Women of Tilonia and The Barefoot College

My friend Pam sent me this video entitled "Women of Tilonia":

She knows how much I love ralli quilts and the video shows two women preparing a quilt top for appliqué.


"Wish I could sit like that..." I thought, as I watched the video. Then, I realized I had no idea where Tilonia was. Tilonia? Well, I googled and followed links and was amazed to read on about this place in Rajasthan, India, which hosts the novel concept of a Barefoot College.


This is how they describe themselves:

"The Barefoot College is a place of learning and unlearning. It's a place where the teacher is the learner and the learner is the teacher. It's a place where NO degrees and certificates are given because in development there are no experts-only resource persons. It's a place where people are encouraged to make mistakes so that they can learn humility, curiosity, the courage to take risks, to innovate, to improvise and to constantly experiment. It's a place where all are treated as equals and there is no hierarchy.

So long as the process leads to the good and welfare of all; so long as problems of discrimination, injustice, exploitation and inequalities are addressed directly or indirectly; so long as the poor, the deprived and the dispossessed feel its a place they can talk, be heard with dignity and respect, be trained and be given the tools and the skills to improve their own lives the immediate relevance of the Barefoot College to the global poor will always be there."

The college has a focus on handicrafts with workshops in embroidery, sewing, block printing, furniture making, and other traditional crafts.


These are natural extensions of Rajasthan's rich history in all of these crafts. Friends of Tilonia was established to help market the handicrafts:
"Friends of Tilonia, Inc. is a US-based, 501(c)3 non-profit organization established to provide marketing and business development assistance to the crafts section of the Barefoot College, in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India. For more than 35 years, the Barefoot College has been working to address basic needs of the rural poor: water, health, education, energy and employment, while enrolling individuals in the processes that govern their lives.
In 1975, the lack of employment in the villages in Rajasthan forced many of the rural poor to migrate to the cities. While largely an agricultural area, many of the poor in the region were artisans engaged in various crafts. Lacking access to a broader market, these rural artisans abandoned, and still continue today to abandon their trades to seek other, more gainful means of livelihood.
The Barefoot College began promoting rural craft production to address this problem of under-employment. Assistance in improving designs and techniques, creation of marketing outlets, and access to credit have helped to restore and create new income opportunities for craftsmen and women. Training and materials provided by the College also enables women to work from home, helping them to generate income from their needlework or other handicrafts."
Their beautiful website showcases the products made by these artisans as well as photos of the producers, such as the ones I have used in this post. But, the college goes way beyond these efforts and its geographical location. They are tackling issues of malnutrition, illiteracy, health, solar power and many other fundamentals of survival most rural poor face around the world.

Then, I watched this video:

The First Women Barefoot Solar Engineers Of The World

I was absolutely floored! They are bringing rural, illiterate, middle aged women from around the world to live in Tilonia for six months to become solar engineers! As they do not share a common language, all the training is done through drawings and color coding. You have to watch the video to really understand the amazing strategy and potential impact this program has on the participants and the villages they represent.

When I was in college, I learned about Paulo Freire, a Brazilian educator who revolutionized the concept of learning, especially when working with literacy and the poor. Wikipedia states:
"More challenging is Freire's strong aversion to the teacher-student dichotomy. This dichotomy is admitted in Rousseau and constrained in Dewey, but Freire comes close to insisting that it should be completely abolished. This is hard to imagine in absolute terms, since there must be some enactment of the teacher-student relationship in the parent-child relationship, but what Freire suggests is that a deep reciprocity be inserted into our notions of teacher and student. Freire wants us to think in terms of teacher-student and student-teacher - that is, a teacher who learns and a learner who teaches - as the basic roles of classroom participation."

The Barefoot College is Freire's dream come true! What a wonderful model this place is for all who are interested in empowering the disenfranchised. When I see programs like this, my hope for the future is renewed. If you are looking for an organization to support, I would say that any support given here is money well spent.

Women of Tilonia and The Barefoot College

Turkish Textile Arts in Transition: A Sisterhood of Weavers

by Catherine Salter Bayar
Catherine is a regular contributor to Fiber Focus.
Click on her name to see all of her posts on one page.

