Giving Form to Memory: Drawn Thread Embroidery as Embodied ‘Re-membering’ of Trauma Narratives

Giving Form to Memory: Drawn Thread Embroidery as Embodied ‘Re-membering’ of Trauma Narratives

Sana Naqvi
Articles

The enquiry merges textile craft and feminist discourse and methodologies to probe women’s subjectivities. Through inherited objects and memories, it considers generational wounds and patriarchal neglect as channels for trauma narratives, and explores material objects as acts of ‘re-membering’. It examines the significance of drawn thread embroidery work or Taarkashi as a tangible link between individuals across cultures, generations, and geographies. The juxtaposition of reflective pieces and needlework enables me to experience Taarkashi as practiced by my great-grandmother, Amma. Simultaneously, the craft becomes a testimony to limitations as it can only be done on an open-weave fabric, horizontally or vertically. This constraint reminds me of how the freedom and exposure of skilled women needle workers in the Punjab Province are gendered and controlled by society through disciplines of various kinds.

Convivial Scholarship in an Incomplete World: Interview with Prof. Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Convivial Scholarship in an Incomplete World: Interview with Prof. Francis B. Nyamnjoh

Urmila Mohan
Interviews

This is a transcript of a podcast interview conducted on September 15, 2024, for Season 2, Episode 1 of the Embodied Worlds Podcast in which Dr. Urmila Mohan interviewed Prof. Francis B. Nyamnjoh, Anthropologist, University of Cape Town. We are grateful to Dr. Lindsay Crisp, Lecturer, Open University, London, and Emily Levick, our Editorial Project Manager, for researching Prof. Nyamnjoh’s work on incompleteness and providing some of the questions in this interview. Francis’ philosophy of conviviality and collaboration is part of his framework of ‘incompleteness’ and he discussed its use in contexts of ecology, healing systems, and knowledge making. We have started our podcast’s second season with this interview of 50 mins. because Francis’ voice and actions embody our values of interdisciplinary engagement, imagination, and acknowledging incompleteness-in-motion as the state of our common world.