Building Resilient Communities

BUILDING RESILIENT COMMUNITIES A challenge-led cross-curricular program based in post/prone disaster, crisis and conflict areas.

Laajverd Visiting School encourages interdisciplinary discourse between academics, civil society and local communities working together to develop creative ways to conserve regional cultural landscapes, develop alternate livelihoods, explore creative industries and protect the environment in order to build resilient communities for our sustainable future.

lvs.laajverd.org laajverdvisitingschool@gmail.com

About Laajverd Laajverd was founded in 2007 and is working for the promotion of Culture and Arts. Our inter-disciplinary team has carried out National and International Projects in the last ten years. Our focus lies in educational and development projects ranging from sustainable development through arts and architecture, documenting and preserving cultural heritage and, working alongside local communities in their cultural and natural environments.

About Laajverd Visiting School: LVS is an inter-disciplinary platform comprising of workshops, seminars, field trips and opportunities to engage with local heritage, cultural practices, music, cuisine and crafts. Participants engage in two-way learning with the community, working together to develop creative ways to conserve indigenous culture, develop alternate livelihoods, and protect the environment. Through rigorous research activities and tutorials, participants will learn to use a range of research methods, develop projects with local community, explore techniques of presentation, and carry out cross-curricular research projects.

Laajverd Visiting School has been conducted successfully in Hunza Valley, Gojal Valley, Neelam Valley and Kaghan Valley and Laspur Valley in the past five years. Partners and Collaborators include National College of Arts, WWF, HWF, Sustainable Tourism Foundation Pakistan, Adventure Foundation Pakistan, Board of Architecture Education, University of Management and Technology, Institute of Hazard Risk and Resilience and the Participatory Research Hub at Durham University.

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Five Year Report published by Laajverd.

CONCEPT NOTE There is a rising need to revisit our approach to Research led development that contributes to critical awareness andsound co-shaping of our shared environment. Encouraging interdisciplinary discourse, Laajverd initiated its visiting school that works on the intersections of cultural landscapes – local communities and knowledge production. It also questions the role of interventions in regional communities with regards to development. LVS responds to conditions of ‘crises’ by bringing together multiple actors for dialogue and collective thinking on varied and disparate issues.

Combined systems of humans and nature are complex in terms of how they anticipate and respond to disturbed environments: disasters, hazards and conflict zones.The capacity to deal with these types of uncertainties requires innovative approaches, creative combination of strategies, and the ability to adapt our frameworks to the changing environment. To this end, we ask, how do the creative and scientific faculty respond to shifting environments? How do our frameworks of knowlege and response correspond with local context? How do we, as researchers co-produce research and knowledge with the inhabitants of our field of inquiry be it humans, nonhumans or more than humans?

And, how can participatory research allow us to develop more context-based, culturally sensitive and sustainable approaches to development?

This intensive invites the creative and development faculty, students, faculty, humanitarian workers and field experts to join the visiting school in chalking out a more effective research and intervention methodology. Based on the project Academy for democracy (AFD), Laajverd’s visiting school encourages interdisciplinary discourse across faculties, professional and academic and local communities by employing creative negotiation as a method to co-produce knowledge.

Experimental cooperation across disciplinary boundaries exemplified in this project seeks to address the educational skills and knowledge practice required to tackle the critical environmental and humanitarian challenges. It provides an opportunity to see how field practice might best interact within the audio-visual arts, and how scholarship aligns with professional reflective analysis and creative impulse.

It involves performance, sound and visual arts, design and policy recommendations. The immediate goal of the AFD is to collaboratively engage with the community under study in order to analyse the context and propose inclusive and sustainable strategies for development. The visiting school further composes a trans-disciplinary curriculum for higher education, presenting a workable and academically feasible

The research and seminar topics are designed by instructors from different fields that not only present a broader understanding of the subject under study but aims to experiment with the various ways in which we perceive the human condition within the geo-fabric. LVS is an inter-disciplinary platform comprising of workshops, seminars, field trips and opportunities to experience cultural practices, local music and food. Through rigorous research activities and tutorials, participants engage with a range of research methods, develop projects with local community, explore techniques of presentation, and carry out cross-curricular research projects. In 2014, the school was based on the Attabad Lake disaster in Northern Pakistan. In 2015, LVS was conducted in Neelum Valley that lies on the Line of Control in Azad Jammu Kashmir. In 2016, the LVS was based in Kaghan Valley while 2017 was based in Gojal Valley, Gilgit Baltistan.

