Weaving Kerang: Bark Cloth of Gadaba Adivasis
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Weaving Kerang: Bark Cloth of Gadaba Adivasis

Knowledge TraditionsVisual and Material Arts
in Video
Published on: 16 November 2018

Pankaja Sethi

Pankaja Sethi is a textile designer and research scholar based in Bhubaneswar. She has received three Small Study Research Grants from Nehru Trust for the Indian Collections at the Victoria & Albert Museum (NTICVA) to do research on the Kotpad textiles and natural dyeing of al in 2009-10, the quilting tradition of Ganjam (2015-16) and the bark cloth of Mahima Dharma in Odisha (2017-18). She did one year extensive research work on Dongria Kondh Adivasi Textiles and Wall Paintings supported by National Folklore Support Centre-Tata Fellowship in 2012-13.

Interactions with Gadaba women on the bark cloth kerang , an identity marker of the Gadaba Adivasis

Kerang is the traditional cloth of Gadaba Adivasis. It is a bark cloth made from local plants woven by Gadaba women. The cloth is handspun and handwoven on a back-strap loom in vibrant red, white and blue vertical stripes. Two pieces of kerang are used to cover the body. One piece is tied around the waist and another piece is knotted on the shoulder on one side to cover the upper part of the body. Since many decades Gadaba women have left weaving, thus, the local tradition of kerang weaving has languished.