Preserving the last thread

Heritage in Her Hands works with Amazigh women in Morocco, in villages where weaving is one of the oldest things anyone still does by hand. We hold two purposes, and they belong to each other.

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The first is the blanket. Commissioned from a woman at her loom, woven in techniques passed down through generations, and placed in the hands of a woman displaced by war. Warmth at one end, a livelihood at the other, and for both, the knowledge that she is seen.

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The second is the culture itself. The patterns, the sequences, the meanings held in wool and repetition. A tradition thousands of years old that a changing world is quietly wearing away. We document it while it still lives in the hands of the women who carry it, so that it is not lost with them.

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Right now, the second purpose is where our attention sits. We are in the villages and at the looms, recording what is there and building the trust this work depends on. The blankets will come again. First we make sure there is still a thread to follow.

It was founded by Cory Ettiene, a PhD candidate in archaeology at Durham University, whose research follows Amazigh women, the symbolism in their weaving, and how a culture survives in the hands of those who keep it.