"In All Things, Many Work As One."
Tereneh Mosely is a Pittsburg based designer who has been collaborating with the Olorgesailie Maasai Women Artisans of Kenya since 2008. Plant based textiles and indigenous adornment is the aesthetic foundation.
Her main inspiration is working with Indigenous women artisans. Four key lessons are: Material. Matter. Manner. Meaning
- The importance of material as part of a universal system of creating.
-The elements needed to create and its connections to all of us.
-The manner of production; do not harm the connected ecosystem.
-Textile arts and how we adorn the body has meaning as well as sociocultural significance.
Her goals are to create a global creative community of Indigenous artisans and to redefine sustainability to include human beauty and creativity as well as nature’s.
"Looking at indigenous cultures and people of color … looking at communities who are ignored – there’s so much value, knowledge and information within those communities. We have to sustain that knowledge and each other or else there’s no point in moving forward.
[..] Sustainability is two-fold: 1) sustaining nature and 2) sustaining human beings, humanity and human creativity. We have to make sure that we sustain each other and ourselves so that we are looking out for how things are made, why things are made where they're made and who makes them.
It’s impossible not to be inspired by a lot of different things. Indigenous design is timeless and there’s a reason why designers all over the world keep reaching to indigenous populations for inspiration. The problem is when people don’t give creative credit and economic benefit to cultures who created it.
There are 36 women in our Collective.. and fairtrade is a creative business partnership where all the women benefit. My Goal is to have or create an Indigenous Quality Label that says something like, “The creation of this design by a Maasi Collective … This has not been appropriated” LOL. I want a stamp of approval or Intellectual innovative seal! There needs to be some way to give creative credit and economic development to the indigenous people.” - Tereneh Mosely [x]
Nicole Beharie in the OMWA + Idia’Dega Tomon organic cotton blouse with hand beaded cufflinks | AfroPop: The Ultimate Cultural Exchage, Season 9
Nicole Beharie hosts season 9 of AfroPop:The Ultimate Cultural Exchange. Afropop is a program featuring independent documentaries and short films about contemporary life, art and culture across the African Diaspora.
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