The techniques used for Matsigenka textile products are reserved for women only and are transmitted from one generation to the other within the same family. Their iconography is woven into geometric designs whose patterns are woven depending on the story being told, using a base of four colours: white, cream, brown and pink; the pigments are derived from plants and tree barks. Their designs can often represent whether the person is married or single, to personality features or individual tastes. This bracelet features their design pattern of the "Shigopa"; a tree worm that lives inside the palm species.
We believe in long term relationship building with individuals and their communities who have consented to sharing their knowledge with us and the public. As multi-generational migrants, locals and foreigners, we seek to nurture a mutual understanding of the realities, ancestral and present, with our Indigenous collaborators through our practice in order to create didactic audio, visual and written representations of their ancestral knowledge for the benefit of the Indigenous people. Below is an open work of this documentation.
Photography: Davis Torres / Tui Anandi / Mike van Kruchen
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