My mother-in-law, doing a handcraft that she and I share – knitting

Long before I moved to Turkey in 1999, the manufacturing of hand woven rugs had begun to move out of this country to nations farther east, where labor and production costs were cheaper. I’d been familiar with this economic market reality as I traveled the world for the garment industry, which is in constant search of cheaper countries to manufacture clothing. In the same way, Turkish rug wholesalers took their production of hand woven rugs for the tourism trade or export to countries such as Pakistan or China, while mass producing machine-made carpets in Western and Central Turkey for use in the modern Turkish household. The cost of hand weaving in countries to the East is roughly a third of the cost of weaving a rug in Turkey, East or West.

My mother-in-law’s generation used to weave, but she is in her sixties now. She and her sisters had to weave if they wanted functional or decorative textiles for their homes. Weaving was not only utilitarian, but social as well. When girls and women wove for their dowries and households, they would gather together in the afternoons after their farm chores were completed. My mother-in-law wove the kilim, below, on a narrow, easily transportable loom, in four long strips of 17” (42 cm) wide cloth, embroidered together with wool yarn.

This entirely wool piece would have taken her at least 6 months of afternoons to complete. She used the natural dyes of madder red and indigo blue to bring prosperity and protection; the triangles represent the mountains that encircle their childhood town of Derik, in the eastern province of Mardin. It was used to drape the horse her sister rode to her wedding, and then as a bedcover. The numerous fabric strips tied to the bottom, below, are ‘wishes’ from each woman in the family for a healthy, happy, abundant life for the newly married couple.

My mother-in-law thinks it’s quite absurd that we have kilims she and her sisters wove in our shop. She sees little value or beauty in them at all, and has often teased me about the threadbare but exquisitely striped kilim I insist on keeping in our bedroom, below. Perhaps someday I’ll get that big hole repaired by one of the expert reweavers here, all men for some reason, who can make it look like new, but to me it’s already perfect. I like seeing it just this way as I get out of bed each morning, as a reminder of a time when a woman would spend perhaps an entire afternoon per 1/2 inch of this finely spun wool kilim, about 3 feet wide by 5 feet long; a woman who obviously took joy in combining such bright reds, oranges, pinks, chartreuse and periwinkle. This piece was given to us by the family in Abit’s home village in Eastern Turkey. They were cleaning out storerooms and would have thrown it away! Abit gave his aunt $200 for several kilims she was discarding; she clearly thought he was foolish to give her good money for them. Word of the ‘big spender’ from the West got around the village. The next day, numerous relatives showed up with their cast-offs, amused that the boy who’d left more than 20 years ago was now making a living selling these old useless things.

These days, the easy-care machine made polyester/cotton textiles for cushions and bedding plus wool and synthetic carpets being churned out by factories all over Turkey are the preferred house wares of the Turkish middle classes (behind and beneath my bread-making sisters-in-law, below). Turkey grows its own cotton and is still predominately an agricultural country, so the wool gathered from sheep and goats now goes more to urban factories than it stays in the villages. These textiles are targeted at the domestic market, so reflect the color combinations and patterns of vintage hand woven pieces, but are prized for being modern and machine washable.

None of my seven sisters-in-law weaves, unless you count the sister who asked to be sent to a local government-run program that trains women in the art. She and I had begun collaborating on carpets of our own design, but the family decided that she should move East to marry and raise a family rather than stay in Selcuk and work for us. I know she does not regret having the adorable children in the photo below, but she does miss the chance to express her originality and talent through weaving. It is still common for women in Cappadocia in Central Turkey or in East to work at home weaving for various manufacturers. They are usually paid by the piece, though it cannot be much money for their labor based on the wholesale prices of new goods. No wholesaler would divulge how much the women make, another reason we don’t sell new rugs in our business.

My husband’s family is traditional and typical for Eastern Turkey even though they have lived in this Aegean region town since 1985. The girls are expected to be homemakers and mothers, and if they must work, they do so together in the fields and orchards, picking crops such as cotton or peaches. Abit and I do not agree with these limitations and have had countless discussions with the family, to no avail. However, most girls in Selcuk complete mandatory schooling by the age of 16, and many go on to universities. Our town is filled with women in business, medicine, law and service occupations in percentages that are similar to Eastern European countries.

