doing another round of promotions for the project.

Loading up the first shipment of bikes near Jaipur.

Lined up and ready to go.

Interested? We have set up a special donation button on our website to support the Pink Bike Project. A $100 donation purchases one of these sturdy pink bikes for a village schoolgirl.

A good day - the arrival of the bikes and some reactions.

The Backstory to this Project.

Jane Stafford of Jane Stafford Textiles, (JST) a weaver from Salt Spring Island, visited the AAJ weavers in 2014. After that meeting Jane was inspired to assist the group. In her own words:

"Way back in 2014, Handwoven Magazine gave me a little award for $500.00 and JST (Jane Stafford Textiles) matched that with another $500.00. We donated $1000.00 to the Maiwa Foundation requesting that the money be used for girls education in the village of Jawaja. During the next tour a lovely lady matched that donation so there was now $2000.00 to go to the girls. In the end it was decided by the Jawaja village that the money go to buy bicycles so the girls could travel the long distances to get to school and they wouldn't have to start and end there day walking in the dark. The bicycles are pink and girls style and extremely sturdy so the boys of the village aren't interested in them :^)"

The Maiwa Foundation is a registered charity in Canada. The foundation issues tax receipts for donations over $25.

Tuesday, February 07, 2017 No comments

Saturday, February 04, 2017 No comments

Friday, January 20, 2017 No comments

Friday, January 06, 2017 No comments

Sunday, December 18, 2016 No comments

Tuesday, December 13, 2016 No comments

Sunday, December 11, 2016 No comments

Sunday, December 04, 2016 No comments

Sunday, November 27, 2016 No comments

Tuesday, November 22, 2016 No comments

Maiwa is on the road travelling through Madhya Pradesh right now. One of the goals of this trip is to return to Banjara villages where we photographed people, examined their textiles and interviewed them about Banjara culture. As we do we are giving copies of the book back to the people who were invaluable in our research.

One of the most satisfying aspects of this journey has been seeing the women look through the book and ask questions about Banjara in other areas. It is also interesting to see the women look through and spot textiles and objects that they know.

Above is Chanubai receiving a copy of the book in Madhya Pradesh and below when we met her two years ago in 2014. Among the most interesting objects that were were able to track down was the Chunda. Chanubai modelled it for us in her village and explained how the threads on the bottom are braided into the hair so that the stick stands straight up. We found out on this trip that the woman who spent the 2 hours necessary to actually braid the chunda into her hair was closely related to the women of this village.

At our lecture this was one of the biggest questions: How will the Banjara react to see themselves and their culture in the book? The answer so far has been that the book has been received with a quiet amazement. There is always a group of people who gather when we enter a village and when the book is presented there is a great interaction as the pages are slowly turned and the images are reviewed. Sometimes a group in a village can be very high energy - but so far the book has been a kind of talisman, channeling a deep fascination with the larger question of who the Banjara are.

We also had a good encounter with an ernest young Banjara man. He wanted to know if the book could be made available in Hindi so that the more literate members of the village could read it. We have felt this need before and we would like to make it happen for the Banjara.

The book is available to order in the Maiwa Online store. It is also available at international online sellers such as amazon.com

The maiwa team on this trip are posting to instagram with the hashtag #maiwaontheroad Tim McLaughlin can be found on instagram at @tmcltmcl.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016 No comments

Thursday, November 03, 2016 No comments

October 19th was the final lecture of the 2016 series. Traditionally the last lecture is the Threads lecture - a chance to talk about the work of the Maiwa Foundation and to raise money for the Foundation's work.

The evening concluded a trio of events about the Banjara. It followed the exhibition and book launch with a behind the scenes "Making of the textiles of the Banjara." Charllotte and Tim outlined the history of this group of semi-nomadic people, looked at stitches and motifs, and showed video from over fourteen years of visiting the Banjara.

The evening was introduced by Sophena Kwon, who gave the audience some intimate details and little know facts about the presenters. We are happy to reproduce it in full here.

I have the great privilege to introduce two of my favourite people on this planet. Charllotte Kwon, my mom and Tim McLaughlin.

Now, I’m not going to talk about the Banjara… or the many trips to India these two have made together to research and photograph for the book. I’m not going to tell you about the latest review the book had in this month’s issue of The World of Interiors or that the book has been distributed world wide and was featured on the ‘Staff Picks’ table in our favourite bookstore in London called Daunts Books.

Instead, I would like to use this great privilege to shed some light on a few lesser known facts about these two.

Some may not know that my mom started out in her early 20’s getting her journeyman’s ticket in printing and ran a Heidelberg press for Hemlock Printers. She was the only woman in the workshop and was nicknamed Charlie. 8 years into this profession she got blood poisoning from the leads and heavy toxins in the printing inks. The blood transfusion and a realization that she was not going to return to the profession of printing was the catalyst that began her journey in search for alternative, gentler, more sustainable ways to achieve colour and changed her medium from paper to fabric. Now she has almost 40 years of Natural dyes experience behind her. Natural Dye is one of the major building blocks that Maiwa stands on and her fascination with natural colour has taken her all around the world in search of dye recipes and exchanges with artisans keeping the craft alive.

Now Tim. Some of you may not know that Tim started an undergraduate in chemistry and from there followed his passion for music and stepped into recording engineering. He ran a radio show for the University of Western Ontario and was deeply immersed in the music scene. The next obvious move from there … philosophy. He earned a Masters in Philosophy of Science.

When he had felt like he had reached the finish line in his formal education he hit the road travelling and took a bicycle through Scotland and Ireland and then backpacked through Morocco. He later moved out west and completed two residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts focusing on Digital Artwork and New Media. Being in the world of computers and at the beginning of the internet he has a deep understanding of how it all works.

Maiwa needed a computer technician with the love of beautiful things, a sensitivity to textiles and travel, a chemist that could assist in the dye room, a writer, a philosopher, and an talented photographer …

Now I want to look at these two from a more astrological point of view just to shed another light on these two enormously creative souls.

My mom is an Aries Rooster. If you know the first thing about Western astrology and Chinese zodiac you will understand that these people are natural leaders. One of my favourite astrologers says that:

“An Aries Rooster is a boiling tea kettle of enthusiasm. Every single second of life for this character is full to overflowing with activity and eagerness. They are generous and outgoing, talented, versatile and curious to a fault. You will never see an idle Aries Rooster. Lying down or sitting still for long periods of time tends to create a malaise in the ever whirling Aries Rooster soul. Exoticism magnetizes this subject. Would you like to go across Siberia to China on foot but cannot find anyone to accompany you? Ring up an Aries Rooster. “

And Tim is a Libra Snake. You know who else is a Libra Snake? Mahatma Gandhi. Need I say more. Tim’s calm and competent demeanour, his eloquence and mastery of the word, he inspires, and has an incredible discipline to work on something for long periods of time until he has mastered it. For example, most recently the art of Spenserian calligraphy.

We, the family, the company, the friends are forever grateful that air and fire are such a good match and that these two found each other, fell in love, they work together, travel together, write together, and tonight, get to share their latest collaboration: The Textiles of the Banjara. Please help me welcome Tim & Charllotte to the stage.