WEAVING HOME: Textile Traditions From Houston's Karenni Community
Houston has become home to a wide range of refugee communities from around the world. They all bring with them distinctive traditions. Weaving Home focuses on the textile traditions practiced by a group of Houston-based women from the Karenni ethnic community. Houston's Karenni are originally from the mountainous border region of Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) that abuts Thailand. The group of Karenni women featured in Weaving Home all lived in the same apartment complex in southwest Houston at the time of the exhibition and would weave together in a vacant apartment set aside for that use. They were settled there upon arrival in Houston in 2009 by refugee service agencies.
Weaving among the Karenni in Burma is a domestic art form and very much a part of home life. Women learn the tradition in the family and carry it on throughout their lives. The objects they weave – bags, skirts, capes, etc. – are for functional use and everyday adornment. Neighbors can identify each other as Karenni by the woven garments he or she wears.
This installation examines the tradition in a contemporary urban setting, a world away from its origins, and the way it communicates identity to a younger generation of Karenni growing up in the United States. Through weaving, the craftswomen featured here imbue their new home in Houston with the rich traditions of their homeland.
All photos by Debra Ham and Sohil Maknojia
WEAVING HOME: Textile Traditions from Houston's Karenni Community is a public project produced as a part of the Houston Folklife Collection. The work contained in the Houston Folklife Collection was produced by Folklorist Pat Jasper and Project Manager Angel Quesada, with assistance from a range of colleagues and the generous participation of Houstonians and citizens of surrounding communities. The creation of this website was supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts Folk and Traditional Arts Program and University of Houston Special Collections.