A portable loom for small rugs less than a meter (39”) wide.

The majority of women schooled in hand weaving today in Western Turkey work in ‘carpet villages’, traditional style complexes to which the tour companies take captive busloads of tourists to demonstrate how rugs are made. They make for a good show of the craft, but little do the tourists realize that most of the rugs they are being shown and sold were woven far from here, in countries with fewer regulations about child labor and fair wage laws. Most carpet villages near Selcuk pay their workers – male sellers and female weavers – a salary, not in commissions or by the piece. They usually do get healthcare and other benefits, including meals and transportation to their jobs, and work regular 8-hour days, though often 6-7 days a week during the tourist season from April to October and far fewer days in winter.

A former carpet village of traditional style buildings near Selcuk.
The looms are dismantled, but colored yarns still hanging from the rafters.

The pieces hand woven today by manufacturers have been ‘merchandised’ to cater to the buying tastes of the visitors. Traditional color combinations of reds and blues are replaced by more subtle Westernized palettes of pastels or earth tone combinations. Unlike in the West, where rugs woven in undyed natural wool colors of off-whites, browns and blacks would fit in well with most home décor, these ‘drab’ pieces would have been pitied in a Turkish village. It would have been assumed that the family did not have the skills or money to gather dyestuffs or purchase them in the local market. The traditional long, narrow rugs to fit a Turkish living room are now woven instead in standard sizes revised to reflect room proportions in Western homes. What in the West would be used as hallway runners, for instance, would have been attached to the lower walls of a Turkish salon to comfort the backs of those seated around the room on low cushions.

The predominant art of the Turkish culture, the art that has survived centuries of population migrations, the art truly inclusive and expressive of women’s emotions, desires and creativity, has been hijacked by mass commerce. This is not a story unique to Turkey of course; as countries modernize and mechanize, traditional handcrafts are less prized by the culture and fade away. Beyond the tourism-driven carpet villages, there are groups of entrepreneurs in Turkey who want to sustain traditional hand crafts and offer women the alternative to support themselves though weaving, but these enterprises may never create the same works as a woman who is weaving from her soul would.

A strictly-for-commerce ‘new’ piece that combines multiple portions of old prayer rugs – a creative way to reinvent authentic carpets, but sold for thousands of Euros – as seen in the window of one of the most expensive carpet shops in Sultanahmet.

Has the art of weaving been completely lost to commerce here? Not quite yet, but with women no longer weaving for themselves and shopping hordes of tourists in the tight control of tour conglomerates, businesses like ours have fewer authentically Turkish-made alternatives to offer our visitors. And the uniquely expressive voices of our sisters, the weavers, are being silenced.



Catherine Salter Bayar lives with her husband Abit in Selcuk, near Ephesus, Turkey, where they own a vintage textile shop and a water pipe & wine bar.

Visit them at www.bazaarbayar.com or www.bazaarbayar.etsy.com.

This article is a companion one to Turkish Textile Arts in Transition: A Brotherhood of Carpet Sellers

Turkish Textile Arts in Transition: A Sisterhood of Weavers

Our Feathered Friends: Wear Them or Free Them?

It all started with Charlie (named after my brother who is a pilot), my little one-legged, parakeet. I had no control over the heat in my apartment in Chicago, so even on the coldest days, I had a couple of windows cracked open a bit. Charlie flew in through the kitchen window on a frigid winter day. Mitchie, my dog, cornered him. I knew nothing about caring for birds, so I got Charlie a cage, bought him some food, went online and read about parakeets. I took him to the gallery. Soon, one of our customers who knew a lot about birds, brought Charlie a companion. Then she brought two more. I got a bigger cage. She brought a box and told me to put it in the cage. Babies came. Another customer was moving and had a cockatiel with a broken wing, Pecky. She couldn't take him. Did I want him? Pecky was 14 years old at the time. Sure, why not? So, Pecky came. The bird lady felt sorry for him and brought a young female. The female turned out to be a male, Sebastian. Without ever intending to, I now have 9 parakeets (I took the box out. Enough is enough!) and two cockatiels. Although I feel a bit weird about having birds in captivity, none of these would survive in the wild. And, it seems like we will have to put most Nature behind bars to keep it alive.

