The Sustainable Future Lies in Indigenous Tradition | Yasmeen Mjalli | TEDxAlManaraSquare
The speaker argues that fashion is a microcosm of intersecting crises—environmental, human rights, and cultural—demonstrating that true sustainability requires centering the slow, collaborative, and deeply knowledgeable practices of Black Indigenous and People of Color. She uses the example of Palestinian traditional textile work to show how labor, community trauma, and colonial erasure warp the modern consumer-producer relationship. The ultimate message is that recognizing these hidden histories is crucial for planetary and human survival. ## Theses & Positions - Indigenous practices are critical knowledge systems that fostered balance between humanity and nature, and the West's failure to listen to them has unbalanced the planet, making us dependent on this knowledge for survival. - True sustainability is inherently intersectional, meaning issues like environment, human rights, and culture cannot be addressed in isolation. - The current model of rapid, disposable consumerism, epitomized by weekly micro-collections, undermines the slow, meticulous nature of traditional creation. - The responsibility for providing full transparency regarding the origin and labor of goods (who cut, sewed, harvested) lies with the *system* (brands, legislation, policies), not the ethical consumer. - Fashion is a political act and a window onto entire, often exploited, communities. ## Concepts & Definitions - **Tatriz circles:** Traditional Palestinian embroidery method where embroiderers work together in a circle, often storytelling and singing. - **Micro collections:** Brands releasing new fashion collections every single week, representing a departure from historical cycles of seasonally appropriate clothing. - **Disposal Waste:** The current rate of consumption leads to an estimated **92 million tons of clothing** thrown away every year. - **Polyester:** The most commonly used fashion fabric, which is derived from oil, making it essentially plastic and taking centuries to decompose. - **Colonial power structures:** These structures have shaped the world by invalidating and erasing indigenous knowledge and ways of being. - **Intersectional perspective:** The necessary framework for change, acknowledging that environmental, human rights, and cultural issues are interconnected. ## Mechanisms & Processes - **Traditional Dyeing:** Yarns (wool, linen, or cotton) were naturally dyed using plants and spices native to Palestine. - **Textile Production Network:** Yarns were washed in seawater to preserve colors and then moved through a "long chain" to weavers across Palestine for use in clothing, rugs, and heritage fabric. - **Tatriz Embroidery Process:** Involves collaborative, slow work, where the entire garment could take up to **six months** to complete, and the items often stayed in family closets for generations. - **Waste Export:** The global north dumps textile waste into countries throughout Africa and Asia, leaving the global south to deal with the resulting pollution. - **Production Transparency (Ideal):** The ability to trace the entire supply chain—from plant harvesting to final sewing—to ensure ethical treatment. ## Timeline & Sequence - **Pre-Conflict:** Existence of established, localized, natural textile production centers, like the town of Al-Majdal. - **1948:** Palestinian expulsion from Al-Majdal; the town was raised to the ground, and textile traditions were threatened with extinction. - **Present Day (Fashion):** Rapid, constant cycles of consumption due to brand micro-collections; high rates of textile waste and use of petroleum-based synthetics. - **Future (Goal):** Implementing ethical, slow, and community-centered production methods that honor the artisan's entire life and context. ## Named Entities - **Al-Majdal:** A Palestinian town located on the Mediterranean Sea, about **20 kilometers** north of Gaza, historically the heart of Palestine's textile industry. - **Gaza:** Location where the speaker first viewed the photograph of the man with dyed yarn. - **Palestine:** The cultural and geographical center whose heritage is encoded in its textiles. - **India/Indonesia/Mali/Guatemala:** Examples of regions where the speaker witnessed the disruption and threat to textile traditions following displacement. - **The Andes:** Region where the speaker observed textile traditions among the Chuchua peoples. ## Numbers & Data - Age of the man in the photograph: Unknown (seen in a mid-1970s photograph). - Time required for some