Weaving collective in Laos

When we were in Lao we drove down a dusty road to visit a women’s collective near the village where I was born, Phonehong. I forget exactly where it was but I’m sure it will come to me as soon as I’ve stopped writing. When we entered the old building there were about 30 women, each with their own collection of handwoven fabrics. It was difficult to walk around as each was wanting us to stop at their table to look through their things. I ended up buying presents for friends and family from each one of them! We were given a tour of the back room where each woman had their loom and on them were half-finished pieces of gorgeous silks and cottons just begging to be finished. We had a chat with a few of the women who weren’t annoyed at inquisitive strangers and found that many of them had travelled very far to get here, some had trekked down from the mountains. When the sun began to go down at about 5.30pm we were still making our selections in the dusk light so when I arrived home in Melbourne, I realised that many of the things I had bought, although beautiful, werent exactly the colour I had thought. This collective is inspirational and the women had complete control of their time. When sales were slow they could pack up and go home to be with their families. Some had their babies with them. It was here where they could directly benefit from their skills.