In 2018, the LVS was conducted in Laspur Valley in NorthWest Pakistan.

This report gives an overview of the geographic sites, workshops, research and outputs of the Laajverd Visiting School presenting a case for why cultural landscapes are crucial for building resilient communities and sustainable futures.

By Zahra Hussain

Zahra Hussain Director LVS

Creative-Participatory Action Research Audio Visual Cultures

An architect, researcher, and a human geographer; MA in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths in London. Founding Laajverd in 2007 as an undergrad, Zahra has taught at National College of Arts, directed plays, exhibited across 4 continents and documented the trees of an entire forest. She has also conceived and curated several projects that experiment with communication strategies often relating to the sub-continental and post-colonial debates eg Info Bomb and her recent research titled “Halo-caust; the architecture of counter-insurgency” which examines the ways in which Pakistani Urban spaces have rapidly transformed due to geopolitical conditions ; disasters crisis and conflicts. At present, Zahra is pursuing her PhD in Human Geography at the Department of Geography in Durham University looking at how mountain communities rebuild their lives after disasters.

Zahra is actively working towards making the LVS a dynamic interdisciplinary platform for experimenting alternate strategies for working with communities for sustainable development.

GEOGRAPHICAL SITES & THEMATIC CONCERNS

LAS

Shandur National Park

HINDUKUSH

ETHO-ECOLOGIES BUILDING SHARED FUTURES Natural/Social entities and the environments they inhabit must be engaged with equally – if a shared future is to be considered for human and non-humans. In times when disaster events are escalating beyond humans’ governable capacities, and when debates on climate change induced mifrations, risk and resilience are intensifying, there is a felt urgency that actions must be taken towards building sustainable futures. A greater importance is being afforded to natural entities that are governed by human societies but upon which they also depend. To begin thinking about a shared future, in LVS 2018, we seek to understand the composition of environment and the social, cultural and natural landscapes; what do these consist of and how can we think collectively with nature and culture.

Laajverd Visiting School was conducted in Laspur and adjoining valleys in August 2018 to understand the nature-culture relations amidst the challenges of natural hazards, environmental degradation, and the recent surge of slipshod construction and development. Engaging with the concept of etho-ecologies, we focussed on natural environment, culture, architecture and natural landscapes to identify correlations, interdependencies and potential synergies upon which we might speculate a shared future.

CULTURAL HERITAGE VALUE POST - CONFLICT ZONES

Consumption of natural resources that is faster than it can be replenished results in depletion of the natural environment. Contemporary global challenges are laden with issues of natural resource availability and its management. Neelum District in Kashmir has a beautiful valley that not only attracts tourists but also houses indigenous settlements along with an ancient temple ruins.

Neelum valley is located at the Line of control (Loc) and is also divided by it. There are amplified pre sures on the natural environment of this area due to population and increased tourism, excessive deforestation as well as dependency of livelihoods. This influx of foreigners who are not local to the land also affects the indigenous cultural archive. The cultural archive is embedded in the local practices, folklore traditions and customs for which the school will work closely with the indigenous people.

Laajverd Visiting School aims to investigate and put forth creative propositions for conserving indigenous culture, suggest alternate livelihoods and promote methods of conserving the environment focusing on reading form language, audio-visual cultural uplifting, ecotourism and environmental security among other issues.

GOJAL VALLEY

SPUR VALLEY

KARAKORAM

k

HUNZA VALLEY

HIMALAYAS

KAGHAN VALLEY

NEELUM VALLEY

MAPPING RESILIENCE REHABILITATING LANDSCAPES Focus Site: Kaghan Valley, KPK Economic constraints and pursuits; increased tourism and the subsequent transformation of local environment, nature and culture have contributed to the degradation of the natural landscape of Naran and Kaghan Valley in Northern Pakistan. Prevalent issues are deforestation, sanitation, and a growing culture of irresponsible tourism, which is destroying the living landscape of these valleys. The Visiting School will investigate how local culture and environment is embedded within the landscape and how can this co-existence flourish rather than fail. It will further investigate the potential of natural and cultural landscapes to contribute to a sustainable economic model for locals i.e. through the presence of precious stones, local craft skills and local practices and patterns. Natural and cultural heritage sites will be explored as the LVS participants work alongside the local population with the aim of generating knowledge and proposing alternate and effective possibilities of understanding landscape as a resort for rehabilitation.