The birds molt and drop feathers, which got me to thinking about how feathers have been used throughout history in adornments, clothing, and art. Feathers have had a central place in native ceremonial costumes and ornaments for centuries. Theresa Mitopoulou has a good article on The Decoration of the Head with Feathers that illustrates how feathers have been used throughout history and in different cultures. The photo at the left, for example, is from the Mexico City Museum of Anthropology of an Aztec head gear for emperors and priests. It was made with tail feathers of one hundred male quetzal birds, the national bird of Guatemala. She states, "The arrangement of the colored feathers had astronomic and calendar meaning." I found a traveler who photographed a Hawaiian cape he saw at a museum:


He said that it took five years to gather the feathers and another seven to sew them into the cape. He didn't state where he took this photo, but Sothebys has a similar one from the collection of the Niagara Falls Museum, estimated in worth at over $250,000.

The British Museum states that capes were made for Hawaiian and Polynesian nobility. They were used in ceremonies and in battle and many were gifted in the early 1800's to sea captains and their crews, the earliest outside explorers to the region.

James W. Reid wrote a book, Magic Feathers, Textile Art from Ancient Peru, which is illustrated with beautiful Nazca capes and details on the feathers and techniques used in the region.

Pathways to the Sun
Nazca culture, south coast of Peru, c. 400-800 AD
97 x 76 cm, cotton with applied feathers

The famous photographer, Edward Curtis, was the first to comprehensively document the life of Native Americans in the late 1800's. This photo of a Nez Pierce man with his head dress was exhibited at the Hall of American Indian Collection in the Hotel Astor.
Curtis and other photographers captured the public's imagination. The Bald Eagle had been chosen as the symbol of freedom and became the national bird in 1782. To Native Americans, the eagle is a messenger to the creator and represents endurance. In all of the United States, the eagle and its feathers were treasured. As the media developed, it made its way into books, magazines, then later in movies.

Bird Lady by Cristina Mittermeir
Highlands performer wearing a headdress made with the feathers of the superb bird of paradise. Highlands sing-sing, Papua New Guinea.

To this day, native people around the world continue to use feathers in ceremonies and dress. The Huli warriors of Papua New Guinea are often photographed for their bright face paint and costumes, feathers topping off their beautiful ensemble. Struggling to maintain identity in the face of a globalized world, these groups often are reduced to objects of tourism, but other efforts also seek to both honor and protect them. The above photo, for example, is available for purchase through Art for Conservation, an organization promoting grassroots conservation initiatives.

The fashion industry, of course, also has had a long history with feathers.

Marlene Dietrich wearing a feathered hat.

Victorian hats sported huge ostrich feathers and other exotic feathers continued to adorn hats and clothing through the 1950's. The following catalog is from a 1901 New York Millinery supply company, Fancy Feathers.

Smithsonian Institution Libraries

At some point, demand for all these feathers started creating shortages. Think of the demise of the passenger pigeon. Once the most populous bird in North America, five BILLION birds were killed off between 1870 and 1890. (Wikipedia) They had a high fat content that was used for cooking oil and to light Eastern street lamps. The last passenger pigeon died in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1914. Demand for bird feathers is not only ornamental, but also functional. Down feathers were and are still used for pillows and bedding. People started to worry and speaking up. Societies and organizations were formed. The National Audubon Society started publishing their Audubon Magazine in the 1880's, about the same time the passenger pigeon was getting killed off.

But, the attraction for feathers is powerful and we still continue to use them in our art and in our fashion. Handbags by Daphne offers this peacock feather bag for $85:

Jean Paul Gautier's wild feather dress was dubbed "Miss Turkey" by fellow blogger, Chanteuse. It's something else, isn't it?


So, there is that famous saying that "birds of a feather flock together"... Actually, we are destroying these feathered friends habitats all over the world. More and more, the chance for their survival will be as pets. Some African Grey parrots have become famous for how much they can learn, how cute they are and for their performance abilities. Here is Einstein performing on a TV show:



Menino, a Brazilian parrot, sings opera. My dogs came to watch him when I was playing his video:



And, Cody, a beautiful macaw, likes to be blow dried after his shower:



As with all of our natural resources, animal and plant life, care for these creatures and their feathers is in order. However, feathers are a renewable material. They do fall off naturally and birds do die. There is at least one organization that distributes molted feathers. Wingwise works specifically with Pueblo Indians and donates collected feathers for ceremonial purposes. Unfotunately, they have such a huge backlog of requests, that no new requests are taken at this time. The San Ildefonso girl at the left is wearing donated macaw feathers in her head dress.

