01/27/2026
Coming up with our next CORDITEX WEBINAR SERIES!
Learn about bast and barkcloth!
BAST FIBER TEXTILE AND BARKCLOTH IN CAMBULO,
BANAUE, IFUGAO
February 4, 2026(Wednesday), 10:00-11:30 am
We are pleased to have Yukiko and Tetsu Ito, our esteemed Japanese scholars working with the communities in Cambulo in Banaue, Ifugao. They will talk about the traditional culture of bast fiber textile and barkcloth that has largely disappeared over the past thirty years. However, the community sustained this tradition by passing it down through generations while expanding the range of tree varieties that can be used for fiber materials.
The talk will feature the recent reciprocal learning exchanges among the Cambulo bast fiber and barkcloth community, along with Japanese textile artists that generated new ideas about processing methods, weaving and product variations. From these recent translocal learning opportunities, the Cambulo bast fiber textile and barkcloth community is experiencing revitalization, contributing to the growing momentum to preserve and further enrich this culture in collaboration with individuals both inside and outside the village. The cultural commons is being created as an open space for the participants to learn from and enrich together the bast fiber textile and barkcloth culture.
Yukiko Ito is a Visiting Research Fellow, Coastal Cities at Risk in the Philippines at the Ateneo de Manila University. She worked as a social development specialist over twenty years at multilateral and bilateral organizations to address poverty and inequalities in Asia and the Caribbean. Yuki continued to learn backstrap weaving from different weavers around Asia. In recent years, she has been interacting with the backstrap weavers in Cambulo, Ifugao in the Philippines that produces bast fiber textiles. Yuki has a master’s degree in social development from the Ateneo de Manila University.
Tetsu Ito is a Specially Appointed Researcher at the Institute of Regional Studies, Okinawa University in Japan. He has worked as an economist for bilateral and multilateral development banks as well as academic institutions across Asia, the Caribbean and Africa for over thirty-five years. His current research interests include agroecology, cultural commons, trans-local learning, and social and solidarity economy. He holds a PhD in economics from the University of Manchester.
To listen to this interesting talk, you can register to the link below:
https://up-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_7wPDlBK_RP6P1498LfUH4g
