Celebrating and supporting ‘Palmyrah Stories from North’

Pix By Nimalsiri Edirisinghe

By Pranavesh Sivakumar

Over 35 women artisans from Jaffna, Mannar and Mullaitivu were celebrated at the Sri Lanka Design Festival, where “Palmyrah Stories from North” highlighted their craft, resilience and cultural heritage. Supported by the Embassy of Switzerland, the exhibition shifted the spotlight from products to the women behind them, showcasing traditional skills transformed into contemporary design and meaningful livelihood opportunities

Over 35 women from North were felicitated and featured in the annual Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) that was opened late last week under the concept of – Palmyra Stories from North – at Urban Island, Colombo 07.  

Bringing together all these women from Jaffna, Mannar and Mullaitivu, the special exhibition featured the extraordinary craftsmanship of women artisans from these cities.   

“This one is a collaboration with the Embassy of Switzerland. They wanted us and they helped us redo a special collection, as a reboost for that,” Linda Speldewinde, Founder of Academy of Design and SLDF said.   

“That is why, they give the girls some funding to do new products and things like that”.  

Siri Walt, Ambassador of Switzerland to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, supporting this work of Northern Women said they had been working with the AoD for years. “We thought it is a very interesting project. It works with women who already do their traditional handicraft, also improves their techniques and it offers them the opportunity also to sell them in this wonderful environment of urban Ireland”, she said.  

Unlike conventional exhibitions, where products are presented and exhibited, this took a different turn, exclusively tributing the tribe behind the scenes.  

“This exhibition is an empowerment thing,” Speldewinde explained.  

“The photographs are to show the people behind the work, because we always have the product, we don’t have pictures of the people. Therefore this time, the exhibition is just to show the people behind

the work.”   

Speldewinde, who’s AoD is presenting and curating this, this is a project that had been in the making since 2009 itself.  

“It’s just something we’re trying to build and obviously it’s something that we are very close to this project because it really uplifts them and nobody really looks after them. Therefore a project close to all our hearts”, she added.   

The exhibition embodies the spirit of cultural exchange and resilience.   

Switzerland’s continued partnership in uplifting women and vulnerable communities, reflects a shared commitment to social inclusion and sustainable development through creativity. The collection reimagines traditional palm weaving and other northern craft traditions for contemporary design and tourism sectors. Each piece tells a story of revival, resilience, and reinvention, blending heritage techniques with modern design sensibilities to bring a new voice from the North.  

Speldewinde sounded this is very much a work-in-progress and a long way to traverse.  

“It’s a lot of work still to do because it keeps going up and down. We started then again, the tourism sector went down, Covid and all that. So we have inspired them not to be importing stuff from Thailand and all that and instead we can have products made in Sri Lanka”, she reasoned out.  

The event serves as one of the many citywide activations across Colombo for Sri Lanka Design Festival 2025, which is currently underway on uniting design, fashion, food, and creative enterprise in a celebration of Colombo’s evolving identity as South Asia’s

Creative Capital.