Kalash and Bast Shoes

During the project 'A Thousand and One Interpretations on Collection Objects', workshops have been arranged for groups of international students and DaisyPensioners group of migrant women. Discussions have been fruitful in all groups, and we have got fascinating information about associations on objects and their uses in different cultures.

 

Over a dozen ladies of different ages and nationalities made up our DaisyPensioners group. The chosen theme for this group was every-day life, and for this reason we arranged for the first meeting to take place in Iso-Kohmo building of Kylämäki Village. Many were surprised to hear that the buildings belong to a museum and that nobody lives there anymore. In the drawing room of Iso-Kohmo house we examined a boxful of embroidered scarves and other traditional handicrafts. Thick fabric and coarse yarn caught the attention of group members, because for example Vietnamese scarves are characterised by the lightness of fabric and fineness of thread.

Every-day objects can be very different in different cultures. A Somalian woman in our group uses her prayer beads on a daily basis. This particular one has a hundred beads.

 

In the chamber behind drawing room interest and even laughter were elicited by objects from the museum’s educational collection – items such as woollen dresses and trousers, and a rocking chair which a few ladies tried out. In the porch chamber, a heteka bed, its cover, and duvet got an Iranian woman to tell us how they use very similar equivalents also in Iran. Another Iranian lady told us how her acquaintance makes these kind of duvets: sheep’s wool is placed between two fabrics and sown together in order to set the wool in place. In the kitchen, cooking equipment were closely examined. We, the project researchers, were surprised to discover that in Iran a mortar is used not only to grind spices but to manufacture home-made eye make-up, kohl. Using the educational collection in the workshop was particularly useful. Objects were excellent tools for illustrating own experiences, even when it was not possible to express everything verbally.

A Vietnamese volunteer quizzed us about the purpose of this object. Nobody in the workshop guessed right, and she revealed that it was a coconut grate! It is used to grate the inside of a coconut half so that the half is rotated around the blade. The grated material falls into a bowl placed below the grate.

 

We also met up in Muistojen Koti, belonging the Daisy Ladies association. Volunteers presented objects that they had brought along, including national costumes or traditional clothing, accessories and cooking equipment. Our last meeting was arranged in Turku Castle where we compared the personal objects with objects from the museum collections. Examining objects side by side sparked various associations. A pair of traditional, hand-made kalash shoes had been brought to our previous meeting. The kalash shoes are worn for example as part of the national costume for Kurdish people in Iran and Iraq. We compared the kalash shoes with a pair of Finnish bast or birch bark shoes (tuohivirsut) from the cultural historical objects collection. The birch bark shoes reminded of similar shoes used in Iran, albeit they were woven out of leather. A Vietnamese group member was reminded of the communist army sandals that were made from car tyres.

 

The discussions of our workshops will be used as a basis for constructing our exhibition, opening in Brinkkala Gallery in the spring of 2017.

Kalash shoes from Iran.

 

Bast or birch bark shoes (tuohivirsut) from the cultural historical objects collection of the Museum Centre of Turku.