Keolavanh, known as Keo, is a high school student and community researcher for SOS.
Keo helps her family sell Tai Lue handicrafts at the Night Market in Luang Prabang. To document and learn more about the tradition of Tai Lue weaving, Keo interviewed weavers in her home village of Ban Phanom and created the short video, Tai Lue Weaving: Culture, Craft, and Identity.
Women weavers in Ban Phanom stress the importance of knowing how to weave as part of Tai Lue identity. Traditionally, men will set up the looms and women create the weavings. Girls first learn to weave simple, smaller pieces from more experienced weavers. The first weavings a girl makes will have few or no motifs. Older weavers pass down the skills and motifs to girls and young women through practice, as designs and methods are not written down.
Keo says, “I was taught Tai Lue weaving when I was young, and through my research, I learned many more things about our traditions and techniques that I want to share with the next generation.”
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