Grace Petersen
May 18, 2019
This week we learn about two traditional production methods the Hmong people utilize in their textile arts. Learning about how the Hmong traditionally grow, cultivate, and weave hemp along with the use of indigo batik dye was fascinating, especially so with the video demonstrating this. While I had not known beforehand about the Hmong use of these materials, I couldn't help but wonder how similar it was to other cultures and people who used hemp and indigo. Hemp has faced a lot of interesting legal disputes due to it's nigh indistinguishability from cannabis, as both terms are simply definitions as to the use, not the botany. Indigo, on the other hand, does not have this struggle and has not been as unfairly restricted in use, at least in the western world. Comparatively, Indigo is very widely used in commercial as well as traditional purposes, all throughout various cultures around the world.
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| Nigerian use of Indigo dye (Photo credit: http://famousremdee.blogspot.com) |
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| Various Indigo uses globally (photo credits: Catherine Legrand Indigo: The Color that Changed the World 1st Edition) |
We learned about Indigo's use with traditional Shibori dye from the Kimono Refashioned exhibit, and so I assumed that it was perhaps a dye used most widely in asian countries. What I found is that Indigo is one of the oldest dyes in the world, and that almost every continent has cultures with their own spin on traditional dye methods using Indigo. Even denim jeans are traditionally dyed using indigo, and With such a widely used material, I began to wonder how or if the designs and motifs of people who use traditional dye patterns are protected. I did not find any such legislation when going through a casual informational survey through google scholar, which is a stark difference to how hemp is so rigidly controlled in many countries.
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