The Women Cell/Anti Sexual Harassment Cell, Japfü Christian College, Kohima in collaboration with IQAC, JCC and powered by Nagaland State Commission for Women (NSCW) organised a national seminar on the theme ‘Naga women traditional attires: celebrating us’ on May 6.
The guest speakers during the seminar were Prof Ajailu Niumai, UoH, Dr Easterine Kire, Author and Dr Theyiesinuo Keditsu, Assistant Professor, Kohima College, stated a press release received here.
In her prelude, Dr Kire remarked that ‘every Naga cloth has been conceived and created by woman’s hand and a woman’s mind, not by the hands of a man.’ She opined that the cloth for covering the body is a body cloth and the cloth to be worn below for women is a waist cloth. Calling it a shawl diminishes its distinctness.
Kire stated, “Wearing our traditional attire is the closest to experiencing what it could be like to wear a poem.”
As a conclusion, she stressed on the importance of documenting the many designs on our clothes and collecting valuable information on the art of weaving before it is too late to ensure “the celebration goes on for years and years”.
Prof Ajailiu Niumai, an eminent sociologist, spoke on the topic ‘attires as symbol of cultural identity.’ She said, “Naga attires are unique to our cultural identity. It serves as a symbol of our Naga cultural heritage and as such we should not be ashamed but promote it.”
She expressed that our dress, our attire reflects our history. It serves as a social signal, a social cue to our unique identity representation and the sense of belongingness to our cultural roots. Further, she stressed on the importance of preserving, promoting and learning the art of weaving to safeguard our rich Naga cultural heritage and identity.
Dr Thieyiesinuo Keditsu, her speech stated that Mekhala is one of the most democratic, inclusive garment available for Naga women. According to Dr Keditsu fashion is a language and our attires speak even after the speaker passes away.
She stated that “Attires as language is both a mode and medium by and which we women can claim agency, we can assert our desires, believes and aspirations”. She expressed that in our patriarchal society the latent functions of our attires are constructed by women showcasing the beautiful agency our attire demonstrates.
She also expressed her regret on how western culture and education has made us strangers in our own land. She questioned “How can we women celebrate us without self-awareness, self-knowledge about us?” and stated that women cannot come to full knowledge about themselves by consuming a tradition of knowledge produced by men about women. She remarked that Naga women should encourage each other to engage in the growing body of knowledge produced by women in the form of our textiles and attires.
In her concluding remark she stated that weaving is an act of care giving, an act of enterprise and to “celebrate us” is not simply to wear our attires but to deeply introspect and re-evaluate our biases towards forms of female labour and perhaps even learn how to weave.
Source: The Morning Express
