“Gardens are places we inherit, cultivate, leave behind, and recreate.”
The Garden We Carry is a participatory weaving workshop exploring ideas of home, migration, memory, and care through the traditional Southeast Asian practice of weaving ketupat.
Across Southeast Asia, ketupat is more than a woven rice casing – it is an object of gathering, celebration, patience, and generosity. Each strip is woven over and under another, reminding us that communities are built through interconnected lives rather than individual strands.
Responding to the theme Garden, participants are invited to imagine the gardens they have inherited, lost, or hope to grow. These gardens may be literal – banana trees, pandan plants, jasmine, rambutan – or imagined spaces of belonging, family, language, and memory. Through conversation, storytelling, and collective making, participants will each weave their own ketupat while reflecting on what they continue to cultivate within themselves despite distance and migration.
