The Harvest Napkin | Tatreez Linen Dinner Napkin

Created with activist and tatreez educator Samar as part of our Together Project, honouring land and people through the table.

This design carries four embroidered motifs: Nakleh, Ma w Bizr, almonds and apples. Together, they speak to the deeper systems behind what reaches the table: trees, fruit, water, seed, labour, patience, cultivation and harvest. They were chosen not simply as decoration, but as a way to open up conversations around agriculture, food traditions, land and the everyday rituals that continue even through interruption, displacement and loss.

Where one napkin moves through hospitality and gathering, this design leans more closely into what sustains the table in the first place. Nakleh points to fruit-bearing trees and the wider abundance they hold, from dates to mangoes, coconuts and other crops that feed communities across warm lands. Ma w Bizr, meaning water and seeds, honours the foundations of cultivation and livelihood. Almonds speak to the wider nut and orchard traditions shared across these regions, while apple, brings in Kashmir more directly through its orchards and seasonal harvests.

The Together Project began with the table, but quickly moved into agriculture, food traditions and the stories too often overlooked when Palestinian, Kashmiri, Sudanese and Rohingya people are spoken about only through occupation, displacement, war, famine and loss. Those realities matter deeply, but they are not the whole story. Through these napkins, we wanted to hold space for cultivation, resilience, beauty, nourishment and the ways people continue to gather, feed and care for one another.

Each funds one hot meal for someone in need. Because if this project begins at the table, it should help someone else reach one.