Theme: 1. Human-Nature-Technology: Interactions and Responses

Humanities Across Borders: Indigo Dialogues

Roundtable Convenor(s)

• AK

  Aarti Kawlra

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands

Roundtable Chair(s)

• JB

  Jody Benjamin

  Howard University, United States

Roundtable Participant(s)

• EL

  Eric Lawer

  University of Ghana, Ghana
• MH

  Mohomodou Houssouba

  Malian Society of Applied Sciences, Switzerland
• KL

  Kibora Ludovic

  INSS-CNRST, Burkina Faso
• PC

  Pimnara (Baitong) Chanorn

  Mahidol University, Thailand
• GL

  Genner Llanes Ortiz

  Bishop's University, Canada
• KR

  Karthik Prema Rajakumar

  Independent Researcher, India
• AS

  Aminata Sall

  Université Gaston Berger, Senegal
• ID

  Idrissa Dembele

  Independent Indigo Practitioner, Mali
• EL

  Enrico Joaquin Lapuz

  International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Netherlands
• HC

  Hsiao-Chi Chu

  Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan (Republic of China)
• MI

  Masako Iijima

  Wool Weaver and Video Journalist, Netherlands

Roundtable Abstract: Traditions and itineraries of indigo are windows into the transnational circulation of ideas, skills, tools, and techniques, across different geographical landscapes and frames of value. As sites of cultural transmission and meaning-making, community-based indigo production and dyeing embody generationally passed-on livelihood practices. Framed within global discourses of global heritage and national culture or sustainable living in the age of mechanical reproduction and AI, ‘Indigo Dialogues’ brings into our conversation, the voices of practitioners in their respective socio-technical-ecological contexts.
By attending to the diverse human, nature, and technology articulations in the different sites of production of indigo, roundtable participants will share their observations, interviews and experience with indigo in the form of short videos along the following sites of knowledge and meaning:

1. the ecological (land, water, climate) and economic (class & gender) context of cultivation of the plant;


2. the extraction of the dye, the infrastructure of built structures, tools, techniques, recipes, linguistic markers, and skills involved;


3. its distribution locally, nationally and internationally (the different channels and stakeholders)


4. myriad uses (both value and meaning – identity, power, status, religious, health & well-being, art, craft, fashion etc.)


5. Literary production – stories, myths, songs, proverbs associated with the plant and dye.

Organized by the Humanities Across Borders program of the IIAS, this RT aims to discuss indigo as a framework for dialogue between Africa and Asia and to explore the possibility of a shared, trans-disciplinary syllabus and teaching schedule across HAB partner universities.


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