Sharing stories of the indigenous communities
Chingrimi Shimray is a Textile Designer and Co-Founder of Ishi, a tri-annual magazine to discuss, share and argue. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Textile Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.
Design has pushed her to look beyond the boundaries she had set for herself. It is more like a liberation and accepting the mistakes and discovering endless possibilities from those mistakes. Her graduation project was about a series of handpainted sarees with a brand called Tanera where she met with a number of saree clusters. The project helped her understand the gap between the corporate sector from the grassroot craft sectors.
As a native of Nagaland and Tangkhul herself, Shimray is currently engaged in textile research on Tangkhul community’s textiles for which she is working closely with Tangkhul Women Organisation. She is involved in writing a book depicting the appropriation of Naga textiles by various designers. In association with one of her friends Chingrimi has opened an instagram account called Project Kharak. Through Project Kharak they are issuing a magazine called Ishi. As a photography enthusiast, Shimray has come up with photo essays.
The challenges to these projects have been many like lack of funds, human resources, little knowledge to sustain a self-led initiative, communication gaps due to people coming from diverse fields.
Through Ishi, Chingrimi and her team have tried to provide a safe place for “Ishi” meaning “Us”. The intention of the magazine is to tell the stories through the perspective of indigenous communities which have long been marginalised.