Our work of course requires spending some time in the office and meetings, but we most look forward to going into the field because each trip from the city of Iquitos to a forest community is a journey of commitment, empowerment, and purpose.
Our work focuses on supporting local artisans, whose skills and ancestral traditions are an invaluable part of the region's cultural heritage. Buying chambira palm fiber handicrafts made with mastery in these communities gives us a lot of pride. This ethical and fair trade supply chain allows us to give many artisans a sustainable income and promote their work in many corners of the world.
We’d like to share what two veteran artisans say what making crafts and sharing their skills means to them.
Our partner Doilith is a fine artisan and person from the town of Jenaro Herrera on the Ucayali River who has been teaching artisans in other communities for many years how to make beautiful butterflies with chambira.
“My path as an artisan began when I was a little girl when I carefully watched the women in my town work with chambira fiber. As I got older, I learned some of their best techniques and secrets. Sometimes I heard that handicrafts are an expression of our Amazonian culture and a tribute to the nature that surrounds us. I liked that phrase, and I made it part of my life.
In my journey as an artisan, I discovered the importance of teaching and passing my knowledge to new generations. I want to teach them new weaving techniques in each workshop, and I strive to inspire them to love and appreciate the beauty of chambira fiber crafts and that understanding that each piece has cultural and artistic value is essential to keep our tradition alive.
However, on each trip I have also been confronted with the threats facing our Amazonian culture. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in learning about the culture of their town and the impact of deforestation. That is why preserving our Amazonian culture becomes even more crucial.
I believe that any Amazonian artisan has a lot of passion and talent and also has a mission to preserve Amazonian culture and identity. I hope that my teaching and sharing will help our tradition transcend time and stay alive for future generations. In every butterfly we weave, we let fly a little piece of our Amazonian soul to remind the world of the beauty and importance of the Amazon."
Wenceslao is a 35-year-old artisan from the campesino village of San Francisco on the Marañon who specializes in making woven birds. He has recently joined Doilith as one of the Amazon Ecology facilitators who helps leads artisan training workshops in other communities.
“My learning as an artisan began by observing those who knew the most in my community. With patience and dedication, I gradually acquired the necessary skills to work with chambira fiber and shape the birds that inhabit our jungles. I'm still learning, but I think the level I'm at now is the result of years of practice. I believe that crafts are are an important way to reflect our connection with nature.
Teaching and transmitting my knowledge is fundamental to me. Through craft workshops, I share my techniques and, it can be said, secrets with young people and other artisans who are interested in learning. Teaching them gives them the opportunity to improve their skills so they can make and sell better crafts.
These workshops go beyond teaching. They help us establish connections, exchange ideas and strengthen our craft knowledge. Traveling to other communities has allowed me to meet wonderful people with whom I have shared techniques, inspirations and experiences. Each gathering has been enriching and broadened my creative perspective.
My journey through the Amazon communities has also allowed me to learn about the diverse ways of life in other places. Many things are similar, but many others are different. This is so fascinating. These experiences have broadened my horizons and given me a broader vision of the creative possibilities in my work.
My goal for the future is to continue exploring and expanding my art. I want to experiment with new designs while always maintaining the essence and respect for our Amazonian culture. I aspire to create works that reflect the beauty and fragility of Amazonian birds, and convey a message of conservation of our natural environment”.
So friends, these thoughts from Doilith and Wenceslao are a small sample of what our partners say about their life as artisans and artisan teachers. We believe that supporting Amazonian communities is a privilege and a responsibility that Amazon Ecology pursues with passion and commitment. Each journey from the city of Iquitos to native communities is a constant reminder of the importance of preserving and valuing Amazonian culture, empowering artisans, and working together to build a sustainable and equitable future for all.
Thank for your generous gifts that make our work possible. Please support us with a donation on the next GlobalGiving Bonus Day on Wednesday, July 12 when gifts from $100 to $1,000 will qualify for matching funds from 9:00 am until 11:59 pm (EDT) or until these fund
Links:
My name is Pablo. I live in the community of San Francisco on the Marañon River, and I am an artisan. Like many men from my village, however, I grew up hunting. I enjoyed going into the forest and bringing home a paca or peccary for food and sold extra meat to help support my family. In my late 20’s, though, I had to go farther and farther to find game animals and often came back with nothing.
