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Appearing on this month’s cover is a jar-shaped basket created by Sara Hunter, who belonged to the Panamint Shoshone Tribe and was, according to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the last American Indian basket weaver to live in the Saline Valley on the edge of what is now Death Valley National Park in California. The US National Park service notes, “They hunted and followed seasonal migrations for harvesting of pinyon pine nuts and mesquite beans with their families. Later, as settlers, silver miners, and others moved into the region, the Portland Art Museum explains that “the fine quality of Panamint baskets created a collectors’ market, which lasted well into the mid-twentieth century.

This mixed-methods investigation applies both quantitative and qualitative research techniques to explore the krajood basketry culture in Thale Noi, a community in Southern Thailand. Using data gathered from academic literature, interviews with local experts, observations in the community and questionnaires, the researchers investigate the culture of krajood basketry and examine cultural sustainability of current practices. The findings reveal that krajood wickerwork is an important cultural practice that provides a supplementary income for local residents. The craft has been recognized by the Thai government as a geographically distinct culture, for which the local artisans gain a unique place in the market. However, there are number of obstacles to the cultural sustainability of krajood basketry, especially a lack of inheritors and the impact of industrial standardization. The researchers, in collaboration with community members, suggest ways in which cultural experiences could be developed to safeguard the development and continuation of krajood basketry in Thale Noi.

The sustainability problem of many intangible cultural heritage (ICH) products stems from the shrinking of the core practitioner group, which is also the case for bamboo basketry craft. We believe that the problem in bamboo basketry originated in the lack of labor division between design and manufacturing, which prevents professional designers from entering this industry and results in the absence of several key stakeholders related to innovation and R&D. The lack of labor division is due to the technical difficulties associated with expressing the design concepts. The complexity of basket weaving structures makes it difficult to communicate between designer and manufacturer without precise expression tools, thus binding design and manufacturing into an integrated role. Guided by the user innovation theory, our team studied the design technology of bamboo basketry and developed a series of aiding tools, including the modeling of basic over–under structures and free weaving structures, automatic mapping techniques from 2D to 3D and several frequently used weaving skills, such as connecting, wrapping, plaiting and knotting. This technology enables designers to quickly design and express weaving structures with full details in digital models rather than to make samples. The application of the software shows that the technology considerably improved the designer interest and confidence. This technical solution makes designers, rather than programmers, able to do the development work, which also helps to create a sustainable ecological environment of technological research, also avoiding the difficulties associated with attracting business investment for such niche demands in the starting stage. Our practice shows that the sustainability of ICH products and the sustainability of the industry are closely related and that solving the latter supports the former.

Indigenous ecologies have persisted through major social and ecological changes including settler colonialism. Adaptations have been a necessary part of this resilience, however little attention has been given to the consequences of these adaptations for Indigenous Peoples and ecologies. Without exploring these consequences, we are left with an incomplete understanding of adaptation that potentially obscures social and ecological costs associated with resilience. Here we describe the contemporary caretaking of a culturally-significant plant used in weaving traditions called beargrass (Xerophyllum tenax Melanthiaceae), and discuss how adaptive practices to maintain biocultural connections to beargrass have influenced both socio-cultural and ecological systems. We ask: (1) How is beargrass stewarded and used today? (2) What are the adaptive practices that Indigenous communities in the Pacific Northwest have used to maintain cultural traditions through changing conditions? (3) What are some of the social and ecological consequences of these adaptations? Through semi-structured interviews with cultural practitioners we identified multiple reciprocal practices that form a basis of the caretaking relationship. In order to compensate for a lack of access to beargrass and lack of ability to exercise sovereignty in land management, practitioners described substituting other weaving materials for beargrass, as well as caretaking substitutions. These adaptations were not uniformly accepted and for some either represented significant cultural losses or placed additional burdens on communities. We also collected ecological field data on beargrass. Using structural equation modeling, we found that a key adaptive practice, the substitution of tree pruning for cultural fire, can replicate key short-term benefits of fire for beargrass populations, but does not appear to replicate longer term benefits. In sum, adaptive practices have allowed beargrass traditions to persist through colonialism, but cannot fully substitute for social and ecological benefits of pre-colonial caretaking, and also result in losses and/or additional burdens for communities. Investigating what adaptations to maintain resilience do in communities, and for whom, is necessary in order to fully appreciate the costs and benefits of adaptations that support resilience through various forms of perturbation.

