Day 28 – Thoughts of Grandeur, Käsitöö and Rahvariide

Today Mum and I ventured into Tartu to visit our favourite little käsitöö (handicraft) shop. When I was here last time I found the most amazing Estonian skirt, which was “second hand”, and only cost me 50 euro! It was incredible to find that, and it fit me! So I wanted to see what little delights there were in there this time. When we went in there, they had some beautiful Rahvariide (folk costumes) made and hanging on the walls. They did have some bigger sizes, which was not usual to see. Again, luckily none of the ones I liked fit me otherwise I probably would have got one! The time and dedication it takes to make some of these items still amazes me and I am really grateful I am starting to learn the craft and at the very beginning phases of learning how to make these items. There is still a joy that flows in when I see an abundance of vööd (belts) or some beautifully made apron or top that goes with a skirt. The colours, the designs, patterns, just everything about it really brings me joy in such a way I can not explain. There is such a connection to these handicrafts that really makes me feel so Estonian when I am surrounded by it and/or wearing it. There is just something about it and I really enjoy this feeling. The lady that was running the shop, she was clearly a sales person. Every time I pointed something out to mum she would try and out the hard sell on us to buy it and explain about the item or show us more like it. It was a bit overwhelming and it did somewhat take away from the experience of being able to quietly browse things and take in the moments of finding little glimmers in the things I was seeing and touching. Never mind, the käsitöö was still beautiful and I did enjoy looking at the things in there.

​Mum and I ventured into her favourite silver shop in Tartu. Conveniently we did get a great parking spot right outside it, and near the käsitöö shop. We had to check a few times if we were allowed to park there but there did not appear to be any signs or anything so we took it. This shop is where mum got some items 22 years ago, one of the necklaces she was wearing, and wears every day. The lady there was amazed and really delighted we were from Australia and had items from 22 years ago. There were so many beautiful pieces in there, and I took a few photos to send to the family saying “bye bye bank account” but luckily mum restrained herself there. A lot of it was just silver jewellery but there were some items that were very traditional Estonian, which I really liked. After this store we went to the material shop. This place used to have Estonian rahvariide (folk costume) material, but not anymore. There was literally one piece, which I really liked. I love the combination of dark blue and dark pink as part of the colours of a costume, so I got the last 2m, and it was half price, I’d be stupid not to. We did find some lovely ribbon to use for some clothes and to use on various other things, of course we had to get them because where else would be we able to get them in the world? I don’t think I have even found it to get it online. After that we had a late breakfast or early lunch, depends how you look at it. We had a bit of a small feast. We haven’t really been going to restaurant’s but we did this day and I thought it was my perfect opportunity to get some Estonian garlic bread, my favourite. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity, given my last time I had it, it was somewhat disappointing. It is the softness of the black bread on the inside and the crispiness on the outside that I really like.

​After we ate and survived a freak thunderstorm, we headed to this really quirky shop that I had been to before. I remember it for its “offensive” products. I mean I will let the pictures speak for themselves in this one. Needless to say there were a lot of things I could have gotten but I didn’t because, you know, room to get it back home, but my gosh it was good. I did get a few smaller items but I would have liked to get a few of my friends some of the items pictured!! Those of you that know me, know why I would have been giggling a lot at the items sold in this store, especially the ones I got some snaps of!!

​Once we had done what we needed to do in the town, we headed to the Rahva Museum (National Museum). All I could say about this place, even the building, was WOW. It was the most impressive grad building I had seen in a long time. It was built on the old air force base from when Estonia was under occupation. It was a very long building and even the front foyer had a grandeur about it. We then went into the museum and started to explore. When we got our ticket, something I had learned previously with Karen, was that if you say you are a teacher, which I am, you get a discounted rate. So of course, I told them I was a teacher and I got the discounted rate. When we got our ticket she explained how it worked but I didn’t fully understand, but when we got into the first wing (there are 3) I started to understand how it worked. It really showed how forward with technology Estonia is. You can scan your ticket and you can change the information about the exhibition you are looking at into your language (Estonian, English or Russian) and you can scan it in another area and you have a “take home museum”. Basically you can use this unique QR code to log in to it at home and read the bits of information about what you scanned, at your own leisure. I thought this was a great idea because there were so many exhibits and so much information to take in when going through this museum, it is a really good way to get the information in but at a more favourable pace. Once we worked this out I was scanning everything. The way this museum was set up was done really well. There was a section called “behind the iron curtain” and in this area they talked about and showed things about what it was like living in Estonia between 1944-1991.
 
