A global network of local fashioning coalitions to decentralise and decolonise fashion knowledge creation & sharing.
The biennial Global Fashioning Assembly (GFA) is a unique online gathering of local fashion communities from all over the world. The aim is to decenter and decolonise knowledge creation and sharing on body fashioning practices and heritages. GFA had it’s first edition in 2022 and the second edition is taking place now, including a Kenyan segment.
Rather than the event as a meta host, the participants collaborate on the hosting of the events to ensure self-representation, self-determination and self-governance. GFA’s main aim is to disrupt the concept of western-centric international fashion gatherings that often operate as gatekeepers and perpetuate excluding and discriminating logics and also validate English-centred knowledge.
Image credit: @tachoka via @ondameta
Sparked by the grassroots-to-global possibilities of the digital, GFA events go beyond the limitation of one singular physical presentation, by bringing together a diversity of experiences, knowledges and cultural heritages. These are fashioned by a diversity of institutes and communities that self-represent and self-narrate their cultural heritage. The decentralised format is inspired by around-the-world assemblies through which communities share in their own pathways to a politics of wholeness based on the principle espoused by Grassroots Global:
We can’t solve our crises using the same way of thinking that created them”
Underpinning the GFA are collective ideation, decision-making and execution. Preparations take two years with the hosting communities meeting (bi)monthly to formulate the overall conceptual framework, thematic scopes, hosting communities, planning, budgeting and funding. Tasks are divided organically with smaller groups taking on different responsibilities according to the principle ‘by the communities, for the communities.’ Simultaneously, each hosting community decides on their own programme, content(s), format(s), language(s), aesthetics and participants according to its specific experiences and needs. Each hosting community welcomes local stakeholders, communities and audiences, on and offline, in a combination of local languages and English.
Register Now for GFA24
Continuing until 28 October 2024, online & in-person, with the Kenya hosted event on Tuesday 15 October, this experience allows you to join 20 communities in 26 countries, across 6 continents, for a total of 40 hours of local programming and 20 hours of Sharing Councils at different times to accommodate their local time zones.
Image credit: @ownyourculture
Programmes address practical approaches to decoloniality in everyday life; exploring the tensions and challenges that arise when design and craft intersect in their local contexts; how to use creative resistance to challenge capitalist, colonial, Euro-centric, anthropocentric, and patriarchal systems of design and education through sustainable, ethical, slow, ecofeminist, decolonial, and circular approaches to fashion.
OwnYourCulture (Kenya) will host a collaborative experience that chronicles the evolution of ancestral East African fashion over the centuries. East Africans are connected in language, culture, ancestry and heritage despite the borders. What happens in one country affects the whole region. This exhibit will showcase how ancestral fashion has survived (or not survived) through migrations, colonialism, civil wars.
The Kenya-created programme aims to interrogate:
Mitindo za kale yalikuwa ya aina gani? Je, hizi mitindo bado zinatumika? Chunguza jinsi sanaa na usanii zili-evolve na jinsi bado tunavyobeba historia zetu kupitia usanii na sanaa.
How have ancestral design practices evolved? How are they used today? Delve into the process of traditional textile printing, beading, weaving styles over the decades as well as digital fabric production through artistic practice, fashion design and community collaboration.
Image credit: @tibianbahari_art
Speakers include: Teresa Lubano and Dr. Francisca Odundo, founders of Undameta and Sheila Onyango, the creative director and founder of Okapu, a social enterprise inspired by the traditional kiondo basket.
For the first hour, 3-4pm, there will be an introduction followed by a video series of visitations to different practitioners preserving ancestral art and design practices in their work. We shall look at the artistic practice of traditional textile printing through a studio visit with TibianBahari, a Sudanese mixed media artist living in Nairobi. Next we shall listen in to the business and history of Kenyan textiles through Undameta and finally we shall get to listen in to a kiondo weaving class by Okapu, a social enterprise inspired by the traditional kiondo basket. They make beautiful contemporary kiondo bags and also offer kiondo weaving class to keep the culture alive.
The second hour 4-5pm, will be a panel discussion. Speakers include:
Teresa Lubano and Dr. Francisca Odundo, founders of Undameta, an online platform that offers curated, African-inspired surface pattern designs for sale, and Sheila Onyango, the creative director and founder of Okapu. Sheila is passionate about African femininity, sustainability and economic empowerment. The final hour, 5-6pm, will be a sharing council where we welcome everyone to reflect on the sessions.
Global Fashioning Assembly (Kenya) by OwnYourCulture | Monday 15 October | online | 3-6pm EAT
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