It seems to me that this is really the solution for those of us who would like to continue to use feathers in art or garments. Bird sanctuaries, zoos, and pet owners should come together in some kind of a distribution system.

I also found some interesting trends in the green textile industry which is working on a fabric they are calling "chicken wool". The Independent reported that millions of tons of chicken feathers from chickens who are processed for the food market are disposed of yearly. They are working on a fabric which they consider will be superior to wool. Who knows what the next new trends will bring? We can only hope that they will address the needs of our fair feathered friends. Should we continue to wear them? Should they be freed from their cages and returned to the wild? Each of us has to answer these questions for ourselves. I know that my little companions wouldn't have a chance out there, so they are going to stay here. And, if any of you out there want some little parakeet feathers saved up for you, let me know and I'll start an envelope for you!



History repeats itself, but the special call of an art which has
passed away is never reproduced. It is as utterly gone out of the
world as the song of a destroyed wild bird.

-Joseph Conrad

Our Feathered Friends: Wear Them or Free Them?

Ralli Quilts: The Book & New Arrivals on Rayela Art

Sold

I wrote a post early on about how I fell in love with ralli quilts, patchwork and appliqué quilts from Pakistan and India. I have been buying as many as I can afford and have a bunch of new ones available for sale in my Etsy store and a couple on eBay. They arrive filthy and I machine wash them in a big industrial washer at the laundromat, testing to see if they will fall apart. Most are between 20-50 years old, ranging in price from $60-$200, depending on the workmanship, condition and how much I paid for them. All the ralli photos in this post are ones that I recently posted. Click on the image and it will take you to the listing with more photos, dimensions, price and other info.

I also purchased the book, Ralli Quilts by Patricia Ormsby Stoddard. This is THE resource for ralli quilts, comprehensive in documentation of photos, techniques, symbolism and historical roots. I believe that ralli quilts will be the next Quilts of Gee's Bend craze. They have the same organic, spontaneous, naive appeal that brought so much attention to the women of Alabama.

I have not had time to read the book in depth, but would like to highlight some interesting ralli info Patricia Ormsby Stoddard speaks about in her book. The intro itself is fascinating as Patricia describes her trip into the harsh and remote areas where the quilts are found:

"We were accompanied by Pakistani friends and a police escort. I'm sure our arrival was quite an occasion in some of the small villages where we stopped. In one place, a woman asked, through a translator, where we were from. I answered, "America," and she asked "What's that?" Later, I thought maybe I should have said Islamabad or just a city north of here. With little transportation or knowledge of the outside, her world was only the limited area she knew." (page 6)

She continues,
"As I traveled throughout the ralli region, I, a stranger, was greeted warmly by the women. Their willingness to share their quilting tradition and handiwork was obvious. Their smiles came quickly. Their flair for color is obvious in their work. They painstakingly continue the textile crafts that has been handed down for generations. They carefully form patterns and symbols from cloth, some simple and some complex. The women making these quilts rely on their own memories and the memories of their mothers and older women to teach them the patterns. They do not use paper or any tools to make their patterns. I remember on one occasion giving a woman a pencil so she could draw a picture of a pattern she was trying to explain. She apparently had never used a pencil and just made a big circle on the paper. The ralli compositions are in the women's minds and memories and they execute them with great skill in needlework." (page 7)

When I read this, I thought, "Oh, my..." I always sketch out what I am going to do to at least have a general idea of where I am going in my quilts. I can understand having a pretty simple image in your head, but in some of the more complex ones, I would have gotten completely lost if I were doing it. On the other hand, others, uh, could use some guidance... Some of the ralli quilts I have purchased have been pretty shocking in the fabric selection or choice of colors, but somehow this also adds to the freshness of it all.

