Displacement: Crafts enterprises at Knowledge House of Craft
Global/Virtual
2021
Narrative Made’s founder Sharon Tsang-de Lyster presented a talk as part of the Reinventing the Wheel series hosted by the Knowledge House of Craft - "Crafts enterprises as empowerment for refugees and displaced people" on November 24, 2021.
It could be argued that our understanding of the crafts is based on a notion of culture inherited from German romanticism, that traditions spring from the soil. From this perspective, the situation of a refugee craftsperson who moves to a foreign land seems to compromise that authenticity. Yet, refugees are not a purely modern phenomenon. And craftspersons have moved for other reasons, such as opportunities in courts such as Tipu Sultan's in India that recruited artisans from across the world.
So with Sharon's talk, we have a chance to consider how craft assists in the transition to a new country, what kinds of craft tend to be practiced by displaced people, and whether something new emerges that makes a contribution to the field.
Sharon described a number of platforms for refugee craft across the world. This included not only the continuation of crafts that were practiced before displacement, but new crafts that were developed in refugee camps. The benefits were multiple, including not only economic but also well-being for the refugees.
