The project documents the material knowledge systems embedded in ancestral dyeing and weaving practices maintained by Afro-Colombian and Indigenous women in the Gulf of Tribugá, specifically within the town of El Valle and the Embera Dobida communities of El Brazo and Bapurrupurru. These knowledge systems encompass the sustainable collection, preparation, processing, and transformation of natural fibres and dyes, including damagua (Cocos nucifera), cabecinegro palm (Attalea butyracea), iraca palm (Carludovica palmata), and plantain fibre (Musa spp.), as well as plant-based dyes such as achiote (Bixa orellana), maracuyá flowers (Passiflora edulis), and elder (Sambucus spp.). Together, these practices constitute a coherent material culture system rooted in ecological observation, and intergenerational transmission.
The object sims to document from a multimedios approach including a short ethnographic documentary, a high-resolution digital photographic archive, recorded interviews and oral histories in Spanish, English, and Embera Dobida, a series of podcasts highlighting women’s narratives, and a detailed methodological report documenting materials, formulas, timings, mordanting and the ancestral sociohistorical contexts embedded in is knowledge production.
PI: Pedro Gustavo Jimenez
Collaborators: Deisy Hernandez; Jessica Slendi Pinzón; Carmen Caro
Research Location: Pacific Coast, Bahía Solano, El Valle, Colombia
Host Institution: Org Radio Juntanza
Top Banner Image: The hands of Teresita Valencia, main knowledge holder, after extracting the pigments. Photo credit: Pedro Gustavo Jimenez, 2024.