Textiles of Hope: Rainforest Silk and Raffia from Madagascar
May 10, 2025 10 AM PDT
Los Angeles, CA, US
Free for TMA/SC Members, $15 at the door for Non-Members
Madagascar is renowned as a natural and cultural wonder. Yet its traditional wild silk and raffia textiles are a well-kept secret. They have a rich history—marking ethnic and gender identity, serving as tribute to the ancestors, conveying status and power relations, and offering protection from the elements. In pre-colonial times, thread spun from the silk of endemic moths and spiders was used by Madagascar’s queens for diplomatic overtures. But with the arrival of cotton and introduced mulberry silk, and the disappearance of woodland and rainforest habitats for endemic silk moths, only a small number of skilled artisans remain. CPALI’s founders, Malagasy entomologist Mamy Ratsimbazafy, and American evolutionary biologist Dr. Catherine Craig, wondered: Could collecting and rearing wild silk from little-known species of rainforest moth help alleviate poverty and deliver conservation on the margins of Madagascar’s largest remaining rainforest?
In this talk, conservationist Rachel Kramer, Executive Director of CPALI (Conservation through Poverty Alleviation International,) will tell the twenty-year story of efforts to work with local farmers, artisans, and insect specialists in Madagascar to craft a new form of shimmering textile from previously unused cocoons of rainforest silk moths. And to leverage near-lost Betsimisaraka raffia weaving techniques in contemporary textiles that honor nature and local communities. This grand experiment brings beauty into a complex world through conservation and social enterprise.
IN-PERSON ONLY
Register online here.
Image: Moth Cocoon Weaving in Ombre Indigo, CPALI NGO project, Madagascar
