Tammachat event natural approach to fairly traded textiles

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

Two Nova Scotia women have created a Fair Trade business to help women who make textiles in Thailand and Laos to earn enough money so they can remain in their rural communities.

Mahone Bay residents Ellen Agger and Alleson Kase will host a slideshow presentation and textile sale at the St. John’s parish hall in Wolfville Saturday, Nov. 1. They call their operation Tammachat, which is the Thai word for natural.

With Agger as the photographer and Kase as the development expert, their presentation will tell the stories of hard-working Southeast Asian women and show how they make silk fabric from the natural world around them.

The noon slideshow is their way of bringing the women's situation to life, Kase says. Generally, most rural women are rice farmers who use their slow season to weave fabric.

The women use simple equipment and a technique passed down to them from their grandmothers and elders in the communities, Kase says.

At the sale, which runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., there will be a variety of handcrafted, naturally dyed silk and cotton scarves, shawls, bags, artwork, fabric, tableware and other products.

All the textiles were created by women's weaving groups in rural Thailand and Laos, which is one of East Asia's poorest countries.

Agger's fascination with weaving goes back to the early 1980s when she first traveled to Guatemala, but their notion to help the weavers resulted from a trip they both took to Thailand several years ago. Low sales on the part the weaving co-ops there prompted Agger and Kase to start the Tammachat project.

"The women there told us their sales were down, which meant they had to limit their membership. Right away, we knew we were going to connect their desire to expand their market with our desire to find new careers," Kase said.

They brought over 1,000 textile items from various weaving groups and are now selling the textiles at special events.

Helps build long-term trade relationships

Tammachat Natural Textiles supports the women financially and also helps build long-term trade relationships with artisan groups. Kase is hopeful with increased sales younger women will see the value in following in their elder’s footsteps.

The duo firmly believes that where money is spent can change the world and that’s why they want consumers to have access to fairly traded alternative products. Having lived in Thailand for eight years, Kase understands and has studied fair trade. She adds, "our bottom line is not profitability, but ethical practice."

They believe in supporting groups like Lao Sericulture, which is a not-for-profit company that operates a silk farm in northern Laos. In partnership with over 200 village families, it specializes in the production of naturally dyed, handmade silk. In addition to growing mulberry trees and fostering traditional silkworm rearing, reeling, weaving and natural dyeing in villages, the group also provides training, tools and a market for sales and distribution.

Kase and Agger are actively looking at alternative trade agencies like the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), which places the priority on business practices rather than the products. The IFAT logo is used by over 150 trade organizations worldwide.

“This is our first time in the Valley with Tammachat,” said Agger last week, “so we're an unknown there. We know there are a lot of ‘fibre’ people (knitters, spinners, weavers, sewing, rug hookers) in the Valley and these women are some of the biggest fans of the work we bring back. They really appreciate the work involved with the pieces.”

The sale runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The social fabric slideshow and talk is set for 12-12:30 p.m. It will look at weaving traditions, village-based silk production, natural dyeing, community development and fair trade in action.

Weblinks: www.tammachat.com