Focus Site: Gojal Valley, GB Ghulkin and Hussaini in Gilgit Baltistan have been reported for frequent incidents of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF). In the past 10 years, GLOFs have damaged infrastructure, crops, trees and properties of the local people living around these streams and rivers. Laajverd Visiting School aims to map indigenous and traditional resilience strategies that have developed over time in response to GLOF occurrences and explore their sustainability.

Taking a participatory approach in our workshops on Environmental Security, Audio-Visual Cultures, Built Environment, Material Culture and Mountain Economies, we will engage with local community to understand how life is arranged and re-arranged around frequent GLOFs in order to map possibilities of alternate livelihoods and practices of co-existence amidst this hazard. Our focus lies on (but not limited to) the following developments: 1. Climate change, particularly GLOFs and effects on agriculture, physical, social and economic infrastructure.

2. Exponential increase in tourism, and sustainable ways of managing the influx.

3. Rapid development due to CPEC and other initiatives

Conflict/Crisis Event

Local Community CHILDREN ELDERS WOMEN LOCAL COUNCIL

LVS Academicians NCA BAE

Practitioners

FACULTY STUDENTS

WWF HWF AKCSP BISP ITA

Knowlege Prod Strengthen Local

DOCUMENTATION & FIELD RESEARCH

Training/Sk Capacity Bu

Q&A Forms Sketch Feildnotes

RAPID IDEATION PROBLEM ANALYSIS Discussion with locals

Seminars

Workshops

PROJECT PROPOSALS Proposals by Participants

Policy guidelines development

Publicatio Posters

LVS helped me appreciate my own culture and I am now interested in its sustainable development.

LVS helps us reflect upon our position in an increasingly urbanized and globalized world while understanding the challenges faced by local cultures and traditions.

Participants are encouraged to critically analyze the culture, environment and challenges of the site.

LVS provides a platform for dialogue,learning, understanding and sharing knowledge for a better future.

FEEDBACK

2015

duction Knowlege

kill-set uilding

Heritage Museum Janwai

A community museum has been set up comprising of 95 items and artifacts of Heritage significance. LVS aims to set up more cultural spaces for locals in future.

2014

Woodworkshop

LVS participant conducted wood sculpture workshop for local artisans

2015-18

CB Tourism

LVS helped develop Tourism regulations with local people for responsible tourism

ons s 2015 -18

Indigenous Practices and Patterns Catalog

LVS has initiated a catalog for archiving indigenous practices and patterns of living that have not been documented before. In 2015, in Kashmir, 62 indigenous practices and 110 living patterns were identified and compiled for IPPC.

OUTREACH

Heritage Museum Laspur

A community museum designed and curated by Laajverd celebrates the local passion for Polo and everyday objects.

2015-18

Craft Making

Conduct design workshops with local women on crafts and product design.

LVS 2014 - FIELD REPORTS

SAMPLE REPORTS FROM THE INQUIRIES CARRIED OUT IN THE LVS 2014

SHARMA

INDIGENOUS CARPET-MAKING

Huma Tassawwur

STAYING AFLOAT Abdullah Aslam My research was on the locally produced handmade carpets called Sharma. This is the traditional carpet of Hunza, manufactured and produced locally. From the yarn, which is made from the hair of the local mountain goats, to the local design and aesthetics of Hunza.What led me into my research on Sharma was the fact that there was a cultural shift to be seen in Hunza, mainly due to the rise of education and the awareness of its importance in people, leading to, along with other things, a decrease in the production and manufacturing of Sharma in households. As mentioned earlier, the Sharma is all handmade, of yarn, which is made of goat hair. (This yarn is mostly used in it’s natural colors but it could also be used in color with the help of chemical dying.)

People themselves made it, for themselves, in their houses. And around a decade ago, a local from Aliabad Hunza invented the spinning wheel which made the process of making the yarn from the goat hair easier. During the research I found out the introduction of Handmade Carpets in Hunza.

