Avani Kumaon
Fair trade, low carbon foot print, handmade, zero waste and clean energy. Sounds good? Jump right in!
I am here to rhapsodise my love for this soulful brand. I feel like I've been looking for a way to talk about AVANI for a while now. I volunteered with them for about 2 years and it has been transformative for me and helped me grow as an individual. This very place was an inspiration for my sudden lifestyle change. I was a mega shopaholic and now my wardrobe has 30 pairs of clothes. Read my other blog( https://medium.com/@maithreye.raj/my-wardrobe-is-a-reflection-of-my-inner-self-disrobe-the-wardrobe-challenge-32c2d0237a95).
So here it is: This is Avani Kumaon, an artisan-owned Self Reliant Cooperative community nestled in the Kumaon region of the Himalayas. A five-acre campus to help coordinate the activities of five field centres. They work with 108 villages and focus on livelihood generation through traditional crafts, appropriate technology and farm-based activities. When you choose Avani, you're choosing to stop the migration of people from mountains to cities, promote social inclusion of traditionally marginalised groups, protect the environment and natural resources, serve smallholder farmers in rural areas, and support economic development for women in these areas. These aren't just buzzwords—they've put them into action since their founding in 1999.
Avani adds a new meaning to the term 'Ethical Shopping' as it focuses on creating a sustainable community, protecting the mountain ecosystem and respecting local culture. You can learn all about natural dyeing with them. Sign up for a workshop and enjoy what the campus has to offer while you're there! That’s how my journey with Avani began. Working together with a local community there, Avani is making zero waste, low carbon footprint, fair trade products using only natural fibres, natural dyes and clean energy.
Indigo the super dye!
I had only heard of Indigo as a colour but did not know that it is a super dye! It is one of the oldest and most complex dyes in the world. Avani is working on instituting an indigo supply chain in the area, and farmers have been able to earn a profit of around INR 2,000-3,000 through indigo cultivation over a three-month cycle. They are looking at indigo as a crop for empowerment and regeneration. Avani's intervention starts from the distribution of seeds to farmers and extends to selling Indigo in the form of powders and ready to use printing paste for screen and block printing. Indigo cultivation has helped regenerate wastelands, enrich the soil, and cur curb soil erosion. The dye is non-polluting and does not add to soil and water pollution. Additionally, indigo dyes are also used in making herbal colours and crayons.
I got to see the whole process of harvesting and making of an indigo vat, right through to shaded yarns. It was like watching the magic unfold before my very eyes. My love and respect for indigo grew multi-folds once I witnessed the whole process first-hand. And the result? A beautiful range of things made by people who are passionate about what they do! That's why I couldn't resist sharing some of my favourites here—they're just too pretty not to show off!
As I was walking around the Indigo fields I also noticed a single variety of plants growing everywhere. I learnt from the team that it's an invasive species called Eupatorium that grows all over Asia, Africa, and North America not allowing any other native plant species to grow. What a buzzkill. Avani found a way to work around this problem, though! They created a program that incentivises the local people to harvest the plant. By converting Eupatorium into dye powders, Avani is saving the biodiversity of the forests and making the local communities more financially stable.
As I was taking a further tour of the campus I came across a place that looked like a giant pile of pine needles. On the other side were a huge cylinder and motor that looked like a small industrial set-up where a team of people were feeding pine needles into it. I was confused—was this some sort of art installation? What was going on? Then a volunteer explained: It was a power plant that generated electricity from pine needles. I stared at him, mouth agape.
The Chir pine forest is a common sight in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It covers a large part of the landscape. Its resin is used for making turpentine. The large plantations of this tree species were introduced by British colonists and continued by later governments for commercial timber and resin. The needles, which fall from the trees each year, are highly flammable. After seeing forest fires endanger lives and cause destruction year on year Rajnish Jain (co-founder of Avani) had an idea: What if he could harness the power of these pine needles? It’s easy to take electricity for granted—especially if you live in an area where it’s readily available right?
The team set up the world’s first 9 kWh pine needle power plant and currently powers the Avani workshop. They believed their venture could provide a sustainable livelihood for villagers and hoped, to reduce forest fires if rolled out on a large scale. It led to the setting up of Avani BioEnergy, a for-profit social enterprise, in 2011. Whilst rethinking their idea for a higher capacity, the team thought about how to collect enough pine needles to supply it. After some deliberation, they decided to install a series of smaller, decentralised power plants, rather than one large one. This way, the volume of pine needles needed could be met with the manual collection. The pine needles are collected and dried before they are fed into the gasifier. Local people employed to collect pine needles are remunerated in the form of cash and cooking charcoal, which is a by-product in the power generation process.
I finally entered their store at the campus and I was not prepared for the onslaught of an amazing collection of stoles, jackets, dupattas and sarees primarily made of linen, wool (Harsheel and Merino) and silk (Eri, Muga & Tussar) all handspun, hand-dyed and handwoven. I also bought a cute hand knitted toy (because why not?) made from a scrap of their textile waste. They even had finger-painting kits to help relax and reclaim your creative side. And why not have a DIY kit for the most natural of dyes? The kit includes everything you need to get started—even a user guide!
I’ve been out and about with their products and the reactions to them have been nothing short of amazing. These people are a force to be reckoned with. They make natural dye powders, extracts and pigments, ready to be used for hand printing and screen printing. They have a large variety of products including watercolour, wood stains and do it all in-house. Their Beeswax crayons are natural and organic, completely safe for kids. If you are looking for kumkum that is skin-friendly unlike the ones in the market that leaves your forehead with stain or give you an itch, these are definitely for you.
Here comes the best part. I for sure knew there was a next time. I made sure to stay at AVANI with my family and had a great time touring the campus where on a clear day we could see the Nanda Devi peak and the Panchachuli range. We ate local and seasonal food from their organic farm, visited their school, played with kids, witnessed the entire production cycle, and shopped too!
Love cooking? Try your hand at the community kitchen. My Mom volunteered to make some vegetable sambar at the community kitchen which turned out to be a big hit and later went on to send them a batch of homemade sambar powder as well!
So, you're interested in Avani? Great! Meet Rashmi and Rajnish Jain. These two are Avani's co-founders, active on campus, despite travelling most of the time. They're not hard to find—you'll usually find them right where the action is at. Meet the weaving team, dye team, admin team and a bunch of other people and in fact, this place wouldn't exist if it weren't for them. Also, there are a bunch of cool volunteers/interns from all over the world who hang out here, so if you're looking for a friendly face or some exciting conversation while you're here, they might be your best bet.
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/avanikumaon1
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avani.earthcraft/
Website: https://avani-kumaon.org/ ;
To shop: https://avani-earthcraft.com/
Want to reach out to them?
Mr Rajnish Pant - Regarding textile - +91 9412128222
Mr Rajendra Joshi - Dyes/workshop/stay - +91 8954111915