GREENSBORO, WINSTON-SALEM, HIGH POINT, ASHEBORO, CHARLOTTE, RALEIGH, DURHAM
BACKSTRAP WEAVERS helps refugee and immigrant women obtain hard-to-find supplies so they can continue their craft. We organize venues and connect women in order to promote themselves, communities, and cultural values because no single area facility exists for this purpose. (more)
PEOPLE ASK how I got involved with traditional weaving. Although I am not a lifelong weaver, I am a professional artist and teacher who has been working with the region's refugee populations for the past four years, using my professional experience and cultural perspective to understand cultures new to Piedmont Triad region in North Carolina. Through meetings with refugees, I discovered that Montagnards, originally from Southeast Asia, were unique to the central region of North Carolina, also known as the Piedmont Triad.
A new weaver gets started; Goat Lady Dairy, May 2011.
PROJECTS IN PROGRESS (2013)
What began as a collaboration of one artist (Betsy Renfrew) and a small group of Montagnard weavers (The Backstrap Weavers) has morphed into a partnership of educators, volunteers, community advocates and college students with Greensboro’s Rosewood neighborhood, where many Montagnard refugees have moved and are forming a thriving community. This new partnership, the Women’s Learning Group, focuses on health and education for Montagnard women.
What began as a collaboration of one artist (Betsy Renfrew) and a small group of Montagnard weavers (The Backstrap Weavers) has morphed into a partnership of educators, volunteers, community advocates and college students with Greensboro’s Rosewood neighborhood, where many Montagnard refugees have moved and are forming a thriving community. This new partnership, the Women’s Learning Group, focuses on health and education for Montagnard women.
As recipients of Community Foundation grants two years in a row (2012 and 2013) the Women’s Learning Group bought fertile soil and rain barrels and set up a neighborhood English class.
And where does the weaving fit in? One unique feature to what this partnership has accomplished is to bring Montagnard women to Greensboro’s Farmer’s Market to sell Asian vegetables (grown in their own backyards or at the Dunleith Community Garden) and Montagnard weaving.
It is one thing to make beautiful blankets and skirts but quite another thing to have the makers and her community learn how to sell her goods. This has been the largest challenge in the making and selling process — understanding the American market place.
As more Montagnard women join the Women’s Learning Group, more weavers are being discovered and are invited to share their weaving knowledge with Betsy and others. The Backstrap Weavers will continue to demonstrate weaving and sell textiles at local arts festivals and Betsy will focus more on cultivating and documenting the Jarai weavers in the Rosewood neighborhood of Greensboro.