These carpets are handmade but not Sharma. The handmade carpet is made from sheep wool which is not locally produced or manufactured, in fact it is brought from Peshawar, Islamabad and other cities due to its unavailability in Hunza. Not only that but the design and aesthetics or even the color schemes are all predetermined by the retailers or the carpet shopkeepers who are given the designs by the prospect customers or people who take these carpets and sell them in cities. Hence, proving that the locals are now just being used as laborers, doing unskilled manual work and not using any of their local design sense and incorporating it in the production of the product. Ironically, in 1994 when the Handmade carpet production was introduced in Hunza by the AKCSP, simultaneously KADO started the Sharma Rehabilitation center. The Sharma Rehabilitation Center, as the name suggests, is a place for the mentally disabled men who come here to make the Sharma, using their own aesthetics and traditional designs, and is then marketed locally as well as to the tourist market. After conducting this research I came up with an implication of transition, which could be the new infusion of foreign design with local craft.

My proposition is that, what if, the effort put in developing a new way of carpet making was put into the indigenous craft of making Sharmas?

The Attabad Lake story begins when on Januray 4th 2010, approximately half of the Attabad village, northwards of Hunza city on the Karakoram Highway (KKH), situated above the Hunza River, collapsed into the valley below. Almost 5 years on, many IDPs are still without a permanent home. Administratively, there has been no solution for their plight, as almost all habitable land in the region is already inhabited. However, due to the KKH’s importance vis-à-vis Pak-China trade (and for Chinese trade in especially), the submerged portion of the KKH is being substituted with a 9km tunnel and multiple bridges.

Given the status quo, it is largely possible that the IDPs will remain IDPs even while commercial and touristic activity increases, with extreme potential to damage the socio-cultural and environmental fabric of the area. It is therefore imperative to find innovative approaches to the problems of housing the IDPs respectfully and permanently, while making sure that they have a stake in tourist activities in the region, which themselves are not short-term cash grabs but sensitive to their context and that over time add value to the area. The project aims to, Provide a model for resettlement of IDPs in a land-scarce, geologically unstable mountainous region, in doing so breaking from traditional approaches to architecture and land-use in the region. Develop a long-term tourism masterplan for the area, with a view to minimising environmental degradation and maximising its social and financial sustaibablity and Embrace and evolve vernacular techniques of construction and planning, keeping in mind the changed costs and availability of labour and materials as well as the shift to a service economy and currency-based capitalist market

ME BESAN CHE CHAN

RE-USE & RECYCLE

Batool Ali

Wajid Ali

Hunza a beautiful valley full of vast colours of life and culture lies in the Northern land of Pakistan.

Hunza is famous for its ripe and juicy apricots, mouth watering apples and dry fruits and fresh vegetables which include scrumptious potatoes, pumpkins, spinach and cabbages. These foods go with their life style their culture. These crops and fruits contain energy and as the local people have to get up early to work in their crops and orchids so they need to full fill their nutritional requirements. Attabad Lake is a glorious reminder of beauty and tragedy that started on 4th January 2010 and has not ended yet as the people of Gojal valley still are displaced. The people of the valley took shelter in other parts of Hunza. Their unsuitable temporary placement caused a lot of damage to their routine and the government did more because they did not have any means to buy the right food or to buy a land to make a home because all the funds the Chinese’s people had given was spent on various of things like clothes, schooling, and for daily needs. The stove given as a temporary cooking range was not the one which the women’s were used to make their local food in for example; Phitti their daily bread which they used to have in breakfast is made on a stone oven or electrical one (but they did not have the funds to buy one).

Although there were so many things (Trade, Culture, Costumes, Crops, Handicrafts, Music and Tourism etc.) to be researched in Hunza valley.

There were a series of workshops and briefings about the resettlements of Atta Abad IDP’s and about the formation of the Atta Abad Lake. (In a very short time). But I mainly focused on the Handicrafts of Hunza Valley. When I started to research on Handicrafts, there were so many questions that came to mind. E.g: What are their Traditional Crafts and why they are not making them now? And what the main reasons to craft utilitarian goods?

They are working on different product mainly: chairs, doors, frames, tables, door panels, windows, frames, beds, cupboards, bookshelves, racks, stools, staircases etc. They use different kind of woods for different products. But I was little disappointed to know that they are wasting 40% of the wood while they produce these mentioned products.

