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This
museum of Kurdish weaving offers the visitor a
glimpse of the beauty and intricacy of this
handicraft art, as well as insight into the cultural
heritage of the Kurdish people themselves.
It includes numerous woven arts from both settled
and nomadic tribes in the area of Erbil City in the
Hewler (Erbil) region. Here the art of Kurdish
weaving is such an integral part of life that it
reflects their social situations, unique cultural
influences and their very lifestyle. This has
resulted in this craft having a rich tradition,
peculiar to the Kurdish people and, therefore, plays
an extremely important role in ethnological
research.
Weaving is widely used in the Kurdish tribes to
provide for their daily needs , so it includes all
kinds of goods. This ingenuity has resulted in
self-sustained communities that are not dependent on
imported goods for their economic survival.
Therefore, Kurdish tribes have developed independent
social, administrative, political, and economic
societies.
In our world of ready made convenience, the method
of constructing these weavings speaks to us of
timelessness and somehow reconnects is to the earth
and our own ethnic roots. Women of the Kurdish
tribes learn to use the raw materials of wool and
hair from their herds to use the raw materials of
wool and hair from their herds and natural vegetable
dyes from their environment. They are responsible
for constructing the looms and weaving. Each
individual woven article reflects the talent,
accuracy, and natural artistic ability of its
weaver. It is, however, travelers and orientalists
visiting and writing about Kurdistan who have drawn
attention to the beauty of the weavings. Kurdish
rugs and carpets have now been displayed in
different American and European museums.
While it is good to appreciate the weaving, there is
another aspect to highlighting the art from the
region. The Kurdish people face the threat that
their culture might disappear altogether. The
Iran-Iraq War on Kurdish land, Arabization and Anfal
(the genocide campaign waged against the Kurdish
people by the Saddam regime), destroying more than
four thousand Kurdish villages, forcefully
relocating nomadic and settled tribes as well as
millions of landmines planted throughout the
Kurdistan Region, banning agricultural planting and
breeding herds, have all contributed to the
devastation of the Kurdistan culture.
This museum is an attempt to develop interest in
Kurdish weaving so that this rapidly vanishing
culture and its remarkable art will not be lost, but
revived and even developed. We hope this exhibition
realises these aims and that you will come away
richer for the experience.
The preparation of this museum and the collection of
these handicrafts are privately funded by Lolan
Mustefa.
www.krg.org
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