Stitching Survival: Reclaiming Heritage and Climate Justice Through the Art of Displaced Pakistani Artisans
"Stitching Survival: Reclaiming Heritage and Climate Justice Through the Art of Displaced Pakistani Artisans".
As people deeply connected to the stories, struggles, and resilience of rural artisans in Pakistan, we want to speak about something that often goes unseen in conversations about climate change: the loss of intangible cultural heritage. When climate disasters such as floods, droughts, heatwaves force people to leave their homes, it's not just land or shelter that is lost. What disappears with displacement are the songs, symbols, stitches, and stories that have been passed down for generations. These are the soul of communities. And in Pakistan’s rural artisan communities, they are disappearing at an alarming rate.
In this dialogue, there will be an exploration of how art is not just resistance, it is in fact memory, identity, and survival. The panel will speak about how the traditional crafts of displaced rural artisans, whether it's embroidery, pottery, weaving, or oral storytelling, are living archives of ecological knowledge. These art forms hold wisdom about seasons, soil, water, and relationships to land. When we lose the artist, we lose the archive. This is also an invitation to think beyond charity or preservation and to instead reimagine climate action as cultural justice. What would it mean to create climate solutions that center those who carry intergenerational knowledge? What if collective imagination could lead us to decolonize not only our systems, but also our aesthetics by honoring, supporting, and funding artisans not as victims, but as custodians of futures? This is not just about saving traditions. It’s about creating new solidarities, new systems of support, and new narratives; where the fight against climate collapse is also the fight to protect and celebrate the cultures that teach us how to live in relationship with the Earth. This is where real transformation begins, by listening deeply, imagining together, and recognizing that art is not a luxury in crisis but it is a lifeline