The Story

In 2014, I was determined to learn tatreez, Palestinian cross stitch embroidery. I went on a mission to find a teacher, asking Khaltos and Sittis in the Bay Area community if they could teach me. I was turned down and told to focus on my education. Many explained that it took too much time and wasn’t worth all the labor. I felt heartbroken and defeated.

When I was sixteen I approached my Taita and asked her if she could teach me. She shamefully looked down at the ground and explained she did not know how to tatreez due to ethnic erasure and poverty, but her mother did. Unfortunately, this art form died with her in exile, severing our connection to the land and the thread.

I began reading books to learn about the art and eventually found myself collecting antique thobes. I discovered that the majority of our cultural regalia was owned and sold by white-European and Israeli antique collectors.

In 2024, I held my first exhibit in San Diego at the Annual Palestine Lawn Program, showcasing thobes from Gaza and educating the public on preserving and protecting this art form. I watched Palestinian men and women weep as they traced their fingers over the threads in remembrance and longing. Reconnecting to the past and looking forward to the future.

I was called to mend this ancestral wound, and by December 2024, Tantura was born—the same month my Taita and I were born.