My mother-in-law Elisa wove placemats with chambira palm fiber and sold them to tourists at the Sapi Sapi market in Nauta. I watched her closely and started to help her make them. I then began weaving caiman figures which Elisa also easily sold in the market. I didn’t like the way the feet of my fiber-only caimans flopped about so I started using wire to create a natural bend in their knees.
A year later, artisans from San Francisco convinced the Delfin company to bring tourists to our village to shop for crafts on their way to visit the Pacaya Samiria park. It was good timing because the artisans from Nauta had started charging artisans from other communities to sell their crafts in the Sapi Sapi market. I had steadily improved my woven caimans, but I saw that other artisans were selling more birds and butterflies. The people who made the best ones, though, did not want to teach others how to do it since they thought it would reduce their sales. So, I figured out my own ways to make these critters. Craft sales in the community kept improving after the non-profit group Minga Peru arranged for boats from the high-end Lindblad Explorer to also visit us.
About seven years ago, Amazon Ecology started working with us. Their workshops gave artisans a chance to work together to make new kinds and better quality crafts. I was very happy when they asked me to become a teacher or as they say a facilitator at these gatherings. I fondly remember being a faciltiator for the first time. The feeling of sharing my skills and techniques with others was indescribable. The curiosity in their eyes, enthusiasm for learning and determination to improve was truly inspiring.
As time went on, I realized how much I was growing from these experiences. I had many things in common with my fellow artisans and also broadened my horizons and challenged many preconceptions by working with people with different experiences and perspectives. I learned new weaving techniques and traditional beliefs at every gathering.
I fondly remember the many kind people I met in my travels. The wise ladies who shared their techniques with me and enthusiastic young people who wanted to maintain their ancestors’ traditions all deeply touched me. Their smiles, hospitality and passion for their culture reminded me of the importance of keeping our ancestral heritage alive.
One of my most beautiful memories was being surrounded by a group of artisans at the end of a workshop in a Bora native village near the Ampiyacu River. They showed me the birds they had created with such pride and joy on their faces. I felt so connected and satisfied to see how my teachings meant so much to them. Some artisans have truly become masters in their own communities by adopting and adapting techniques they learned in our workshops and adding their own creative touches. Their passion and dedication will keep our artisan traditions alive.
Showing others to make woven birds has been transformative for me. I have shared my art and received so much. I have grown as an artisan and as a person, increased my respect for cultural diversity and discovered the power of collaboration and sharing knowledge.
As I continue to travel and facilitate these workshops, I know many more positive experiences and new memories await me. I am excited to keep learning from Amazonian people and communities and help preserve our arts traditions.
Links:
Yully started working with the Center for Amazon Community Ecology in 2009 and soon became our field and program coordinator. She has done or helped coordinate every major activity in the forest and communities we have been involved with including research on copal resin, producing essential oil from rosewood leaves, planting chambira palm trees, helping artisans make and sell better quality handicrafts, and leading non-violent communication workshops. She has always been willing to get her hands dirty or her body wet, keep working at a task until it is done, seek creative solutions to tough problems, and deal with her colleagues and our partners with honesty, compassion, and respect. After organizing multiple deliveries of food and medicines to partner villages during the peak of the pandemic, she got very sick from COVID, and then got back to work. As she approaches her 14th year with Amazon Ecology, Tulio asked her to share some of her background and reflections on her work with us in the Peruvian Amazon.
*****
I remember that I met Campbell who was the director of an NGO called CECAMA (Amazon Ecology’s short name in Peru) in July 2009. He was looking for someone to join him to survey the resin on copal trees, and my partner Victor put him in touch with me. I had just returned from a trip as a field assistant to Norwegian students studying aguaje palm forest ecology. When he invited me to participate, I didn't hesitate since the trip involved going to a few native communities along the Ampiyacu River. It would be a great chance to get to know those communities and their people.
While I was studying nursing before college, I had my first contacts with people in rural communities. I began to listen to their stories, and my interest in Amazonian communities was born. I realized that technical nursing was not for me. I wanted to be in the field in communities where I could interact with the people. When I was 26, I decided I needed to study something relevant. I couldn’t afford a private university so my only option was to go to the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP) – the public university in Iquitos. My first choice was to study anthropology, but since UNAP didn’t have this program, I pursued a degree in Agronomy.
