Harkhuben Bhojraj Rabari

India

Year(s) attended: 2010

Kala Raksha

Embroidery

Between time spent doing agricultural and pastoral work, women in the rural communities of the desert area of Kutch in western India create hand-embroidered garments, bags, animal trappings and household decorations for their own use and, increasingly, for sale to outsiders.

Their distinct style visually recounts the history of their local group—its place of origin, migration and interactions with neighboring groups. The pieces are all made free-hand with natural fibers, and the embroidery patterns are designed by the artisans based on the intricate patterns of older traditional pieces.

Harkhuben Bhojraj Rabari grew up in a family of camel herders and learned embroidery from her mother in 1962 when, at the age of 15, she began work on her wedding dowry.

Today, her skills in mud relief work, beadwork and appliqué, in addition to her innovative and intricate embroidery, have won coveted awards, and earned her a position as both teacher and product designer for the Kala Raksha Trust.

The Kala Raksha Trust is a grassroots social enterprise founded in 1993 that has helped to turn this historic folk art into a source of self-sufficiency and self-esteem for thousands of women artisans in western India.

Dedicated to the preservation of the traditional arts of ethnic communities of Kutch, the Trust champions fair trade practices and involves artists in the pricing and marketing of their own products. Additionally, the Trust provides preventative health care and basic education programs, and micro-credit savings groups to achieve holistic community development for traditional artists.