Shamsunahar; [Author]

Fatema(Tapestry); [Author]

Hamida Begum; [Author]

Jannat Ara; [Author]

Setara Begum; [Author]

Camp life (embroidery)

Fultola (embroidery)

Embroidery (EMB)

Decorative

'We wanted to compile our life of the camp and embroider it together. We wanted to make our shelters and our environment more beautiful,' 

— Rohingya embroidery artisan

Life in the Rohingya refugee camps has its own rhythm and colour. Refugee households try to replicate familiar ways of life and keep alive their traditions, despite limited resources and the vastly changed context. 

Camp Life is a 1m x 2 mtapestry created by a group of five Rohingya women in the Kutupalong-Balukhali megacamp in Bangladesh, depicts the activities, characters, community institutions, and other sights comprising everyday camp life. The camp unfolds as a series of roads branching across a bright green landscape. Both sides of the road are lined with little houses, each consisting of a triangular roof set on a boxy base. Towering solar panels and colorful trees are interspersed among the shelters, and big white vehicles with dark windows cruise the streets. A mosque, distinguished by the minaret and bullhorn on the roof, is placed at the center of the tapestry, showing the centrality of religion in the Rohingya community. Children are everywhere, holding hands and playing. One child is depicted flying a kite, a traditional Rohingya pastime. Two men carry colorful umbrellas under spurts of rain while the sun shines brightly in another corner. Women, however, are invisible in this tapestry. Like the artist behind the making of the tapestry themselves, they exist behind the scenes; their presence is felt but not seen.

Camp Life is a dream landscape in many ways: The exuberant use of color — from the bright green cloth comprising the background and the jewel-tones of the shelters — imagines a far more beautiful camp setting than Kutapalong-Balukhali megacamp itself. The spaciousness of the imagined landscape, where trees and shelters appear in almost equal numbers, contrasts with the dense, warren-like reality of the camps where shelters are crammed tightly in dusty, denuded spaces with only sparse bits of green. The tapestry’s greenery, vibrant colorways, and use of space evoke the Rohingya community’s traditional closeness to nature, and also reveal a poignant longing for beauty. 

'Camp life is not a happy life for anyone but still we feel blessed that at least we got a shelter to sleep, food from NGOs, and our children can go to school here,' said one embroidery artisan. 'We don’t have the fear we faced in Myanmar. We can sleep here peacefully.'