Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Journal Title

Journal of Textile Design, Research and Practice

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Abstract

This paper proposes an approach to the color red as a central consideration in cloth making in the southern Philippines where thread is made from abaca (Musa textilis), a historically and economically significant plant in the banana family. It focuses on red dye derived from the root of the Morinda plant (Morinda citrifolia) and how it is utilized and theorized, both pragmatically and metaphorically, by indigenous women of Mindanao. Drawing on research that relies on ethnographic fieldwork and informed by early 20th century American museum collecting during a time of pacification, this paper frames a phenomenological query using mixed methods in order to formulate an evidence-based understanding of a color and its meanings. By exploring indigenous ways of thinking about cloth and color as expressed in concrete textile practices and not limited to the hyperlocal, this study also seeks to contribute to our understanding of how contemporary meanings associated with color are generated and transformed. This inquiry also points to how studies of indigo blue applied to cotton ikat cloth elsewhere in insular Southeast Asia can potentially provide insights into the aesthetics of colored cloth

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