So I have suggestions for the reuse of this 40% wastage. This 40% wood can be used for the decorative items like: lamps, trophies, souvenirs, toys, cooking sets, plates, ash trays, candle stands, wooden key chains and many other things. By doing so, we can generate more revenue for the betterment of IDP’s and for local community as well.

WHAT DO WE EAT?

WOOD WORKSHOP CIQAM

TERRITORIAL CRISIS UTILIZING THE 60% APRICOT PRODUCTION

Faryyal Arif The subject of our research focuses on the “apricot farming and utilization of the fruit” grown in Hunza valley. While visiting the valley in August, we came to know that nearly sixty percent of the fruit gets wasted in one or the other way.

And only forty percent comes under use. Where does the fruit go? From the forty percent, the fruit is either eaten fresh or is dried to be sold or kept for domestic use. The kernel is used to make the oil. A very small percentage is exported and the rest is used locally. The by-product of the kernel is used as fodder for the cattles. Some of the fruit is packed to be sold, but most of the fruit is unable to reach down to the masses.

Because there no proper refrigeration units that can keep the fruit fresh on its way down. Ideal refrigeration is needed because the apricots grown in Hunza are very delicate and has a thin skin therefore harsh weather conditions can damage them easily. Outlined below are few proposals to derive maximum benefits from this single wonder packed fruit.

- Improve packaging and introduce refrigerated storage and special transportation system with temperature control. The fragility of the fruit should be kept in mind before roughly tossing the fruit in a container. Soft natural packages should be designed, using local material such as dried plants and soft barks that can provide a pliable support.

-There should be a detachable hammock like structure that works like a basket, holding the apricots that fall from the tress by wind or delayed picking. We can minimize the chance of the fruit getting rotten.

-The red zone areas near the Lake Attabad can be densely planted with the apricot trees, to make them become communal farming zone for the IDP’s. The plantation may help in holding the land and prevent it from landslide. And on the other hand open up an enterprise where the displaced families could work and make use of their lands. Also generate a stable source of income which would assist them in rebuilding their previous lifestyle.

LAKE AS BORDER

Zahra Hussain Efforts to restore the transportation link between the north and the warm waters has led to the creation of tunneled highway cutting across the mountains beside the Attabad Lake. Large warehouses and storage units have also been set-up along in the road in Gojal to keep the work pace efficient.

Due to this, employment opportunities have risen for the people in Gojal who have felt neglect from their own government during the crises. Employment opportunity promises a better future for the affected. Since the lake poses a huge challenge for transportation and communication, food items and other packaged goods have being transported from China. Chinese presence in Gojal has increased and strengthened in the past few years.

Pro-Chinese sentiments are felt in Gojal valley for they have been saved, favoured and helped by the Chinese government in the times of crises and are being supported by the Chinese Government even now through employment opportunity and limited relief goods.The Chinese government did not stop at relief efforts but also introduced an apparatus for rehabilitation; employment through the new transport link construction project. Gojal’s local population does not direct the same sentiments towards Hunza/or Pakistani Government as they feel a strong neglect and lack of communication from the other side of the Attabad lake. The lake acts as a border that restricts access, communication and control of the province on the other side of the lake.

With limited area and Pakistani population between the lake and the Khunjerab pass (Pak-China border), Gojal becomes a “ liminal zone”.

Although the Lake has become an obstruction or is more likely seen as one, it is required that the link with Gojal from this side of the Lake is established again. The lake should be used an opportunity, a junction, a point of intersection, rather than a border that cuts the places, people and cultures apart.

Attabad Lake, the beautiful water body between mountains holds great potential for the affected people around it as a natural reservoir and a scenic place. Efforts should be directed towards bringing the people around the lake/affected by the lake together to gather around it, exchange a dialogue of potential progress about it rather than turn their backs and stay away from it. Attabad can be used as an opportunity for mutual interest between both sides rather than an obstruction.

SILK ROUTE AGRI Khurshid Khan

For centuries, Hunza Valley was almost cut off from the rest of the world and was almost inaccessible even in the presence of Silk Route. The main source of living was farming and hunting because from which daily living was maintained while hunting served as a source of income generation in the form of selling skin of hunted animals and with its exchange, commodities of daily use are obtained.

Attabad disaster had a very negative impact on the agriculture of Hunza as it not only washed away a rich agrarian land but had also put a residential burden on the available land along with productivity. From attabad destruction, the area of cultivation reduced. The excess quantity of agriculture output stopped. With the excessive demand, price hike occurred, threatening the lives of families with low income level.

