How can embodied agro-pastoral textile practices, rooted in Traditional Ecological Knowledge, support community-led sustainable futures beyond extractive industrial systems?

Growing up in the Thar Desert, I spent every summer with my grandmother, Anchi Devi, whose daily rhythms—spinning wool, caring for livestock and growing food—were grounded in care, frugality and deep connection to the land.

Living alongside her, I witnessed how resourcefulness and ecological awareness were woven into everyday life. Instinctively, I began collecting discarded materials, transforming waste into functional or artistic forms. Her way of living became mine, long before I called it design. Today, my research carries this past in present, tracing her wisdom through threads of care, resilience and community-rooted, climate-conscious textile practice.