Climate Beneficial textiles are fabrics produced in such a way that benefits our ecosystem in harmonious ways. It is important for us to examine the newly rediscovered procedures for boosting textile manufacturing that improves the shift of extracting the carbon out of Earth’s atmosphere while nourishing our plant foundations. These efforts can occur alongside the redevelopment of urban economics and rural peoples.
Destiny Kinal was in the SF Bay area the last two weeks in September and had the good fortune to attend a large extraordinary Fibershed event, as well as to have had some intimate one-on-one time with Rebecca at lunch. A short report on each follows.
Fibershed's Climate Beneficial Fashion Gala September 23, 2017 ~ Big Mesa Farmstead, Bolinas CA
Fibershed in Marin County CA and the SF Bay Area has grown and matured considerably in the (less than) a decade since we first became involved.
Fibershed is truly a phenomenon whose time had come, as it unrolled as quickly as watershed organizations did in the decade following the articulation of the ancient principle of our relationship with the waters that drain and nourish our homelands.
So much of this work we do here on this continent, is repair work, restoration to put back into place those indigenous practices that the disturbance of the European colonization and conquest of the Americas visited on the local indigenous populations. (See the book 1491, by Charles Mann.)
Let us not forget to factor in the cataclysm of slavery on African American's sense of place!
The event took place on the mesa high above the Pacific on an idyllic evening.
Upon entering the event, set against the backdrop of the grasslands, bleached to straw at this point, we first saw the group from Chico, CA, who had joined us at the Historic Deerfield (MA) First Symposium on Restoring the Flax to Linen Culture in the summer of 2017.
Beside them, we found a pair demonstrating spinning cotton and weaving it on a table loom.
The spinning device is called a charka (anagram of chakra), first invented by Gandhi in their resistance to colonization by the British by spinning and weaving their own cotton for garments.
From there we made a swift round of the vendors, carrying a plate of exceptionally good hors d's.
Finally, a speech by Rebecca Burgess remarkably devoid of negative messages (toxic cotton production, fast fashion) and focusing on the climate beneficial achievements of producers. Fibershed Gala: Climate Beneficial Clothing program: PDF format
The day culminated in a dinner offering a variety of meats, vegetables! and desserts, hand selected by the committee from the panoply of local food producers. (The BEST seaweed, the BEST local cheese, the BEST raw seed crackers, the BEST toasted goat, the BEST braised cauliflower, the BEST dark chocolate with nuts hard fudge.)