Weaving & Empowerment Workshops for Mapuche Women

24 Noviembre 

Ten months have passed since the women finished their last workshops, on the site of the San Fransisco School, where their children attend. In the first workshops the women worked with felt-work which is easier to learn than weaving, and thus a good starting point, the women participated successfully in the course, creating high quality products with their own designs. Unfortunately, the fund for prime materials ran out, giving the women an unwanted break from the workshops, leaving them with their claustrophobic lives in the ‘campo’, countryside. 

Now, thanks to new financial backing from donors on GlobalGiving, a spinning and dying course has begun that will last for four workshops of four hours with ‘la profe’ Isabel Currivil. 

The workshops could not be in better hands. She has run workshops for many loving decades, in places from prisons to classrooms, offering the new skill of weaving and therefore new opportunities to communities.  

The first workshop focused on the delicate technique of spinning. Looking around the room, the women’s hands were moving like spiders (an animal synonymous with Mapuche weaving mythology), separating the thick wool to be spun on the spindles that were rapidly rotating around the floor. 

While they worked, the women enjoyed each others company, catching up after so much time without a workshop. One woman declared that these workshops were some of the only moments of pure laughter in her life. 

It was not always like that however. Susana, the supervisor of the project, says that when they first participated in the workshops the women were far more timid, with the chemistry they show these days, it is impossible to imagine the women in silence.

“The idea is to work alone in your houses but come together as a unit when you meet up.” Isabel summarised what it means to be a group of weavers. You could see that the women were a solid group, united by the similarities they  share of being mothers to the kids that were playing in the playground outside and by their shared passion of learning Mapuche textile techniques.

All the participants left with their own kilo of white wool, ready to continue working at home, the homework was to create a big ball of fine thread around their spindles to be dyed during the next workshop.