As agriculture is the primary source of income for the people of Hunza. So through promoting agriculture, the lives of Hunza people can be rebuilt without affecting their culture and heritage. The promotion of agriculture in Hunza is very easy because its people need only proper direction as they possess key knowledge of agriculture and their land. As the participation of students in agriculture of Hunza is much lower than required, they can be involved through partial participation after school/ college/university hours (may be in vacations). Also girls’ students may help their parents in the fields adjacent to their homes. The provision of partial help by students will not only solve the problem of human resource deficiency in agriculture. Training must be provided in the field of agriculture not only to farmers but to students as well. The educated community (students) must be trained on modern techniques so that productivity must be increased from the available land.

WORKSHOPS & SESSIONS Creative - Participatory Action Research

Built-Environment, Architecture and Life

This workshop gave participants an insight to the various qualitative research methods used in social sciences and the arts exploring creative methods for conducting participatory research with local communities. This workshop served as a backdrop for the research carried out throughout the Visiting School and helped participants orient their inquiries with the local community.

Aimed to highlight the significance of traditional living patterns through a unique study of pattern language and howit is connected to architecture. An anthropological insight tohabitat systems, this method of research gives an insight tohow social structures are embedded in architectural forms.

Audio Visual Cultures

Bio-Diversity and local Eco-system management

This workshop introduced the participants to culture and nature and how the relationship between these two entities has developed. Through this workshop participants learn to map local practices and living patterns that ultimately inform their individual projects. These practices and patterns are also added to the IPPC.

This session introduced the participants to the Bio-Diversity in the region of Laspur and adjoining Valley. In addition to knowlege around local medicinal plants, herbs, local animals, wild life and birds, the participants were also introduced to the indigenous systems of managing the natural ecology.

Cultural Heritage Management

Craft making for a Global Market

This workshop explores ways in which the local community of Laspur can be made more aware and conscious of their unique cultural heritage in order to manage it in face of development, progress and change. The workshop engaged with local community (men, women and children) to identify and explore local cultural heritage and devise ways in which it can be integrated in development plans for the community. The sessions were run by multiple conveners.

This workshop allows participants to understand basic concepts of design and apply skills in developing a design range that is relevant to a globalized craft market. The workshop will provide skills and knowledge about design through conversations and visual communication, allowing participants to engage with the creative process and understand what it means to make things. Here designing with the craftsperson is key to understanding action research as opposed to designing for the craftsperson.

Environmental Security The purpose of this workshop was to understand the concept of development for mountain communities, identifying the potential environmental threats that have been introduced to the area as a result of human interventions. Field research aimed to highlight the effects infrastructure expansion leaves on the mountains, environment and available natural resources.

IN THE FIELD ETHNO-MUSICAL & CRAFTS FAIR

PARTICIPATORY COMMUNITY SESSIONS ON CULTURE AND CRAFTS

CLEANLINESS DRIVE WITH LOCAL CHILDREN

ETHNOGRAPHY IN LOCAL LANDSCAPES

MUSEUM LEARNING EXERCISES WITH LOCAL GIRLS

INTERACTIVE DESIGN SESSIONS ON CRAFTS AND SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS WITH WOMEN.

OUTREACH

HERITAGE MUSEUM JANWAI

In Janawai Village, Neelum Valley, AJK, a local person, Bashir Ahmed Mughal has taken the initiative to establish a small museum in his village. Mr Bashir started collecting items of heritage importance from community elders in Neelam Valley at an early age.

Over the past 18 years, his collection has reached apx 110 items that have been placed in this museum.

Bashir believes that the indigenous culture is important to preserve and conserve. Old indigenous items such as tools, pottery, apparel and household items have been collected from the villagers across the valley and kept in a room. Laajverd Visiting School core team observed in August 2015 that the museum was in a dilapidated condition and required uplifting and restoration, along with cataloguing and proper display and extended full efforts in up-lifting the museum as an LVS outreach project, and carried out the following tasks, - Items have been cleaned and placed on wooden base/shelves.

- Proper lighting arrangement for the artifacts has been provided.

- Digital inventory of the museum has been prepared with photographs of each item.

- The museum logo and identity has been designed.

- Maintenance kit for the artifacts has been provided.

