The community of Arhuaco women in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the Gun Aruwun region in Cesar, more commonly known as the Sabana Crespa region, is made up of working women who have pushed forward with determination and love in creating their handcrafts.

The women in the community make the traditional Arhuaca knapsacks by hand, with needle and 100% natural thread. It is arduous work and can take up to three months. Traditionally, they make the bags for their husbands, children, and family members. Girls begin weaving them at five years of age, with the company and guidance of their mothers.

Oftentimes, overwhelmed with the various basic daily needs, the women in the community would trade the bags for food or sandals. However, in doing so, the amount of effort, time, and physical work gone into making the bags wasn’t properly appreciated.

Seeking to improve the standard of living of the community and to generate a source of income, today a group of female leaders have guided the production process of the bags; 1.500 women work under their leadership, in three villages in the region (Seyumake, Gun Aruwun, and Ikarwa) within the Arhuaco community.

Their intention is to sell the bags in cities, thereby creating a source of income supported by a product of high cultural value. Motivated by the project, the leaders have left the Sierra Nevada region to go to cities such as Bogotá, Cartagena, Medellín, and Santa Marta to promote and sell their handmade crafts.

Each bag is unique, since woven within the fabric is a thought of the woman who made it, a thought representing an aspect of her community. In other words, each bag has a story. The colors used also have a meaning: black represents connection with Mother Earth, grey is the element air, white is purity, and coffee color is power and the element fire.

The significance of the coffee color is particularly important for the community because, for them, fire must never burn out, since it is a symbol for life. As the guardian of life says, “Where the fire is extinguished, there is no life”.

Production of these Arhuaca knapsacks is a tradition with high cultural meaning which should not be abandoned. As set down from their indigenous worldview, this tradition is rooted in the origins of the world and it represents the passing on of the legacy inherited by ancestors which must be continued on into the present.

In the Spanish School Nueva Lengua we had the pleasure and honor to welcome one of the leader of the Arhuaca community who explained us the techniques and traditions of bags’ handcrafting. Some of the creations are available at the school for our students to appreciate and they are also for sale!

All the bags are displayed in our classrooms and they are on sale for those who wish to have a very unique souvenir from Colombia!
We also ship intenationaly in the eventuality you may wish to send it to your loved ones back home or if you can’t travel to Colombia and get it!

This article was originally written in Italian

This article was originally written in English