Textiles Workshop: Saris and Borders

Come and explore this beautiful piece of Indian women’s clothing. We will explore the different styles of how saris are worn. Come and explore this beautiful piece of Indian women’s clothing. We will explore the different styles of how saris are worn. Feel the different textile materials used to make them and study the various designs and borders which are often inspired by nature. Cultural Champion, Sandhya will bring in a wide choice of saris for you to try on and learn how to wear one. Hear about how history has influenced and changed the shape of it. Listen to the story of the Gulabi Gang (Pink Saris) and how they protect other women from violence against men. We will also have a go at designing our own sari! A must workshop for anyone interested in fashion, textiles, feminism and history. If you enjoy this event and any of the other events at Respect Fest 2026, please donate to our Crowdfunder, and give us a headstart to plan for Respect Fest 2027. We need local support to make this happen again! https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/qr/VlDvK1kn?utm_campaign=sharemodal&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=shortlink Sandhya Dave is a shape shifting mischievous goddess who likes to play! She is a body based therapist practicing for 25 years. She specialises in birth, sexual & racial trauma work. Created Resilient Roots, a safe brave space for Global Majority people in the SWest. She co-created Devon Diversity Consultants offering organisational guidance and strategy. Is an educator with Devon Development Education, training & exploring systemic racism, cultural competency & the decolonising of our minds & institutions. She trains and runs the Cultural Champions programme, which takes cultural diversity and anti-racism work into schools, businesses & the community. She also coordinates the Devon Windrush Group and mentors on a multicultural history project called Telling Our Stories Finding Our roots. She has worked for Trees For life in Scotland, planted trees in the Himalayan foothills, with Vriksha Mitra Saklaniji and been part of a core group setting up Moor Trees in Devon to reforest parts of Dartmoor, who to date have planted 100,000 trees. She now mentors others in their creative projects. Her ancestral roots are Indian, having grown with the ecological religion of Hinduism. Sandhya meditates, practices Inquiry & dialogue, loves dancing, walking the coastline, fuunynesss and eating! Sandhya believes in the power of stories and emotional needs being met for personal and planetary change for ALL beings not just human.