June 25, 2006

 Durriya Kazi said that over the years, no significant effort had been made to mould our crafts to the needs of changing times: ‘Our crafts are not commercially viable which is why our craftsmen are abandoning their profession’

lt is a relief that the Sindh government has finally woken up to the importance of documenting and safeguarding traditional crafts and has taken the first concrete step in the right direction. A high-profile workshop on Mapping of Handicrafts in Sindh was recently held at a reputed hotel to view the current position of the crafts of the province and to discuss the various ways in which they could be given a new lease on life.

Organised by the culture, tourism, sports, youth affairs and social welfare departments of the Sindh government, the workshop had eminent speakers who made some valuable contributions. The session began with a welcome address by Rabiya Javeri, Additional Secretary, Culture and Tourism Department, who also introduced the project. She informed that in liaison with the various government representatives located in all the hamlets of Sindh, the culture department planned to document all the handicrafts of the province.

Durriya Kazi, head of the Department of Visual Studies, University of Karachi, was the first speaker to make an important observation. She remarked that over the years, no significant effort had been made to mould our crafts to the needs of changing times. “You can’t have too much of the same thing. Our crafts are not commercially viable which is why our craftsmen are abandoning their profession.”

In her proposal for regeneration of handicrafts in Sindh, among the valuable suggestions made by Kazi was the need to recognize crafts as a viable industry, support marketing and inculcate an awareness of international standards. She suggested that designers and art school students should be encouraged to work with craftsmen so that a new look could be given to traditional crafts and a comprehensive directory of artisans — including women working from homes and urban designers using traditional stitches and patterns — should be compiled. She also mentioned that there should be a degree course introduced in crafts to give it the respect it deserves.

The next speaker was Meher Marker Noshirwani, coordinator Shirkat Gah Khaddar Project. She spoke of her personal experiences in working with the women of Landhi who had moved from Agra, and reviving their skills of weaving handloom fabric. She also shared with the audience the organisation’s success story of re-marketing khaddar as a product, creating linkages with other NGOs and teaching women quality control and skill development.

Karachi-based designer, Rizwan Beyg, came up next and spoke of his trip to Paris where he participated in the Paris pret-a-porter. He discovered that there is a large demand for our exotic crafts but we don’t appreciate them, whereas the ones we are exporting are “ridiculous” and not in demand. “I came back with the view to revive our different crafts like zardozi, Kashmiri karahi and meena kari so that we may meet their growing demand. We identified master craftsmen and offered stipends to students to learn the craft. We also gave work to the women of Bahawalpur but found there was no quality control.

“Finally, we had to set up a school there in order to maintain quality control, with women coming in shifts to work under supervision, and that proved successful. But state patronage is mandatory to support our handicrafts. Polytechnics should be established to facilitate quality control in the mass production of our traditional crafts.”

Deepak Perwani, in his presentation, commented that by and large, we tend to be very disorganised. He said that revival of crafts should be done in an acceptable way, taking into consideration designer input.

Although not on the agenda, Omar Rahim, a researcher and retailer in New York who happened to be visiting Pakistan, addressed the audience next. Rahim mentioned that he had worked in local ceramics earlier but discovered, much as Beyg did, that our craft lacks quality control when mass produced, and thus does not appeal to the US market. Currently, he is working with jacquard fabric.

He also bemoaned the fact that some of our products are being sold at ridiculously low prices to India, which is selling them abroad as Indian products at exorbitant rates. He cited the example of his own product, rilli which he discovered was being passed off by a French designer as her creation made in India.

Rafiq Hussain, who represented the government, spoke on the local handicrafts of Hala. He presented Hala’s history and that of its various handicrafts including rilli, pottery and block-prints; but he chose to make his presentation in Sindhi due to which much of what he said was lost on the audience.

Designer Faiza Samee spoke in general about how the traditional crafts now produced in Sindh are poor versions of the original. She also mentioned the difficulties she faced while working with local craftsmen: she had to go through middlemen whose presence made the craft unnecessarily expensive. “I bought a beautiful ajrak in silk from India’s Crafts Council, and discovered that Pakistani craftsmen had produced it; it was very reasonably priced. I think we have let down the craftsmen of Sindh.”

In the concluding speech, Mehtab Akbar Rashdi, the secretary of culture and tourism, gave her assurance that the Sindh government would be willing to facilitate anyone who wished to work with the craftsmen of Sindh. She also mentioned that a crafts festival is in the offing in December at Keenjhar Lake, in which designers would be invited to give their valuable input to the craftsmen.

One important observation made by Tapu Javeri in the question and answer session was that care should be taken in making our traditional crafts commercially viable: we must not make the mistake of losing out on their authenticity and their original charm. It would indeed be a shame if, in giving a new lease on life to our craftsmen, we kill the very craft we are trying to promote.          

At the end of the session, Durriya took an intelligent initiative, suggesting that those present at the workshop should become signatories to a trust to safeguard the crafts of Sindh, so that the process that has been initiated continues. The suggestion was well-taken and most present signed up.

Speaking later to Deepak Perwani, Images tried to gauge his views on the workshop and whether he felt there was any likelihood of the mapping process materializing in the targeted six months. His reply was rather optimistic: “I feel the documentation can be done easily and I have high hopes of the department of culture. This is the first step toward any kind of progression, and I am all the more hopeful of the success of this venture because women are behind it. They are normally more committed than men and are aware of the importance of culture.”

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