Kickstarter-funded knitted crafts help Ifugao keep ancestral lands

A knitting project that seeks to keep Ifugao folk from being forced out of their ancestral land is seeking funding support from netizens.

 

The project by "Ricefield Collective" aims to use handknitting to generate income for the Ifugaos who may lose their homes.  

 

"Our goal is to use handknitting as a way of generating income for those in danger of being forced out of their ancestral land due to poverty. We're planning to launch a limited-edition knitwear collection in Fall 2013 made by the women we work with," it said on its website (RicefieldCollective.org).

 

Ricefield Collective started its one-month bid to raise funding support on Kickstarter last March 19.

 

The project will be funded if at least $24,600 is pledged by April 19.

 

Project proponent Meredith Ramirez-Talusan spent her childhood at her family farm in the Philippines and moved to the US at age 15.

 

She said she learned of the Ifugaos' plight in 2011, where "many people were abandoning their land because they had no steady source of income, and their fields produced barely enough rice to feed their own families."

 

She said she offered to teach them to knit so they can make money by selling hats to local tourists.

 

"It became clear that the only way for the project to be sustainable is if we harnessed the power of the Internet to bring their products to a world market. That was how Ricefield Collective grew from a local initiative to a Kickstarter campaign," she said.

 

Ramirez-Talusan said Ifugao folk have two key qualities that let them make high-quality handknit products - high sensitivity to beauty and willingness to do manual labor.

 

She said they have prepared limited edition hats, cowls, and sets from their collection, made from soft American wool from Quince & Co. in Portland, Maine.

 

"They come with a picture of the woman who made the item along with a tag that's signed and numbered by her. You can wear them knowing that they're not only beautiful and warm but are also made by someone happy," she said. — TJD, GMA News