Empowering Women:
Artisan Cooperatives that Transform Communities
Gallery of Conscience July 4, 2010- May 8, 2011

AMERICAS


BOLIVIA Cheque Oitedie Cooperative
Fighting for the Life of the Plant
Bolivia’s Cheque Oitedie Cooperative is based on the efforts of a group of indigenous women to save a humble plant. The Ayoreo are a traditionally nomadic community in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. Today, their only cash income is from the sale of bags woven from the fiber of a forest-dwelling bromeliad plant called garabatá fino. When they were forcibly relocated to sedentary homes more than 30 years ago, they found that the plant they were accustomed to weaving was almost non-existent. Thankfully, Inés Hinojosa Ossio, Bolivia’s most prominent ethno-botanist, began working with them to solve the problem. “When the Ayoreo community was moved to their reservation, there was a garabatá fino plant here, but it wasn’t of the same quality as the ones in the forest where they lived before,” Inés says. She worked with the community to develop new ways of cultivating a plant with similar properties. Today, the 45 women of the cooperative harvest the bromeliad as well as produce and market their hand-woven fiber bags to an international market. Photo: Cheque Oitedie Cooperative Members with the newly harvested bromeliad plant, 2010. Photograph by Enrique Uzquiano.


PERU -Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (cttc)

My Grandmother’s Spirit is in the Textile
Hand-woven textiles in the Peruvian Andes are an important
social and ethnic marker and a significant part of the cultural heritage of the region. Each community uses a different combination of designs and colors to reflect a connection with the earth. Nilda Callañaupa, founder and director of the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco (cttc), was
born in Chinchero Village near Cusco. The granddaughter of a Quechuan master weaver, Nilda began spinning wool from sheep and alpaca at the age of six, and was weaving her first patterns by age seven. With Nilda’s vision, the cttc was created in 2005 as a way to ensure the continuation of this vital cultural resource. Today, the cttc works with more than 350 weavers and 250 children in nine regions in Peru. Each region supports its own cooperative structure with elected board members, product development, and education. As Nilda so eloquently remarks, “My goal was to keep alive the culture … It’s something of a storytelling
in those pieces.” Photo: Courtesy of the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market

Introduction |Africa | Asia | Acknowledgments