DAIGCHA -1910 Brass pot used for cooking

HOUSE HOLD APPAREL POTTERY DEVICES

KAPRAY KE POOL -1850 Woven cloth used as socks

The next phase includes, - Sharing the museum archive with other established museums and platforms in order to make this community effort known, as well as give an insight to the culture and artifacts of Neelum Valley, that have not been documented before.

- Janawai Heritage Museum is currently operating from a rented building and aims to construct one of its own building in the coming years, as a larger space are required for the collected items and to include more community crafts and knowledge based activities in the museum.

“Cultural repositories help maintain a sense of identity and belonging, therefore community-led museums are crucial for rehabilitation in post-conflict zones.”

Zahra Hussain, Co-Curator Heritage Museum Janwai, Neelum Valley, Azad Kashmir

GHAAS KAY POOL - 1910 Dried grass slippers

LUI PATTU - 1850 Lamb wool woven blanket

SHANRKOTI -1850 Wooden dish for eating food

CHAI DAAN -1765 Brass pot used for tea

PEERI -1800 Wooden chair

DAIG -1910 Clay cooking pot

BULAITHRA - 1890 Fixes ploughing machine

MADHAANI Wooden chair

OUTREACH

HERITAGE MUSEUM LASPUR Owner: Amirullah Yaftali Location: Harchin Village

Shandur Road, Laspur Valley, Upper Chitral, Khyber Pukhtoon Khwa, Pakistan

The Museum: This museum displays the collection of historical artifacts collected by the owner, Mr Amirullah Yaftali who is a renowned Polo Player and former Captain of Laspur Polo team. In the past few decades, Mr Yaftali has collected over a hundred items of historical significance related to weaponry, the game Polo, pottery, tools and devices, apparel and items of everyday life usage. These items belong to the cultural heritage landscape of Laspur and surrounding valleys and act as a window into its past.

DESIGN

Architect & Curator Zahra Hussain and Architect Abdullah Aslam designed the museum and led the construction and curation. The building has been designed as an octagon around five columns, a recurrent architectural pattern found in traditional houses. The columns hold a strong spiritual significance known as ‘Punjetan’ for the resident Islamaili Community. Moreover, following the tradition of central skylights, the museum celebrates a central source for natural light. The door of the museum has been carefully designed to showcase locally woven textile and carved wood dating circa sixteenth century.

CURATION

In terms of the curation, Hussain worked closely with Mr. Amirullah Yaftali, who has collected these items with great passion and care. The artefacts are categorised, named and tagged with the instructions and stories by Mr Yaftali and assistance of other local people. The museum follows a flexible and open-layout and will continue to be populated.

“It is very important that local communities initiate their own museums where they get a chance to tell their stories and narrate their own cultural landscapes�

Zahra Hussain, Lead Architect & Curator Heritage Museum Laspur

Five columns forming the Punjetan arrangement

Main Door of the museum

INDIGENOUS PRACTICES AND PATTERNS CATALOG IPPC is published by Laajverd through the research carried out during the project Laajverd Visiting School.

Sustainable Development needs to be contextualized in light of the local indigenous knowledge systems, and local cultures. The local realities and situations are quite regional when it comes to indigenous management of natural resources that give rise to cultural practices, living patterns and the tangible and intangible heritage of a region. Indigenous practices and Patterns Catalog aims to document and archive these practices and patterns that have developed over decades and are undergoing fast-transformations due to development pressures. Not only will this catalog will serve as a repository of information and insight into the everyday life of regions and their relationship with land, but also highlight food and craft practices. This information can be used as a knowledge base for other organizations who plan to design and implement projects in that particular region.

LASPUR VALLEY KPK Felt Decorated Cap

Wakhi - House

Traditional Wakhi house is prising of five wooden colum octagnol roof. The five colu spiritual significance known pattern is found in Gojal, G Valley.

Contrasting Exteriors

Tradition of bright flower painting is observed on the exterior walls of houses contrasting with the monotone adobe color. Bright interior spaces also are in stark contrast to the mud exteriors in the old houses.

For special occasions the chitrali cap is decorated with the feather of mundakh. It is a migrating bird from Siberia, considered rare in region. In older times only the influential people would wear it as a symbol of money/ power.

Significance of Ash

Foundation Layin

The foundation of a house i members of a community. Th man with children, never di crimes. They also bury a na foundation as a ritual.