Another wonderful experience was having my first daughter. I had to stop my studies for a while, but when I came back, I gave them everything. I started making trips as an assistant for foreign students. I got some field experience, but I still lacked what I most wanted - the chance to get to know Amazonian people.
This brings me back to my first trip with CECAMA.
I made my first trip (and every trip since then) to the Ampiyacu by boat. I had time to talk with Dr. Campbell. I learned he had a PhD in Ecology so I call him “doctor” to this day. In those five days, I met Bora and Huitoto native residents from communities of Puca Urquillo and Brillo Nuevo. We looked for copal trees and resin in the forest, and I saw women artisans do phenomenal things with chambira palm fiber. These experiences inspired me. I said to myself - I want to do this, either with CECAMA, another institution or on my own. I really want this. I want to dedicate myself to this.
I had to wait a few months before Dr. Campbell offered me a job with CECAMA, but I accepted immediately.
I then moved on to another stage of my life of learning hand in hand with artisans. I learned about their family relationships, their economic problems, their daily difficulties, their dreams, and their longings. I learned and trained. I became an expert in craftsmanship. I can now identify and tell an artisan about the small details that make the difference between a craft which is OK and a really well-made one even although after many years I can still barely weave a little bird. I dedicated myself to gaining the artisans' trust and earned it by being honest and always letting them meet the real me without masks and all of my imperfections. Communities became my second home, and artisans became my second family. I have accompanied them all of these years and witnessed how much they have improved. There were very few male artisans in the early years, because they said that making crafts was an activity for women, but as they’ve seen the potential of craft-making grow over time, more men have changed their attitude and now openly dedicate themselves to this art. I have also witnessed how many women have become more empowered, become leaders in their communities, and have stronger visions of a better future for their children. I am excited just to contemplate these changes.
I now have 51 years on my life’s path with almost 14 years on this part of my journey that continues. I look back and see Yully who met Dr. Campbell in 2009, and I would like to tell him that he made the right decision.
Links:
Over the past five years, some very talented artisan partners have steadily made more and more beautiful and life-like bird and butterfly ornaments with chambira palm fiber. Our experienced facilitators have also been increasingly successful at showing other artisans how to make these ornaments at our workshops. We have had a hard time, however, getting large numbers of these ornaments for sale.
One of the main reasons for this shortage is that it takes a lot of time for even a good artisan to make one of these woven animals really well. While more artisans can now make these top-quality crafts, some choose not to because other buyers will pay more for the same kinds of crafts made more quickly with less attention to the details. Even our “rejects” are much better than the mediocre animal ornaments found in the souvenir shops in Iquitos.
We are trying to charge more for our premium quality crafts to incentivize the artisans to do their best work. This may work to some extent, but even socially conscious buyers have a limit to what they are willing to pay for a fair trade ornament. Fortunately, we are developing three new techniques with artisan partners to make their ornaments with greater efficiently, quality and consistency.
Artisans usually use a woven sample or photo as a reference to make a bird by themselves from start to finish. In a workshop, a facilitator provides some guidance for this process, but even artisans working together often produce a variety of shapes, sizes and styles. In the past month, we used a local version of an “assembly line” or "chain" process at two workshops to make four kinds of birds. We first tested this method at Brillo Nuevo where our facilitator Pablo organized six artisans to make a batch of Atlantic puffin ornaments. Two of them made six equal bodies and heads while their teammates cut and bent wires to make sets of wings, tails, and feet. Once the main pieces were put together, individual artisans took over filling in the details under Pablo’s guidance.
The experiment was successful. The group produced six puffins with higher quality and consistent design in much less time than it would have taken each person to do their own. It also allowed one less-skilled artisan to make an important contribution to the group instead of floundering on her own. To be sure, this method requires good cooperation, coordination and appropriate division of tasks to function well. The participants, however, all felt very good about their collective effort and results.
We repeated the process at the next workshop in Amazonas where small groups made woven ornaments of purple gallinules, kestrels and orange-breasted falcons. Pablo showed three other facilitators how to use the “chain” process, and they all found it helped their groups make their bird ornaments in less time than their usual individual method.