Patricia describes the village life of the different areas she visited. Here is an excerpt from her visit to Kutch, an area which is extremely rich in wonderful textiles besides the ralli quilts:
"The women take care of the house and children and may sell embroidery to add to the family income. Textiles are part of the family treasures. Using quilting, appliqué and embroidery to decorate, the women make quilts and quilt covers, pillows and bags as well as clothing. Women wear tightly fitted, brightly embroidered blouses with full skirts made from ten to twelve meters of cloth and a shawl (odhani). Interestingly, embroidery is prized for its beauty and commercial value but quilts symbolize a family's social position and wealth. Quilts are often seen inside homes piled neatly on tables or chests, sometimes with a special quilted or embroidered cover." (page 25)

My favorite quilts from the ones I have are cotton that have been dyed with what I thought were veggie dyes. Apparently, these are chemical dyes that are available in local markets, but that are not very good and fade over time, a quality which I personally find attractive. I like the softness that time gives the colors. Patricia talks about the history of dyeing and how there is now a resurgence in using veggie techniques again. (page 40)


When the ralli has been assembled and is ready for the quilting stage, the quilter invites the other women from neighboring houses for a "rallee-vijhanu". (page 43) Each woman stitches at least one line to help keep the quilt together, normally a whole morning's activity. Then, the quilter finishes it herself, filling in the quilting between the larger spaces the other women worked on. She will also contribute her time when another neighbor needs help getting her ralli finished. This is such a nice touch, reminiscent of our own historical quilting bees, where a whole community is reflected in one piece.
Patricia has an extensive section in the book that traces ralli designs to ancient pottery shards of the region. She states that the checkerboard patterns are common in both pottery and quilts. (page 118)

Newer quilts, from the 1970's on use fabrics that are colorfast, including rayon, polyester, silk and other synthetics. These can be very bright and bright in color value. Intricate quilts are made for weddings and other special occasions, while simpler ones, using whole cloth or larger pieces of fabric, are for every day use.

Sold

Often times, they are made of worn shawls that have pieces that can be salvaged or commercial fabrics which may be over-dyed.

Ralli Quilts has an extensive section dedicated to appliqué techniques used in different regions. Some are absolutely stunning in their intricacy, almost looking like lace. I have not been able to get any of the good ones, but have one simple quilt available that is at least a sample of that style. The workmanship on it is not the best, which probably means it was made by an older woman with poor eyesight or a young one, just learning. There are many efforts out there which try to help widows and older women use their sewing skills for extra income.
My hope is that these quilts will someday achieve the recognition they deserve and truly become a source of real income for these women, many of whom are extremely poor. This is always the pleasure for me, in working with these textiles- the knowledge that we can help create and sustain a market for people who still live connected to both the earth and to each other, whether they are here in our own neighborhood or in a remote village in Ralli Land.

Ralli Quilts: The Book & New Arrivals on Rayela Art

Huichol Yarn Paintings: Visions Destroyed by Poison

copyright © 1975, yarn painting by Tutukila Carrillo / photo by Lloyd Patrick Baker

We normally think of using yarn to knit, crochet, or weave into garments, bags, rugs, hats, mittens, and other functional objects. The Huichol of Mexico, however, use it to "paint" sacred images that are connected with their Spiritual life. The yarn paintings evolved from making images from found objects (shells, nuts, twigs, etc.) and pressing them into a mixture of pine resin and beeswax. The first major exhibit of yarn paintings was held in 1962 in Guadalajara with simple images. (Wikipedia) Since then, especially Huichol who have migrated to the cities, the technique has been elevated to an elaborate art form with distinguished artists selling their work for several hundreds of dollars.

Wikipedia map of Huichol area

The Huichol refer to themselves as Wixáritari ("the people") in their native language. (Wikipedia) An estimated 7,000 remain in their native lands in the Sierra Madre, while another 13,000 have migrated to other parts of Mexico. The terrain in the mountains is rugged and difficult to traverse. This has meant a difficult life for the Huichol in eeking out a livelihood from poor soil, but it has also been the reason for them maintaining their culture and belief system intact for so many centuries.