There was so much history and so many bits of information and iconic moments I was unaware of. Life would not have been easy for Estonians during this time, and I was impressed with how they had collected and preserved information to share with people today. The other part that really impressed me was around the time of the revolution. They had displays of when the university students were protesting fracking to see how far they could push the boundaries and this was the start of the revolution. The other exhibit that I really enjoyed learning more about was the Baltic chain. It was a chain of people from Tallinn to Vilnius and they had images of people from every part of that chain, in an interactive time line. They had some wonderful footage of the event and I could feel the emotions coming up when I was looking at this. The pride but also the emotions these people must have been feeling when they were doing this. When we were in Mulgimaa we were told that bus drivers would just go to towns and pick people up and take them to the chain and do this several times, so that people could be part of this incredible moment in history. To think they did this without social media and having all the people gather at the same time on the same day, is still remarkable to me. They also had some links and invited people to send in their stories and photos of the event if they had something to share, and build on this collection. I really like the communal vibe of this and really wanting people to share and be part of this story. Now, as you can see in the photos, there were so many incredible things they had preserved, including a very big Estonian flag. I was not to sure what year that flag was from or the significance but it was impressive. Just before this room, there was a room of medals. Mum managed to find the one her grandfather was awarded and we are not sure exactly which one it was but it was still really special to see one of the medals he was awarded for his dedication to the war of independence. This was a special moment and I felt connected to him and felt a sense of pride, when looking at these medals and this room.
 
They had so many wonderful exhibitions in this museum, including old ways Estonians used to live, clothes, bags, textiles and the tools used to make them. They had set up rooms of furniture, and stories that went with them, old jewellery, treasures, information on the old religion, how the black plague affected them, how they used to eat, cook and live. This was just one wing of the museum but there was so much packed into here and I was blown away at the amount of information they had gathered over the years to build this, for people to learn about it. The one exhibit that really resonated with me and that I spent the most time at, was the Rahvariide section. There was an abundance of old costumes from a range of areas in Estonia. They had it broken up into four sections, North, South, East and West. Of course they didn’t have every single design and pattern there, that would take up a whole wing, and I am not sure if they could even get that many. It was incredible to see the intricacies of the designs that were presented to us, and they even had differences between women that were married and women that were not in the same county. You could see that the vööid we're quite old but there was no date assigned to them, and some of the skirts had lost some of their colour but they did well to preserve what they had gotten to present in the exhibition. I was also really impressed by the different varieties of hats that the women wore as part of their costumes. Even today they're very well designed it takes a lot of time to do all the particular details for each county and you have to make sure that you're wearing it correctly and according to your marital status. This was the exhibition I was very excited to see and it blew me away how they have presented it and even having the skirts fanned out so you could see the whole design, was a really nice touch.

​Once we had left the hall we were in, we decided to not see the other two because we're coming back here with a tour with three hours to explore the other areas. This is when we went into the gift shop and oh my gosh it was next level. Everything in there was so well presented and made you want to buy it but obviously we didn't buy much it'll because it was however priced compared to the same things that we saw in other areas. It was however, really nice to see how things were presented like the vööd (belts) and how they had the county names written on them so it was very clear where they came from. There was such an abundance of colour and design and patterns in both the old style and old designs imagined in new ways. There was also areas that had tools to make handicraft, which I thought was really wonderful, because I have not seen many places that would sell the tools. Now that mum and I have some idea on how to create things and what the process is, we thought we would make life a little easier for ourselves and got something that will help with making our belts. There was an abundance of books too but of course we had to leave them but so many amazing books to create some extraordinary Estonian käsitöö.

​In the evening one of my new friends from the ÜNEV (global youth network) was asking me a few questions regarding my work in the Estonian community in Australia. So, instead of trying to explain it to her on messages, I invited her over for a little chat and we ended up talking for over 2 hours!! She was very interested in Sõrve and my work there, we went through the website and looked at the sosins, as well as Sõrve TV. It was so wonderful being able to explain what it was I had been doing at Sõrve, with my role in particular and I really only shared with her the tip of the iceberg. It was in this moment I recognised the grandeur of my role and my own personal work, as well as that of the community. It did not occur to me how much of my time and how much work and love went into Sõrve from my own personal time bank, as well as others, until I had this conversation with Tuuli. I was very grateful to have had this conversation and I also recognised how this experience is now able to help others, around the world, achieve their goals. I have a tendency to minimise my work, I guess for fear of being perceived as someone who is boasting but you know what, fuck it, I worked hard for the Sõrve community for 6 years as Laagri Juht, as well as another 10 years as a Juht. I don’t think anyone will ever know the complexities of what I did for our community and the amount of time I spent working on things, refining things and making it run as seamlessly as possible. My philosophy of it all was I had to be prepared months in advance so the rest of the team and the community could do their work. Without my work, their work could not happen. I remember countless nightshifts putting together the activity schedule, social media campaigns, countless conversations with key individuals at random times of day and night, working on Sõrve stuff when I should have been putting together lectures or marking papers, and so many other times. It really is something I adore and really hope it continues to grow and be a highlight and special place for people to gather… wow talk about a stream of consciousness! I hope you enjoyed that little rendition of me being my biggest cheerleader in this moment and really recognising my own work, talk about being vulnerable. On that note…
Until tomorrow
Marissa xx