Conceived by mai ide.; Co-facilitated by Sophia Xiao-fan Austrins
As part of COMING HOME: Week of Memory Activism in Portland’s Historic Old Town 9/28 - 10/5, 2024 (Full Program here)
Solidarity through collective knot making
PDX Senninbari Project works to help us support each other to celebrate our resilience and future visions
Senninbari means “Thousand Person Stitches”.
During WWll, Senninbari was created as an amulet or talismans for soldiers as virtual protection, as wearable garment stitched by one thousand women from the community.
We want to create this project to bring people together, especially women, who experienced displacement, historical racism, and cultural erasure or loss of their family. Connecting together through this stitching project is a significant intention.
Directions for participation:
Senninbari is a traditional Japanese talisman, typically a belt or cloth, embroidered with 1,000 stitches by 1,000 women, each contributing a single stitch. Originally worn by soldiers during wartime as a symbol of protection and good luck, senninbari were believed to grant the wearer courage, strength, and safety. The act of creating and gifting a senninbari was also a significant expression of solidarity and hope from the community to those going into battle.
Take a card and respond to the following
How can we honor and uplift the people and communities that have been overlooked or undervalued, ensuring they are never treated as disposable?
What words of love, care, strength would you offer our community as we continue our battles to be seen, remembered, and to thrive?
Add a knot to the fabric
Make knots together with love, care, respect, humility, courage, wisdom, honesty, Truth, and beauty.
As you add your knot, reflect on the resilience of our past, the realities of the present, and the hopes for the future.
