Women Embroidery Group; [Author]

Fultola (embroidery)

Embroidery (EMB)

Storytelling

Camp Life is an embroidered map of the Kutupalong-Balukhali megacamp, part of the world’s largest refugee camp, created by eleven Rohingya women artisans working with the Rohingya Cultural Memory Centre. Through their eyes, we see the camp through many layers. The tapestry captures the daily life of the Rohingya community in the camps of Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh in rich color and motifs drawn by inspired from real life. The precise geographic mapping of the camp boundaries is juxtaposed with the mental mapping of the artisans, combining elements taken from Rohingya culture, the Ukhiya host community, the government, the NGOs, and greenery of Cox’s Bazar itself.  

For the tapestry, the women artisans first selected elements with top portray. They drew these elements from memory, empirical experience, and photographic reference. With a printed map as the base layer, they begin to fill in the camp boundaries with the corresponding element from their perspective to create the five feet long tapestry.?Despite spending most of their time indoor, the women artisans show awareness of their surroundings, and connect their embroidery art with their experience of meaning-making of the camp space.