#cultural exchanges

[ashitakaxsan]

✨❤️A rare connection of Japan with Palestine ✨❤️

Warning:All the text isn't mine,it's a serious article of Middle East Eye.net,by freelance writer, editor and producer author Indlieb Farazi Saber. I kindly asked their Legal team for the permission of rerpoducing it,they gave it to me. Their reply :

"Copyright infringement is a serious matter, if you state in your proposed re-post of our article that you do not own the copyright and those wishing to re-blog should ask for our permission, you would have satisfied us of your best endeavours to keep your commitment. Thank you".

Kind regards;

Legal Team of Middle East Eye.

تحذير: كل النص ليس من تأليفي، إنه مقال جدي لموقع Middle East Eye.net، بقلم الكاتب المستقل والمحرر والمنتج المؤلف إندليب فرازي صابر. لقد طلبت من فريقهم القانوني الإذن بإعادة إنتاجه، فأعطوني إياه. ردهم :

"يعد انتهاك حقوق الطبع والنشر أمرًا خطيرًا، إذا ذكرت في إعادة نشر مقالتنا المقترحة أنك لا تملك حقوق الطبع والنشر ويجب على أولئك الذين يرغبون في إعادة التدوين طلب إذننا، فستكون قد أقنعتنا ببذل قصارى جه��ك من أجل حافظ على التزامك شكرا لك".

أطيب التحيا��؛

الفريق القانوني لعين الشرق الأوسط

Farsi:

اخطار: تمام متن مال من نیست، این یک مقاله جدی در Middle East Eye.net است که توسط نویسنده، ویراستار و تهیه کننده مستقل Indlieb Farazi Saber نوشته شده است. من با مهربانی از تیم حقوقی آنها برای انتشار مجدد آن اجازه خواستم، آنها آن را به من دادند. پاسخ آنها:

"نقض کپی رایت یک موضوع جدی است، اگر در پست پیشنهادی خود از مقاله ما اعلام کنید که حق نسخه برداری متعلق به شما نیست و کسانی که مایل به وبلاگ نویسی مجدد هستند باید اجازه ما را بخواهند، ما را از بهترین تلاش های خود راضی می کنید. به تعهد خود پایبند باشید.

با احترام؛

تیم حقوقی خاورمیانه چشم

Japanese:

警告: テキストはすべて私のものではありません。これは、フリーランスのライター、編集者、プロデューサーである Indlieb Farazi Saber による Middle East Eye.net の真面目な記事です。私は親切にも彼らの法務チームに再掲載の許可を求めたところ、許可をもらいました。彼らの返答:

「著作権侵害は深刻な問題です。あなたが私たちの記事を再投稿する提案で、著作権を所有していないこと、再投稿を希望する人は私たちの許可を求める必要があることを述べれば、あなたは約束を守るために最善を尽くしたと私たちは納得するでしょう。ありがとうございます」。

よろしくお願いいたします。

Middle East Eye の法務チーム。

If anyone wants to reblog it then he/she has to ask their permission . https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/japan-palestine-obi-embroidery-kimono-tatreez

❤️🌟Meet the woman fusing the traditional Japanese Obi with the Palestinian tatreez❤️🌟

By Indlieb Farazi Saber 5 July 2021 09:41 BST

Designer Maki Yamamoto is on a mission to establish a special relationship between the two cultures

Maki Yamamoto has spent the last eight years trying to reframe how Palestinians are seen in her native land of Japan.

Her weapon of choice is the Palestinian Embroidery Obi Project, which fuses the traditional Japanese obi, a wide fabric sash wrapped around the waist to secure kimonos in place, and Palestinian embroidery, known as tatreez.

The project is a collaboration between the Japanese designer and Palestinian women living in refugee camps in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, who hand stitch intricate designs into the obis. Although no one is willing to disclose how much is being paid, Yamamoto says, “They get paid the price they ask for. It’s a totally fair trade.”

Describing the process of producing the garments, “It all depends on the design,” she says.

“Obi with full tatreez can take five months to embroider. If tatreez is small, embroidery takes a month or so. After the tatreez is finished, the material is brought to Japan where a Japanese kimono tailor finishes the piece and creates the

obi.”

‘Supporting the Palestinian people’

Yamamoto set up the project after travelling to Palestine in 2013 as part of a cultural exchange trip organised by the Palestinian Authority.

