Embellishing tradition

A Craft and Folk Art Museum embroidery show displays ancient Palestinian designs — and a couple’s devotion to preserving them.

By SCARLET CHENG / Special to The Times

Embellishing tradition — Los Angeles Times, 25 September 2006 — Los Angeles Times · Los Angeles, California · 25 September 2006

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Hanan Karaman Munayyer fell under the spell of Palestinian embroidery in 1987, when she saw a collection of dresses and accessories brought to New York by an antiques dealer. She and her husband are of Palestinian descent, but she says, “The beauty of the embroidery on these early 20th century dresses — we saw it for the first time in that collection.”

The dealer intended to sell off the 65 dresses piecemeal. But Munayyer, along with her husband Farah Joseph Munayyer, thought the collection was too important to be split apart. Embroidery, says Hanan Munayyer, is “one of the strongest expressions of Palestinian culture, and we were interested in promoting the Palestinian cultural image in a positive way.”

So the couple took out a home equity loan and bought the entire lot. Once in possession of it, Munayyer says, “I knew there was so much we didn’t know.” Munayyer, a molecular biologist, put her research skills to use to dig into the history of their new possessions — through books (only a handful were available then), textile experts and trips back to the Middle East.

Today the couple have collected more than 400 dresses, some dating to the 19th century, along with 1,100 other objects, including jewelry, headdresses, jackets and shawls, many embellished with the unique embroidery of the region.

Highlights of the collection, including 35 dresses dating from the mid-19th century to mid-20th century, are on display at the Craft and Folk Art Museum in “Sovereign Threads: A History of Palestinian Embroidery,” curated by Munayyer, along with the Assn. for the Development of Palestinian Camps, or INAASH.

“ ‘Sovereign Threads’ is an exhibition about both art and cultural identity,” writes Maryna Hrushetska, the museum director, in the introduction to the exhibition brochure.

“As these threads of tradition are passed through generations, they weave a fabric of cultural cohesiveness that testifies to the fact that neither war, conflict nor displacement can erase national identity.” Munayyer, speaking by telephone from her home in West Caldwell, N.J., describes embroidery as “very much a woman’s art and a woman’s history.”

For Palestinian women, she says, embroidery is a tradition handed down from mother to daughter, a means of displaying skill and status, and a reminder of both ancient and near history.

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"Embellishing tradition," Los Angeles Times, 25 September 2006. Covering Palestine archive, CP-2006-031. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-2006-031

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The dish, the thread, the wood