intention
In offering The Hive, it comes with a desire reclaim the voice, action and way of our people.To provide resource in the purpose of ensuring the preservation of our ancient way.To find forgiveness, offer love and facilitate space for reconnection for our Western born of the East and our unspoken narrative growing up.
It is from those reckoning origins and empowerment in the reclamation of my culture, that I pursue this with a heart on fire.
While very much being an offering of tea, her interwoven relationship to the ancient cultures of Asia are something that are inherent. It is within my greatest intention for the Hive to exist in service of these ancient cultures and the traditional customs that possess the embodied understanding that has informed the way our cultures move through the world today. I intend to share their way and story to weave the connection of our ancient cultures into the hearts of the present.
The Hive is in service to the preservation of the ancient way, through the art, musings and wisdom of tea in ceremony.
Húng & Yen
Huong & Yen are some dear friends of mine residing in the North of Vietnam, very much students of the middle way- Spending their Autumn & Springs producing tea in the deep mountain range of Tay Con Linh, whilst managing a teahouse in the city in the off-season.
They produce of our First Kiss, Vespertine’s Dream, Gentle Emptiness, Long Forgotten Mind & Way of the Wind tea.
Huong & Yen are passionate wild tea producers, and by extension committed to ensuring the preservation of local indigenous lifestyle atop Tay Con Linh Mountain. This includes the preservation of the local ecology through the manual growth, harvesting and production of tea exclusively from the old arbour trees in the region, through a specific few families that reside in the region. This is to ensure quality control, and the certainty of agrochemical-free productions.
They produce tea within a local village, which goes without name, home to no more than 15 families and one of the most beautiful sunsets one could lay eyes on.
Due to region’s prone tendency for landslides, Huong & Yen are the sole producers with a facility on the this side of Tay Con Linh Mountain.
Both stubborn and proud in their reflections, they would rather risk it to produce quality tea without compromise, than set up at the base of the mountain like their neighbouring producers
Ger, Mu & Mama Si
These are the beautiful women responsible for our Chabu!
From a 3 generation matriarch, Ger is a second generation hemp weaver, textile producer and jewellery maker from Hau Thao village- home to approximately 300 indngeous Black H'Mong people.
I happened upon Ger, her mother and Mu upon a spontenous trip to the North prior to my journey into the deeper north.
Upon arriving at 4am with no further thought in mind, we were greeted at the roadside by these bright, pure eyes of these two women from a neighbouring Black H’mong tribe.
While everybody on the bus scurried for their transportation and accomodation, we met with the presence of these two and entertained brief conversation over a bowl of tea.
They soon asked if we would like to visit their village and take them up on a day of trekking for a more than reasonable fee. Upon our decline, they smiled and gestured to come visit either way.
Without a single thought in mind, or honestly any further foresight of what we were doing here, we took trust in the purity of their eyes and made our way half an hour across the mountain side to their village.
Here, we remained for a week, in the company of elders, children, ducks, dogs and bison. It didn’t take long to dissipate into the village way. Days composed by the simplicity of sunrise & sunset, and the ins and outs of local village dramas. Throughout the day, it was common to see the women trancing out amongst the vasts of clouds and rice fields, creating hemp thread by hand. These days would go on to give life to their traditional garments, artworks and assorted other home decor.
The thought to find a way to have some fabrics for tea made became immediately apparent to me, and upon deepening our connection to the two that brought us here, I approached Ger with this in mind. To which she agreed gleefully.
We now maintain correspondance through the sweetest voice messages and have begun to open the door on new ideas including garments for tea, tea travelling packs & artefacts for the chaxi.
Xon
Xon is a local of the Tay tribe, one of the larger tribes occupying Ha Giang, Vietnam.
He is one of the sole individuals in the region educating on indigenous tea culture and the origins of the Vietnamese. He is a third generation tea producer, specialising in wild large leaf varietals of Camellia Sinensis. Specifically one which he has named the ‘Fairy’ varietal, for their towering yet ethereal presence in the Winter mists at the peak of the mountains he resides.
Over the years, Xon has been generous to welcome me in and teach me more about how to listen to and produce wild tea.
Xon is responsible for our Ever Shifting Light & Dissipation Spells productions.