Evidence for both basket weaving and salt production is often elusive in the prehistoric archaeological record. An assemblage of Middle–Late Chalcolithic pottery from Provadia-Solnitsata in Bulgaria provides insight into these two different technologies and the relationship between them. The authors analyse sherds from vessels used in large-scale salt production, the bases of which bear the impression of woven mats. This analysis reveals the possible raw materials used in mat weaving at Provadia-Solnitsata and allows interpretation of the role of these mats in salt production at the site. The results illustrate how it is possible to see the ‘invisible’ material culture of prehistoric south-eastern Europe and its importance for production and consumption.

This study aims to: (1) clarify confusion about Lygodium circinnatum fern fiber used in Bali, Indonesia, to weave basketry for international export, variously called “grass,” “rattan,” “reed,” “vine,” or “ata”; (2) explain how since the 1970s, entrepreneurial “champions” in Bali and Lombok have transformed a small, informal sector activity into the world’s largest fern fiber basketry trade; and (3) document all stages of the L. circinnatum supply chain from wild fern harvest to retail outlets in Asia, Europe, and North America. In the late 1980s, an earlier study estimated 70–270 million L. circinnatum stems per year were required for basketry production needs. Thirty years later, demand for L. circinnatum stems supplied a global market worth over US$26.3 million (in 2020) and over a billion stems per year. L. circinnatum resource management and cultivation are required to sustain the trade at this level. Better supply chain transparency (SCT) is also needed, particularly in the USA, the major importing country for this basketry (67% of exports in 2020). Implementation of the 2000 USA Indian Arts and Crafts Enforcement would improve SCT and simultaneously benefit basket producers in both the USA and Indonesia.

Black ash (Fraxinus nigra Marsh.) plays a central role in several Native American teachings (including a Wabanaki creation story) and has long been used for basketry, yet relatively little is known about the species' ecology. The recent and ongoing invasion of emerald ash borer (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire), an invasive beetle killing millions of ash trees in eastern North America, threatens the future of black ash and the centuries-old basketry tradition. In recognition of the precarious state of this cultural keystone species, basketmakers, basket-tree harvesters, and researchers assembled to discuss traditional ecological knowledge and research advancements related to black ash. Here we provide an overview of basket-quality ash, synthesize current knowledge of black ash biology and ecology, and report findings from this successful tribal and scientific collaboration. Management recommendations were developed and future research needs outlined in hopes of sustaining an ecologically important tree species and maintaining a Native American tradition that has cultural and spiritual significance.

Sustainability science focuses on generating and applying knowledge to environmentally sound human development around the world. It requires working toward greater integration of different types of knowledge, ways of knowing, and between academy and society. We contribute to the development of approaches for learning from indigenous knowledge, through enhanced understanding of the system of values, meanings, and relationships afforded by indigenous arts. We focus on a long-term, participatory action research project developed for the revitalization of weaving knowledge among three Kawaiwete (also known as Kaiabi) indigenous groups in the Amazon. The problem was originally defined by indigenous communities, concerned with the erosion of weaving knowledge of basketry and textiles among men and women. Methods for coproduction of knowledge included dialogical methods and tools, indigenous-led strategies, and quantitative and qualitative approaches across biophysical and social sciences. Longitudinal and cross-sectional studies considered multiple dimensions, scales, and networks of knowledge creation, distribution, and transmission. Innovation and articulation with western systems, along with shamanism, gender, and leadership, were key factors enhancing artistic knowledge resilience. We reflect on lessons learned and implications of this initiative for broadening the understanding of art and science intersections toward a sustainable future.

Basketry, matting and cordage were part of the material culture of past societies, but usually in most cases these materials are poorly preserved, unless special conditions like waterlogging, desiccation or salt play a key role in the depositional environment. This paper presents such a case study, dealing with the detailed analysis of a twilled burial mat fragment originating from the Kitova mound (second century ad -first half of third century ad ) – a tumulus situated in eastern Thrace, Bulgaria. The reduced oxygen conditions inside the burial mound and the contact with metal corrosion products ensured the remarkable preservation of plant material forming the mat in a desiccated state and allowed the application of an integrated set of analytical techniques. This instrumental approach combined Light Microscopy (LM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). The matting technique was identified, being diagonal twilling, and the presence of spiny rush ( Juncus acutus ) as the raw material chosen for weaving the mat was confirmed; a possible local origin of the matting plants was suggested. It targeted the technological and taxonomical identification of the studied mat fragment and its archaeological interpretation. The design of this study remains flexible and could be successfully applied to archaeological basketry remains across different periods and geographical regions.