By Shirabe Yamada | Executive Director, Sunbula
Dear Friends,
Protecting the cultural heritage of Palestine is one of Sunbula's missions. We strive to safeguard the livelihood of our partner artisans so that their valuable skills and knowledge will stay an active part of today's economy through craft production. We also conduct research and documentation on the craft heritage in order to pass it on to the future generation.
We have recently released the 2nd edition of our 2019 publication, 'Seventeen Embroidery Techniques from Palestine: An Instruction Manual.' The book's original release date was last year, yet the plan got upended after the war started in October. Over the last months our team resumed the work to edit and update the contents, and the book was finally released on August 3rd. The new edition comes in a more compact size than the original for improved pracitcaility.
We had planned book release events in Jerusalem, Ramallah, and Nazareth, but they were once again put on hold in the escalation of the regional tension following the rapid succession of political events at the end of July. In the meantime, the book is available for purchase at our fair trade shop in Jerusalem and online shop. With nearly 300 copies aleady sold, we are pleasantly surprised by the steep rise of interest in Palestinian embroidery from around the world.
The book aims to revive a diversty of embrodery techniques from the historic Palestine that have fallen out of use in recent decades, like the Manajel binding stitches or Tahriri couching embroidery. Once the situation permits, we plan to distribute it at women's organizations and cultural institutions, and to organize embroidery workshops at different locations across Palestine.
We feel the book's purpose is more relevant than ever today when so much of the Palestinian material culture has been destroyed in the genocidal war -- heritage sites, craft workshops, and the very lives of the artisans. Because of it all, this edition is dedicated to the embroiderers and craftspeople of Gaza.
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