Ethnologist and anthropologist Nemesio Montiel claimed that the indigenous Wayuu people are part of the Arawak family, originating from the Caribbean and more specifically from Guiana. There have also been speculations of the Wayuu people descending from Mexico and spreading across the coast of Panama, moving down to what is currently known as the Peninsula of La Guajira. Today, the Wayuu people’s home territory is la Guajira, located on the border of Venezuela and Colombia. Nonetheless, the Wayuu do not identify with the countries of the border they reside on. They are all just Wayuu. Being quite an open group, the indigenous Wayuu have always maintained contact with western society. Before 1830, the Wayuu interacted with Spanish, Dutch, English and the French colonizers.
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Thanks to oral information passed down from generations of collective memory, the Wayuu developed a strong identity based on their historical symbolism.
This symbolism has been translated through the art of weaving and crochet. Wayuu culture have taken elements from their surroundings and presented a geometric and abstract version of their everyday life through the use of Kanaas.
Read more about Kanaas and symbology in Wayuu bags here
Some of the more ancient techniques have been forgotten over time due to Wayuu women abandoning the art of crochet to look for jobs within western (alijuna) society. With Wayuu people moving to urban areas in Colombia and Venezuela, younger generations of Wayuu women have lost the art of crochet as they’ve adopted new roles in the alijuna culture. The western world has not only attracted young Wayuu to its urban area, but its culture has also predominated.
To preserve Wayuu culture, it’s important to promote and educate Wayuu youths in order to maintain its language, customs and art.
Lombia works directly with the Wayuu community to keep the art of crochet alive. Selling fair trade Wayuu bags is the main income of many communities and Wayuu women who are head of their house and we hope to keep this craft alive for decades to come.