INSPIRING WAYUUS

Years later, in 2010, fate intervened, and my partner was offered a job in Colombia. A few weeks after landing in Bogotá, I traveled to La Guajira with my young daughter to see for myself the Wayuu crafts I had read about years before.

In La Guajira, I found a fascinating but deeply impoverished community. While Colombia was on a fast track to becoming a developed country, La Guajira had been left behind in the process and the rush. I quickly realized that the Wayuu women lacked economic power. I knew that if I could empower the women to earn a decent living, I could improve the lives of the entire community. That's why I decided to use my skills and experience to help the Wayuu community.

Between 2011 and 2012, I conducted various socio-anthropological studies, visiting and living with different Indigenous communities in different parts of La Guajira. I also studied various manual techniques, not only to demonstrate the different weaving techniques used by the different communities, but also to highlight the ancestral significance of Wayúu designs. It took me about two years to understand their culture and become part of the community and be formally accepted on their ranches.

I realized that the traditional weaving technique needed support or it would be in danger of extinction, and that women needed to be able to earn a decent living from their crafts. I learned that the community had been exploited; people came to the region to buy sling bags in bulk, but refused to pay a fair price and forced the community to run with deadlines, compromising the quality of their work. To weave a single sling bag using traditional techniques, a woman spends between 20 and 30 days working eight hours a day.

To get some help, in 2013, I created the Sacred Thread Foundation.

My story shows the ability of each and every one of us to change other people's lives for the better, even in a country other than our own.

Sabrina Prioli, 2015.