Maiwa in Peru - Tinkuy 2010

by - Friday, November 12, 2010

The opening panel of Tinkuy 2010
After our indigo workshop we headed to the sacred valley for the Tinkuy event. Tinkuy was two days of presentations in a large hall and another five days of workshops conducted at the CTTC in Chincero. We were most impressed by the strong presence of indigenous craftspeople. We found the presentations expressed first-hand a perspective that we rarely have access to. Their experience of seeing their own crafts vanishing and the hard work that they needed to perform if they wished to save them. For many of the indigenous speakers this was their first time in front of a microphone. They got very quickly to the heart of textiles and why they matter to their communities.

Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez opens Tinkuy 2010 

Carolina Concha from Chinchero gives a presentation and awaits questions from the audience.
Presenters arrived from Ecuador, Chile, Bolivia, Mexico, Guatamala, Argentina, Peru, USA and Canada. There were 24 speakers each day and twelve demonstrations of weaving and spinning technique. In the evenings there were fiestas with traditional costumes, yarn spinning competitions, music and dancing.
The youngest winner of the finest spinning award.  She used a drop spindle to spin wool yarns.

At Tinkuy prizes were awarded for a series of weaving competitions. These are a key element to encourage high-level weaving skills.

The Tinkuy concluded with a ceremony where the elders from the various communities handed their weaving sticks and tools to a young artisan with these words.

"We hand our tools to you so that you can continue what we have revived."

Elders wait on stage to hand their weaving tools to the next generation.
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1 comments

  1. Gloria JustenNovember 13, 2010 at 6:29 AM

    Thank you, Maiwa, for sharing this glimpse into the lives of the hand weavers of Peru. I am moved when I learn of people like this who are making such an effort to preserve their incredibly beautiful and culturally important tradition. It must give them such a sense of pride and hope to see the skills and art being passed down to another generation. It gives me a sense of hope, too, in the human spirit: that people can still live by the power of their own hands, making useful things to help them survive, and making beautiful things to inspire joy.
    Please keep going to this type of gathering and bringing back news. Will you have podcasts from Peru? I love listening to all the podcasts as I work in my fabric studio (doing dyeing, painting, shibori, felting.)

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