****
Seven years ago, our artisan partner Doilith placed real butterflies on tracing paper to outline the wings and colorful patches. She used these lines to shape the wire perimeter of the body and embroider the interior. This method worked well, but it still took a fair amount of time to draw these patterns for a few dozen butterflies in one order. Last month, we used Doilith’s drawings to make a rubber stamp for each set of wings for each butterfly she makes. In one hour, she and a helper used these stamps and an ink pad to create templates for over 200 butterflies – a task that would have taken an entire day by hand. At both workshops, Doilith easily showed young artisans how to cut out the shape of each wing on the butterfly they were making and use it to make a high-quality craft.
Doilith’s innovation in progress is weaving a long solid strip of chambira fiber. She will neatly fit a series of wing templates on this strip and cut them out. This process will then provide a tightly woven background for each wing and just leave the task of embroidering the colored patches and accents. This process could be a game changer for artisans who would like to make butterflies to sell. While it may not be worth their time to make one butterfly per day, it would definitely be worth it to make five or six.
It’s exciting to see our artisan partners applying their imagination and talents to increase the productivity of their process as well as the quality of their crafts. Seeing an artisan making one craft at a time in their home alone has some poetic appeal, but very few artisans have so far been able to use their skills to do more than buy some basic things for their children attending the primary school in the village. We want to make it possible for dedicated artisans to send their children to a technical school or college if they want.
Links:
WHAT A SKILL-SHARING WORKSHOP MEANS TO AN ARTISAN
One of the core activities that Amazon Ecology does in Peru is host skill-sharing workshops so artisans learn to make new kinds of crafts they can sell directly to tourists who visit their villages and expand their opportunities to sell more crafts to us and other wholesale buyers. After putting these workshops on hold for almost two years during the peak of the COVID pandemic, we have been organizing these sessions again in the Ampiyacu and Marañon River regions. Last month we conducted workshops in the villages of Brillo Nuevo, Puca Urquillo, and San Francisco where participants could learn to make a monarch butterfly, morpho butterfly or two birds which collectively included the great blue heron, blue crowned mot mot, peregrine falcon and the chickadee. The lead facilitators were our veteran trainers Edson, Pablo and Doilith with other experienced artisans from the communities taking one-day turns as apprentice facilitators.
Below are comments from two participants and one apprentice expressing what their workshop meant to them.
Magaly
“It is always interesting to try to make new crafts. I am used to making birds, bags and sometimes placemats, but I rarely try to make new models. In this workshop I was encouraged to make butterflies, and I think I did alright. The teacher Doilith explained things well. She was patient and attentive. I appreciated she was an artisan woman like me with concerns like mine. She does the best she can for her children to fight for her family to meet their daily needs. I was able to speak with her, learn from her and get to know her a bit. I liked that. I liked finding that we had so much in common. The three days of the workshop flew by, and in the end making my butterflies was a great experience. Thank you for that chance.”
Jhony
In my workshop I had the opportunity to be an assistant teacher for a day. It was interesting because I don't have many chances to teach what little I know about making crafts. I also felt a little pressured because I was surrounded by artisans who have a lot of skill, so I put forward my best effort. I approached each person in the group, tried to explain what to do, tried to be understood, and helped when they asked me for help. All in all, it felt good. It was a good experience to learn about myself and my ability which gave me more confidence.
Pilar
“I think my skills making birds are improving. The quality is improving, and I know it can be better still. That's what I try. I want to be able to make very pretty crafts that anyone who sees them will admire. Nobody forces me to come to these workshops. I come because I want to learn and see how my fellow artisans work. I want teachers to tell me how I can do better. By the end I want to have made a craft that I like very much. Then, when I offer these crafts to sell, there will be a better chance that someone will buy them. This is my work. I feel proud of what I made.”
Thank you very much for your support for our work to empower traditional artisans from the Peruvian Amazon, build resilient forests and strengthen their communities. We would very much appreciate any additional gift you can make to our project this Wednesday, July 20.
Wednesday, July 20 is a special Bonus Day with GlobalGiving when your gift could be amplified by other generous donors. Starting at 9 am (EDT), donations made to our page on the GlobalGiving platform from $100 to $499 will receive a 30% match; donations from $500 to $749 will receive a 40% match, and donations from $750 to $1000 will receive a 50% match. Matching funds will be available until midnight or until they are used up.
Thank you very much for your support.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
Make a monthly donation & get 
