Ep. 56: Crafting a community from Germany to Ladakh with Catherine Allie of WE ARE KAL

The Indian Edit

As I travel around the sheep-dotted fjords of Iceland, I’m reminded of the stunning landscape of a part of the world that my latest guest has made her home. Looking to work with a textile community, Catherine Allie moved from Germany to Ladakh in the High Himalayas, sandwiched between Tibet and Kashmir. Together with her Ladakhi husband and his nomadic family, she founded textile collective WE ARE KAL. Weaving yak and lamb wool into beautiful, naturally dyed home textiles and clothing, Catherine and her community have created a sustainable business directly linked with the landscape of the places they work in. Bear with our spotty internet connection for the first couple of minutes, and definitely stay tuned until the end to get a glimpse of Catherine’s life in remote Ladakh!

A huge shout out to listener Sarah Dunn for connecting me with Catherine! Please do check out Sarah’s own textile work which draws inspiration from Catherine in the shownotes below at Rani & Reine.

Listen now on your favorite podcast app, Spotify or www.theindianedit.com and please take a second to rate us wherever you’re listening so the voices of these inspiring women can be heard all over the world!

SHOWNOTES FOR EPISODE 56:

Connect with Catherine via We are Kal’s website and instagram

The gorgeous videos of the collective’s work are here

My generous listener Sarah Dunn’s Rani and Reine

BOOKS and MORE:

Ancient Futures: Lessons from Ladakh for a Globalizing World by Helena Norberg-Hodge

The Secret Life of Plants: A Fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations Between Plants and Man by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird

Follow us on Instagram for more on our guests and everything we mentioned in this episode!

Special thanks to Varun Dhabe and the team @ Boon Castle / Flying Carpet Productions for audio post-production engineering!