Sowing Peace: My Journey with MarketPlace Handwork of India - Vol 5
September 27th, 2025 | By Indira Freitas Johnson, Sculptor, Community Artist & Nonviolence Educator
When I look back on the earliest days of MarketPlace: Handwork of India, gratitude rises to the surface. I was there at the beginning, a founding board member, watching my two determined and creative sisters, Pushpika Freitas and Lalita Monteiro, build something extraordinary. With little more than vision and persistence, they started an organization that used needlecrafts as a lifeline—offering low-income women independence, dignity, and hope for a brighter future.
Over the years, I have seen MarketPlace grow, not just in numbers but in spirit. The women nurtured each other's resourcefulness and built a community stitched together with pride. One project still glows in my memory: painting a mural on the side of their workshop. Each brushstroke carried laughter, stories, and shared ownership. The wall became more than color—it became a collective voice, a visual declaration that beauty belongs in their daily lives.
This year, that same spirit blossomed when the MarketPlace women joined the Ripples for Peace Initiative. With quiet determination, they stitched and painted flags, each bearing a personal promise of action for peace. On International Peace Day this year, their flags will join others from across the world, circling the emerging Buddhas on DuSable Lake Shore Drive—a chorus of voices committed to peace.
This collaboration connects two lifelong threads in my life: art and nonviolence. Growing up in Mumbai, with an artist father and a social-activist mother, I learned the power of creativity intertwined with action. That belief inspired the Ten Thousand Ripples Initiative in Chicago, where one hundred emerging Buddhas sparked reflection, dialogue, and connection across the city.
The MarketPlace women's work reminds me that peace is not abstract. It is lived, stitched, painted, and shared—one ripple at a time. Peace is never the work of one person alone. It is built through countless hands and hearts, each adding color and strength to the fabric of our shared humanity.
—Indira Freitas Johnson | Sculptor, Community Artist and Nonviolence Educator
SHARE WITH THE ARTISANS:
• If you could create a ripple of kindness or change, what would it look like?
• Which small action of yours today could inspire someone else toward peace?
The artisans have answered these questions on their flags. Add to their answers!
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Greetings From Mumbai, & The Start Of Spring 26 Designing! - Vol 5
