Weave to Thrive
Proceeds directly support refugees and asylum seekers in their business endeavours
Hosted by MercyCare’s Multicultural Services team, charity products produced by Weavers to Thrive have been developed over the past few years in an effort to help build livelihoods among refugees as well as develop new skills to help start their own enterprises.
Weave to Thrive – the Karen Weavers of Myanmar Range
Our scarves and tunics are handwoven by Karen women using traditional backstrap looms, each piece carrying generations of skill and culture.
When you purchase a Weave to Thrive product, you are supporting Karen women from refugee backgrounds to earn meaningful income while helping to keep their cultural traditions alive. Every item is unique, beautiful and made with purpose.
The Karen are an ethnic minority group from the Mysterious Mountains in the south-eastern region of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Their culture is rich with diverse languages, traditions and beliefs and weaving has remained one of their most cherished practices. For decades, conflict in Myanmar forced hundreds of thousands of Karen people to flee to Thailand, where many still live in refugee camps along the border. From 2000 onwards, significant numbers were also resettled in host countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. Today, Australia is home to around 30,000 Karen people, with approximately 3,000 living in Western Australia.
Weaving is a deeply intergenerational tradition, passed down from mothers and grandmothers, requiring patience, precision and great skill. Traditionally, Karen people grew their own cotton, separated the seeds by hand and spun the fibres into yarn. The cotton was then dyed using natural methods, such as tree bark and rice, which also strengthened the threads. Community members crafted looms by hand from bamboo and wood, creating the backstrap loom design that has been used for countless generations.
The process of creating a simple scarf is long and intricate, often taking a woman around twelve hours to complete. It begins with winding the yarn into a ball, then carefully wrapping it onto the loom, transferring it to the backstrap loom, and finally weaving the scarf and rolling the tassels. Each step requires focus and patience, resulting in a piece that is not only practical but also deeply symbolic of heritage, resilience and care.
For many Karen women now living in Australia, weaving represents much more than craft. It is a way of remembering who they are, where they come from, and how far they have journeyed despite displacement and hardship. Through weaving, they reconnect with each other, share stories and find healing in the rhythms of a practice that once brought their communities together in their homelands.
This revival of weaving in Western Australia came about after community consultations with experienced weavers, local Karen women, MercyCare’s multicultural support team and a visit from WEAVE Thailand; a social enterprise working along the Thai-Burma border. The women voiced a strong desire to sustain their weaving tradition in their new home and with funding from the Department of Communities’ Women’s Grants for a Stronger Future, they now gather weekly to weave together. Alongside weaving, they participate in fortnightly education sessions covering health, digital literacy and microenterprise development.
When Karen women weave, they are not only creating beautiful scarves but also sustaining cultural heritage, transferring knowledge between generations and strengthening community bonds. The practice provides opportunities for income, helps women contribute to supporting their families and nurtures a strong sense of identity, belief and resilience. Above all, weaving is both an artform and an act of healing – a reminder of shared strength and the enduring power of culture.