embroidered garments: Up to **six months**. - Number of seasons experienced in modern fashion: **52 seasons** a year (referencing weekly micro-collections). - Estimated annual textile waste: **92 million tons** of clothing. ## Examples & Cases - **The Beach Photo:** A mid-1970s photograph showing an old man on a Gaza beach surrounded by vibrant bundles of yarn, which were washed in seawater and dyed with native Palestinian plants/spices. - **Al-Majdal's Status:** The town no longer exists due to the **1948** expulsion of Palestinians. - **The Overburdening:** The global north ships and dumps textile waste into countries in Africa and Asia. - **The Tattoo Belt:** A dress belt featuring traditional Palestinian *tatriz* embroidery, which was delayed in shipping because the embroiderer unexpectedly lost her daughter to a truck. - **Ethical Enterprise:** A women-run ethical fashion enterprise in rural India, which emphasizes that its work is "much more than a labor job." ## Tools, Tech & Products - **Hand looms:** Central technology of the textile industry in Al-Majdal. - **Natural Dyes:** Plant and spice derivatives used for coloring yarns. - **Tatriz:** Specific form of Palestinian embroidery used in the belts designed for the dress shown. - **Polyester:** The dominant, petroleum-based synthetic fabric used in modern fashion. ## References Cited - **Black Indigenous and People of Color:** Groups whose native practices are frequently utilized or whose struggles are marginalized by mainstream sustainability narratives. ## Trade-offs & Alternatives - **Alternative to fast fashion:** The traditional model of creating garments meant to last for generations, where materials were natural and dyed locally. - **Ethical System:** Shifting the focus from the individual consumer's choices to systemic change involving brands, legislation, and policies. ## Counterarguments & Caveats - The initial question posed by the speaker: *"what's the big deal? it's just yarn and fabric, right?"* (This highlights the common dismissal of cultural craft). - The structural problem: The current system allows companies to ignore the lived realities of the artisans (e.g., the embroiderer losing her daughter). ## Methodology - **Ethnographic Observation:** Researching the historical textile practices of Palestine to understand a lost way of being. - **Critique of Consumerism:** Analyzing the fashion industry's unsustainable speed and waste output. - **Intersectional Analysis:** Viewing textile production not just as economics, but as a nexus of colonialism, climate impact, and bodily humanity. ## Conclusions & Recommendations - **Primary Call to Action:** Asking fundamental questions about the provenance of clothing: *"Do you know who cut and sewed the clothes that you're wearing right now?"* - **Systemic Change Focus:** The responsibility for answers must shift to *"the system,"* demanding legislative and brand accountability. - **Conceptual Framework:** Change must be approached through an intersectional lens, centering the indigenous perspective. ## Implications & Consequences - **Planetary Health:** The world depends on indigenous knowledge to protect a planet at a tipping point due to systemic imbalance. - **Social Justice:** The inability to know the people behind the clothes leads to the dehumanization and erasure of labor, as seen when the mother's grief overshadowed the production timeline. - **Fashion's True Role:** Fashion is fundamentally intertwined with community survival, political struggle, and cultural memory. ## Verbatim Moments - *"a tantalizing glimpse of a palestine which has been crystallized in history and almost forgotten"* - *"an intimate creative network between palestinians and their land"* - *"if you haven't heard of al-majdal that's because it no longer exists"* - *"it's a microcosm of something a lot bigger at play"* - *"the refusal to listen to and center the indigenous perspective has pushed us way out of balance"* - *"we have the privilege to not have to process these facts"* - *"the fight for our survival as a species has been declared"* - *"where was the space for that reality in the conversation between the customer and the brand"* - *"the responsibility to answer these questions shouldn't fall on the shoulders of the people"* - *"if we knew too much about those people then we might want to do something about the ways that they're being treated"* - *"fashion is personal is political"* - *"if we pull the curtain back and just look through those windows then we'll know that fashion is never just fashion"*