Reality, Reciprocity, Resilience

The ‘Reality, Reciprocity, Resilience’ project intended to challenge the dominant practices of designers (originally from or trained in Europe or America) being ‘parachuted’ into marginalised communities with the assumption that they can bring their own knowledge and expertise to solve their problems. The aim of the project was to investigate and value the reality and lived experiences of London-based refugees and asylum seekers in relation to the themes of cultural sustainability and community resilience and inform a reciprocal process of making and learning through textile heritage. Following ethnographic research, storytelling and co-creation workshops were facilitated, mediated by textiles, clothes and accessories owned or inherited by the refugees. These were used to collect the participants’ stories of displacement, cultural sustainability, and community resilience, map out the social fabric of the refugees, and collectively outline their visions for a sustainable future. This exhibition showcases the outputs of this participatory action research project: the textile photo-stories created by the participants, a map of connections between people and places, and the refugees’ collective vision for a resilient future.

• https://www.sustainable-fashion.com/post...