Before leaving the house the bribe would circle the hearth holding her parents hands to ensure the blessings to stay in the house as she left. She would touch the fire as she left the house. Specific traditional songs are sung during this practice blessing the occasion. She would leave with only a pinch of ash from her parents’ home.

Drying Grass for Fodder Grass is dried in the sun as fodder for cows and goats and stored, for consumption in winter season.It is dried in bundles on an elevated surface, usually on branches of trees, or roof top. The sun-dried grass is theb stored under the shelter made of sacks.

Crafted prayer Mats These prayer mats are mostly seen in the households of Baatakundi, crafted by the women andused domestically.

Plastic strings are interwoven together to make a pattern.

The motifs are usually bold and geometric.Weaving techniques similar to Basket weave can be seen in these mats.

It seems like the technique and pattern used in making of chaff[ted] plates also know as “Chengair or Chabba”. It Crop protection can be assumed that the weaving is the bolder interpretaBlack Bear destroys the maize fields in Khannian, which tion of the same technique. is a great concern for the local villagers. Fires are lit at night in the fields and human dummy is installed to scare the bear away. Khanian and neighboring villages Ranjhri and Bela have dense forest areas where bear is inhabitant.

WWF has recently passed a policy to protect the Brown Bear. Heavy penalties are issued if bear is harmed or shot, hence it fearlessly consumes the crops of local people.

Co

KAGHAN VALLEY KPK

All com Da are lea res has sen

Clustered Dwellings

Clustered dwelling was observed in the old center of Ghulkin village. Close-knit patterns ensured a sense of security, warmth, not only in the temperature of the area and the collection of heat in a clustered setting; but a social sense of warmth and belonging. The later patterns of built environment show spaced apart dwellings surrounding by fields and orchards.

an open plan commns holding the umns denote a strong n as Punjetan. The Ghizer and Laspur

HUNZA & GOJAL VALLEY, GILGIT BALTISTAN

ng Practice

Nomadic Bakar walas

is laid by worthy and respected These are usually a married ivorced and is also free of ail; coal and four stones in the

Bakarwalas or KhanaBadosh are nomads people of the subcontinent. They come to Neelum Valley from Punjab during the summer where the locals provide them with their livestock for grazing during the summers.

Neelum Valley is the main transit route, which they take on route to Domail and eventually Chitral.

Kashmiri kulchay

Local scones made with yeast, flour and ghee. Sprinkled with couscous and glazed with egg-wash, the biscuits come out freshly baked with a crackling crust and an airy texture. They are baked in a large clay oven. These popular in the region as a breakfast item.

Gathering Hearth The kitchen is the hierarchal center of the house. It is the largest space able to accommodate the whole family at a time. The fire place/cooking area is the gathering point for the family who keep themselves warm in this room in the long winters.

ompact Terraced Dwelling

l houses share walls and hence the construction is mpact and collective. Rather than individual housing, amdama shows the concept of communal living. There e two defined paths of movement in the village that ads you to all terraces, out of which one is used by the sidents and the other, which is a longer indirect route, s been allocated for guests and visitors. This shows nsitivity towards gradation of public and private space.

Doga

NEELUM VALLEY KASHMIR

It is a popular game much like hopscotch that kids play in this valley. The player has to throw a stone on one of the eight squares drawn on the ground. He or she has to hop over the squares and kick the stone from the first block till the last block to finish the game. These squares have names such as Pail, Duja, Teeja, etc

Collaborators

Research Collaborator

ARA

Theoria

ARA Theoria is an action - research think-tank led by Zahra Hussain working at the intersections of culture - heritage - environment. It is invested in conducting cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and employs creative and participatory communication strategies combining action-research, analysis and advocacy.

Laajverd Visiting School Laajverd Visiting School led by Zahra Hussain, is an initiative to engage bachelor students and mid career professionals in rigorous field research. This encourages them to critically analyze the culture, environment and people of that area. This helps them reflect upon their own position in an increasingly urbanized and globalized world while understanding the challenges faced by local cultures and traditions. For the locals, we try to make them aware of their environment and also do on-site impromptu workshops in areas where we can assist them through the LVS outreach program. The LVS believes in a two-way learning model where the locals and visiting participants engage a healthy dialogue for shared knowlege production.