National Maritime Museum's Youth Advisory Group: YAG Workshop, Sunday 07 July 2013

In today's workshop, the Youth Advisors worked with artist Seiwa Cunningham to learn more about Adinkra fabrics. Adinkra is traditionally worn at funerals and commemorations in Ghana. There are hundreds of symbols all with different meanings referring to stories. The Youth Advisors learnt about the history of the fabric as well as how to make their own.

Seiwa showed us some fabric and some of the stamps, which are carved from gourd (a bit like a butternut squash!). The Youth Advisors made their own non-vegetable stamps from foam!

Seiwa showing the Youth Advisors the fabric we would be recreating

The Youth Advisors then introduced themselves and their names, as we would see if there was an Adinkra symbol that related to our names.

Isobel, Jennifer, Nicole and Adrian sharing the meaning of their names

Adinkra fabric and some of Seiwa's artwork

The history of Adinkra Fabric:

Adinkra is thought to originate in the Ivory Coast, Africa, and is named after a king 200 years ago. Adinkra cloths were traditionally only worn by royalty and spiritual leaders for funerals and other very special occasions. They are now worn by anyone, stylishly wrapped around women or men on any special occasion. In the past they were hand printed on red, dark brown or black hand-woven cotton fabric depending on the occasion and the wearer's role; nowadays they are frequently mass-produced on brighter coloured fabrics. There are hundreds of symbols and each one is based on a proverb and they will reflect the person that wears the cloth, or the person they are commemorating. Adinkra means to bid farewell in Ashanti and will often be worn at funerals. The colours are just as important as the symbols, and you can choose the background colour of your fabric depending on the meaning you want it to have. The symbols, however, are always black. Traditionally the symbols are laid out in a grid design with brightly coloured stitching inbetween, which we are going to do with paint today. The stamps are traditionally carved from gourd, like a pumpkin

We went through pictures of Adinkra symbols to choose three with an important and personal meaning, not just ones that looked interesting.

Amy and Isobel choosing their symbols

Seiwa helping the Youth Advisors choose

Tina, Piarve and Bethanie choosing their symbols

The weather was really nice so we had a picnic outside for lunch!

After lunch, the Youth Advisors painted the background of their fabric. Each colour had a meaning, such as white for purity, yellow for chicken fat which represented wealth, and purple for royalty.