“I have Palestinian friends living in Japan and we’ve known each other for over 15 years so I knew Palestinians have beautiful costumes and embroidery.

“But I decided to support Palestinian people after my first visit.”

Yamamoto, who is also a pharmacologist, says there is considerable sympathy for the Palestinian plight within Japan - at least relative to Western states.

The Japanese government officially supports a two state solution along 1967 borders, calls for a “fair” resolution to the Palestinian refugee issue and opposes Israel’s unilateral annexation of occupied East Jerusalem. According to Yamamoto, media sympathy in Japan also generally tilts towards the Palestinians.

Mohamed Shokeir, a contributing writer for The Arab, a quarterly digest on Japan-Arab relations says: “Shinzo Abe [former Japanese prime minister] has generally been sympathetic with the Palestinians and not the Israelis.

“Palestinians are seen as weak and deprived of their land by a more powerful, better armed people. So the Japanese have been more open and welcoming to Palestinians.”

Despite this sympathy for the Palestinian cause, it was Yamamoto’s visit to the occupied territories and her experience while there of the “resilience” and “warm hospitality” of the Palestinian people that made her want to turn sympathy into some form of direct action.

Yamamoto’s PhD at Tokyo's University of Agriculture and Technology, which she started after her visit in 2020,  focuses on Palestinian embroidery and the economic independence of Palestinian farmers and refugee women. 

She says she wants to shine a “positive light” on Palestine and on Arab people more generally.

"It's a matter of basic human rights", she says. "Palestinians living in certain parts of the West Bank are surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements, and blockade of Gaza. They cannot work freely, they cannot live freely."

“Palestinian people and refugees are in a hard situation, but that’s not everything. 

“Embroidery artisans in refugee camps create beautiful things despite severe living conditions. I wanted to show Japan the beauty and resilience of Palestine.”

Tatreez as identity

In 2014, Yamamoto began collaborating with The Society of Inash al Usra (Revival of the Family), a Palestinian NGO, to identify embroiderers and artisans in the occupied West Bank to work with.  Since then she has visited Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories more than 17 times and now also works with Palestinian embroiderers in the besieged Gaza strip.

Dawlat Abu Shaweesh is one of thirty women from the Al-Amari refugee camp near the town of Al-Bireh, who having learnt the craft from her mother at the age of 10, hand stitches intricate crisscross designs onto the obi sashes.

“You have to have sharp vision to see, and you need patience, it’s difficult to do.

“For Palestinians, tatreez is our hawiyah, our identity. When you ask someone to hold up a photo ID card with their details, that’s what tatreez is to us."

'To know our tatreez will be taken to Japan, and through it they will know about our culture and history, makes me really happy' - Dawlat Abu Shaweesh, Palestinian embroiderer

Neither Abu Shaweesh nor Yamamoto see the tatreez obis as cultural appropriation, but rather a fusion of cultures. The tatreez is stitched authentically by Palestinian women who say they are paid well for their work, and who are proud to stitch traditional Japanese clothes with their nation's motifs.

Now 52, Abu Shaweesh says she is happy to share her Palestinian “culture and history” with Japan.

“I don’t know of anything that’s more beautiful than tatreez stitching, and to know our tatreez will be taken to Japan, and through it they will know about our culture and history, makes me really happy."

Once pandemic travel restrictions are lifted, Abu Shaweesh and a handful of Palestinian women will be travelling to Tokyo as part of a cultural exchange programme organised by Yamamoto.

‘Natural’ pairing

According to Yamamoto, there is nothing novel about incorporating non-Japanese influences into kimono and obi designs. She explains that there is a long tradition of other cultures leaving their mark on the iconic Japanese dress and it is therefore “natural” to incorporate tatreez embroidery into the obi.

“I am familiar with traditional Japanese culture and the origin of the kimono, although today many aren’t and wonder how I came up with some of my ideas,” she says.

“The kimono has been influenced by neighbouring countries since the Silk Road era. Most kimonos are made with silk material and the silk weaving techniques came down from China. 

“Many patterns or textiles from Silk Road countries have been used for kimono, like the popular ‘Blue Wave’ kimono pattern that originated in Persia.”

Yamamoto says Uzbek Suzani embroidery, Indonesian Batik and African printed fabric have all been used to transform the kimono and the obi with no objection from kimono wearers. 