Huichol homeland terrain, photo courtesy of the Huichol Center

The Huichol practice a peyote-based religion of ancestor worship that is centered on nature. Juan Negrin writes:

"The story of the Creation of the World chronicles the manner in which the ancestors emerged from an amorphous existence in darkness to find the way to light and harmonious life. Having accomplished their designs, the ancestors died physically. Following the ways of the ancestors involves the women preparing food, sweeping, weaving and caring for the young, while the men work in the fields, collect wood, build thatch roof silos and houses for the ancestors, and hunt the deer. It also involves invoking the god-Ancestors and reenacting their feats in drama-filled celebrations and pilgrimages to the five points of the earth: the center and the four corners. Through this ritualistic lifestyle, repeating timeless actions and actually impersonating the ancestors, the Huichol attempt to establish a direct relationship with the animistic spirits of nature which are none other than their Ancestors. This philosophy of life culminates eventually in death, when the wise join the pantheon of the Ancestors, becoming spirit allies and guides for their descendants.

The manifestations of the Ancestors are concrete and take such forms as earth, sun, fire, water, wind, corn, deer, rivers and rocks. The Ancestors give life and sustenance to the Huichol, while the Indian renews the powers of the Ancestors by his ritualistic conduct. The traditional way draws past and future together in an unbounded present that is a never-ending process of creation. What is here now existed before the world was created, only it now has a form and an identity supported by the activity of man in his symbiotic partnership with the ancestor spirits."

Indigo Arts Gallery: Peyote Mother (#JBS13)
Huichol yarn painting by Jose Benitez Sanchez, Nayarit, Mexico, c. 2005, $235

The Huichol are as colorful in their dress as reflected in their paintings. The following three photos are courtesy of The Huichol Center's archives, an organization dedicated to providing the Huichol with social services, health care, literacy and empowerment:

Huichol Shaman

Huichol Peyote Face Painting Ceremony

Huichol children

Wikipedia photo of woman and child

The Huichol are adept at many other forms of textile arts. They weave, sew, embroider, decorating their surroundings and clothing with bright, colorful motifs, much of which incorporates religious symbolism in the same way, although in a simplified version, as the yarn paintings. I have noticed that many cultures around the world who live in difficult, arid terrain work in these bright colors, while many forest peoples work with an earthier color palette. Perhaps this is one way to balance out the lack of or over abundance of color in Nature. Many of the Huichol crafts have found their way to the tourist market or to retail outlets who strive to help theml earn income in this way. Hands Around the World works closely with Huichol families and market dolls like the one in the photo, as well as beaded work (also embedded in bees wax and pine resin) and many other crafts. Indigo Arts Gallery is a gorgeous site with ethnic art from around the world. They sell top quality yarn paintings, portraying each Huichol artist with sensitivity and a good history on both the item and artist. The piece below and one earlier in the article are two examples of the beautiful work they have available.

Indigo Arts Gallery: Peyote Ceremony in the Sacred Land of Wirikuta (#MRC11)
Huichol yarn painting by Maximino Renteria de la Cruz,
Nayarit, Mexico, c. 2006 $4,200

Unfortunately, life for the Huichol, is not as bright and colorful as their paintings and art. All of these attempts at marketing their work has not brought in enough income to bring them out of poverty. So, many Huichol leave the Sierra Madre Occidental for periods where they will work as cheap labor in tobacco fields. The following video explains what happens:



These people are being poisoned, plain and simple. Pesticides that are illegal in the United States are used openly by companies in Mexico and other developing countries. The Huichol and other laborers are given no protection or guidance in how to use them. They are dropping dead. Like so many indigenous groups around the world, these people are considered expendable. The Huichol Center for Cultural Survival and Traditional Arts identifies the problems facing the Huichol in detail. They also have instituted viable options to combat these problems. The Center is requesting help from the International community to help them achieve the goals they have of literacy, increase job opportunities in the Huichol lands, promote sustainable agriculture, and, above all, that the Huichol achieve recognition as part of the "First People" movement, where indigenous groups receive government recognition as a people who need to be protected from the intrusions of modern development.

As Susana Valadez from the Huichol Center states, "It is sad to think that this viable living culture might soon be converted into remnants under glass at the local museum..."

More Huichol crafts available at the Singing Shaman Traders.

Huichol Yarn Paintings: Visions Destroyed by Poison