Marabu Journal | Entry Two
Honouring the unseen fathers of tradition.
On Father’s Day, we often honour the men who raised us. But what about the men who raise something else, a lineage of making, a way of life that is quietly disappearing?
We met one such man in Madurai, sitting in front of his wheel, sunlight catching the fine lines on his face. A potter. An artisan. A father. He smiled as he spoke of clay, as if it were an old friend.
He greeted us with a quiet nod, his hands still dusted with the morning's work. His fingers, darkened by clay and time, moved with the ease of someone who had done this his whole life and still found grace in the doing.
He told us how he learned the craft from his father, who learned it from his. How the wheel once spun in every home. How clay was enough to build a life. Today, the work continues but the buyers are fewer, the margins tighter, the respect for the craft, fading.
“We don’t know if the next generation will keep doing this. But I keep going. Because someone has to", he said quietly.
When crafts like this are lost, it’s not just tradition that disappears; it’s income, dignity, and intergenerational stability. Artisan families who once sustained themselves through handmade work are now forced to leave ancestral villages for uncertain jobs in cities, far from the scent of wet clay and the rhythm of the wheel. As the demand for fast, mass-produced goods rises, the slow art of making and shaping beauty by hand becomes economically invisible.
The result? A cultural economy that no longer supports its culture-bearers.
This is the quiet reality of many artisans, keepers of generational knowledge, preserving traditions that rarely make it into the spotlight. Their work is intricate. Meaningful. Spiritual, even. And yet, it often goes unseen.
We’ve witnessed this firsthand at Marabu. We don’t just celebrate the object.
We honour the hands behind it. Because craft is not just a product, it’s a life. A legacy.
We believe culture should not just be preserved and supported. Every sacred object we create helps keep a maker’s hands at work, a tradition alive, a livelihood intact.
This Father’s Day, we honour more than parenthood.
We honour stewardship. The kind that moves through hands, through practice, through time.
To all the fathers of tradition, of craft, of quiet resilience - we see you.