From the archive record
To the women of the Mishing weavers' community living in the plains of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, weaving comes naturally. They wake up and start work on their silk stoles and shawls, wrap-around skirts and other dresses on their private home handlooms. They even rear the silk worms and harvest the silk, spinning the strands into silken thread and then turning that into garments that they sell and consume themselves. These are enterprising women who run their homes and earn for their families as well, enjoying each others' company in local village cooperatives and nurturing their families and friendships. With the initiative of local tea plantation owner Omak Apang, they are provided a support system and foreign buyers for their hand-made and now increasingly non-violent silk p