ancestral land. Jean liked the idea,
and we began to come up with a plan
to teach her and other women in
her village how to knit. That’s how
Ricefield Collective was born.
I returned the following summer
with a bunch of needles and yarn,
unsure about what would happen.
But there was Jean, along with
a group of her fellow villagers. I
wanted to manage the size of the
group so I only brought seven pairs of
knitting needles, thinking that would
effectively limit who could join my
small program. But one day, Juliet
broke one of her needles and I gave her
a pair from my personal kit. The next
day, her sister Rosa came and asked if
she could join, holding up the broken
needle that she had sharpened so that
it would be usable. That was when
I realized that there was too much
enthusiasm to limit the project. So I
asked my partner, who would be joining
me two weeks later, to bring plenty
more needles and yarn.
I trained the women in knitting
basics and how to make hats, but they
soon started teaching each other. All
this time, I was corresponding about
the project with my close friend,
the London-based textile artist and
knitwear designer Anna Maltz. She
was the one who taught me how to knit
when we were in art school together at
the California College of the Arts. She
agreed to become the design director
105
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W E A V I N G A S P E L L
RICE
TOTHE
OCCASION
Ricefield Collective
has set up a
Kickstarter page to
get things rolling
and is already seeing
great results. As
the world’s largest
funding platform for
creative projects,
Kickstarter makes
it easy to show
your support to the
Ricefield Collective.
Learn more at
ricefieldcollective.org.
suggest, I was born in the Philippines
and lived there until I was 15. Her
name was Jean Mundiguing and she
occasionally did laundry at the Native
Village Inn where I stayed, the only one
in Uhaj and an hour’s drive away from
the main town of Banaue, where most
tourists resided.
We spent several hours talking, until
the terraces disappeared from view
in the darkness of night. She told me
about how difficult it was to find work
in her village, and how many villagers
were abandoning their fields to live In
Baguio and Manila, where they could
find jobs. I went to Ifugao to do research
on their poetry, but I realized that in 30
or 50 years, there may no longer be
any living poetry for me to study.
That was when it occurred to me that
knitting could be a source of income
that may help the villagers stay on their
Top: Meredith (third
from left) taught
Jean (second from
left) and the other
women of the
village how to knit;
(
inset) Meredith
originally went
to Ifugao to do
research on their
poetry
