Couple launch collective to support Colombian artisans

A Bristol-based British-Colombian couple have launched a crowdfunding campaign to help indigenous Colombian artisans.

The WATI Collective, founded by Jess and Jose de Barco, allows the artisans to share their work, culture and traditions in order to create a sustainable livelihood.

The aim is to bring their ancient crafts and stories to a wider audience, preserving their culture and heritage while also securing them with the income needed to support themselves and their Colombian communities.

Jess and husband, Jose, who founded the WATI Collective

WATI Collective involves four tribes, including two groups of internal refugees who are in constant turmoil within their homeland. These tribes have been almost exiled to the more barren soils during the political conflict in Colombia, meaning that they are less able to sustain themselves without help from elsewhere, financially or trade-wise.

Jess and Jose are artisans themselves, and have recently travelled back to Jose’s homeland of Colombia with their two small children. Last year they found themselves in Nabusimake, the sacred valley of the Arhuaco people, high in the mountains of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. The local women shared the challenges these people faced in selling the ‘crafts of Colombia’, and the struggle in the rural areas after the country’s recent conflicts.

Access is a major issue for these women when selling their bags. Much of the value of their work is lost when they sell to those selling in towns or cities further down the mountain, because of the special transportation equipment they need to tackle the roads. Often, they are forced to sell their work at low prices just to meet their basic needs.

As life becomes more expensive, a lot of the men are forced to leave the communities in search of better work, leaving the women to guard the fort. However, not all the men return or send money back to their indigenous families, leaving the women and children behind to begin another life with a new family.

Sitting serenely in Cafe Kino on Stokes Croft, Jess calmly describes these people’s lives and talks about her hopes and aims for the collective and the future work. “As makers ourselves, we have always admired the skill of Colombian artisans,” she says.

“We are now working with four indigenous artisan groups, and for all of them, their crafts are much more than a beautiful object or something to be sold, they are expressions of their cultural values and beliefs.”

After bringing crafts back to the UK to sell on behalf of the native artisans, the collective is now looking to expand. It has launched its first collection and crowd-funding campaign to raise vital funds for the project, which will provide better support to the artisans in their production of crafts such as the jewellery and bags, called ‘mochilas’.

Handmade mochila bags ‘of dreams’, crafted by the Arhuaco people of Colombia

One aim is to provide each pair of weavers with ten sheep, so they can improve their production and become more self-reliant rather than buying more expensive raw materials.

At the moment, the indigenous people are so desperate to make their ends meet for the increased daily cost of living that there is nothing left to invest in the long-term projects. The Arhuaco people refer to themselves as the caring ‘big brothers’; their complex beliefs, spirituality and traditions are based upon a deep reverence, and their relationship with the natural world.

The mochilas are believed to hold all of their dreams, and each mochila takes around four weeks to make; as older women’s hands become ‘thicker’ with time, they will often build the bulks of the bags and then younger, nimble-fingered women will finish the work, collectively gaining the experience of the craft.

But with the help of Jess and Jose, the WATI Collective hopes to avoid the corrupt ‘middle man’ and ensure that the artisan crafts are sold for what they are worth in both time and skills.

As well as supporting the crafts, the collective hopes to raise awareness of the current situation and troubles in Colombia and to celebrate the people’s heritage. Colonisation and political conflict around the drug trade have deeply affected all the indigenous tribes, forcing many communities further and further up the mountain to less fertile and accessible land.

Other aims include facilitating community development training, building a national network of support, volunteering opportunities and craft and textiles. Helping to give local youths the skills required to become self-sufficient in the internet era would also support the overall community through expansion of the people’s development, upgrading their global reach through ideas such as an online platform.

There has been an increase in tourism across Colombia in recent years, aided by the signing of the Peace Agreement in 2017. This provides the opportunity to find the right people with an interest in current issues in the country to help with the work.

Despite this, however, Jess says that “many artisans are still struggling to find outlets which pay them fairly for their work”, but also feels like it is “an amazing time of hope and people are feeling positive for a change”.

Her last trip as a family was around a year ago and when most of the filming for the campaign video was made, and Jose has visited two or three times since then to provide as much contact with the indigenous tribes as possible.

Jess plans to return to Colombia this coming autumn, and by January she hopes to move her family to Colombia to allow the couple to spend more time with the tribes they work with.

To find out more about WATI collection and support the campaign, visit www.indiegogo.com/projects/wati-colombian-craft-with-a-story-to-tell-women-community#/