HEIRLOOM NAGA

Heirloom Naga now exports to high-end stores and boutiques in over 30 countries. Some of their clients include international brands such as Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel and Roost.

It was a difficult proposition in the early 90s when sustainability wasn’t yet in vogue, Zeliang says, “to make clients understand why the product was so expensive. I had to take on the role of an educator and a storyteller.”

Naga weaving is intense, time-consuming and almost quite literally back-breaking work. As the weaver repeatedly moves her body, she must also carefully and expertly weave in the patterns by hand. The width of the loom, worn on her body, is limited by her waist, so it can produce only narrow pieces of cloth which are then hand-stitched to make wider fabric.

But it is less intensive than agricultural work, the mainstay of Nagaland. Women’s participation in the state’s labour force is higher than the national average. The 2011 Census showed that in rural Nagaland, more than half the workers are women. The state government’s Annual Administrative Report 2020-2021 noted that 65.2% of working women in the state are cultivators and 7.3% are agricultural labourers. Among men, only 47.4% are cultivators and 5.8% are labourers.

Farm labour is typically a low-paying activity. But the weavers at Heirloom Naga are able to earn up to ₹25,000 ($312) per month. Zeliang factors in domestic commitments of her weavers. It helps that the backstrap loom can be rolled up and easily carried around, so weavers can work at home, in groups or at clusters set up by Heirloom Naga.

Chawang, now 51, supervises the work at one such cluster in Samziuram, a village in Jalukie. Her income helped her educate her children and, she says, she was particularly proud to impart her weaving skills to her two daughters because Zeliang has turned weaving, a traditionally unpaid domestic activity, into a source of income.

“It’s a universal truth that women in business employ more women,” Zeliang says. “Women everywhere need to be financially empowered. Only then will our voices be heard, only then will we find a seat on the table,” she adds.