Mariko Akimoto is one such kimono enthusiast, with a collection of more than 20 obis, some plain and some with designs.

The Tokyo-based engineer received her first kimono when she was just three, and with her love for traditional wear cultivated by her mother, she soon started buying and collecting her own. 

Kimonos were once worn as a daily outfit in Japan but are now usually reserved for special occasions. 

The appeal of Yamamoto tatreez obis is not just limited to the design, the manner in which they are made is also attractive to potential buyers.

“I always try to choose ‘fair-trade’ fashion,” Akimoto says, which to her means clothes that have been sourced and made ethically.

An internet search for "fair-trade kimono" led her to the Palestinian Embroidery Obi Project, where she learnt about the tatreez emroidered obis.

She contacted Yamamoto to learn more about the initiative and bought the first of her two tatreez obis - a plain burnt orange sash woven along one side with a colourful tatreez design.

“The design appealed to me, but purchasing obi is not an easy decision because it’s not a casual price. 

“But after I heard how the Palestinian women who stitched the obis were then able to put their kids through college, I was extremely impressed and I decided to purchase it.”

The starting cost of one of these tailor-made tatreez obis is around $1,000 (¥108,000) and can sometimes be double that, depending on the design.  

A second-hand cotton kimono with an obi belt included can cost as little as $10 (1,085 yen), with better quality ones - depending on the length and the quality of the fabric - costing up to $10,000 (1,085,000 yen), and bespoke designs surpassing this figure further still.

Akimoto says: “I’m not used to explaining what I wear to others, as I don’t like people to think I’m saying my clothes are more special than theirs. 

“The tatreez obis are pretty unique, so when I’m asked about one of them I get the chance to explain how it was made, and how buying one supports women in Palestine.”

Source: https://www.middleeasteye.net/discover/japan-palestine-obi-embroidery-kimono-tatreez

[k12academics]

Level Up Village (a product of Language Testing International) is a global communication platform that is uniquely designed to allow students to expand their learning and engage in meaningful exchanges with students around the world. With Level Up Village, students engage in collaborative tasks that encourage the development of 21 st century skills and global competency through our unique peer-to-peer global collaboration experience.

[newspatron]

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Silesian Miku

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[xtruss]

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[thesmegalodon]

you all need to be my minions i think it’d be wonderful if we made hope posting a trend on tumblr

[striderincosmos]

Mass Effect Cultural Exchanges

What piece of media, art, or culture from our world, regardless of the era it comes from, would you want to share with which species from the Mass Effect universe?

I'll start by saying that I would love to see quarians get introduced to the Portal series. I'm sure more than a fair few would love the puzzle aspect of the series, the idea of the portals (among other tech aspects), and the twist near the end of Portal 2 would be one hell of a whammy.

[kataangiscanon]

HAPPY KATAANG WEEK.

Day 1 - Cultural Exchange/ Culture Sharing/ Revival of Traditions.

[spellmage]

my Nevarra headcanon is that they love Memento Mori rings

[merlyn-bane]

okay but can we talk about how fucking good the food would be in the Jedi Temple?? and all of the absolutely fucking baller and totally unique fusion dishes that would have to exist?? they're by far the most diverse group of beings we see in star wars, with lineages made up of people from all across the galaxy. the best food in that galaxy has got to be something from a lineage dinner table that's been made and modified by generations of Jedi and no-one ever wrote down

[cuterefaction]

Trektober Day 13 - Baking. TBH I'd like to draw about two dozen different Star Trek characters baking, but since Odo is canonically bamboozled by the concept of stirring he had to take it :) (it's okay, Sisko will help him fix whatever happens)

[proffbon]

How it started:

How it's going:

[callimara]

Imagining a Sundanese guest experiencing Ancient Greek hospitality rules is the funniest thing because the hospitality wars would’ve gone crazy.

Every nice thing their Greek hosts would try to do for them, they’d need to insist on because the Sundanese guest would insist on not troubling them and then proceed to match—if not double—the favor, creating an endless cycle of hospitality that would send Zeus into a state of overdose.

[quinthetoucan]

y'all please check out my friend alex's book!! its a free online resource for learning māori, the endangered indigenous language of new zealand, and we hope that it can help spread this beautiful language to even more people!

(plus this book is a blast hehe)