This rustic loom is what the Matsés use to produce their 'uitsun' friendship bracelets; a product specific to the Matsés. It takes over a day to prepare the loom for weaving in which natural home spun cotton or chambira palm fibre are used. In Matsés culture, these woven ornaments are tied on the wrist or ankle. A sister puts on her little brother’s ankle ornament by slipping the knotted ends through little loops. As she grows, a girl will weave for her brother, her husband and then for her children, just as the boy will grow to ask for ornaments from his mother, his sister, and eventually his wife.
We believe in long term relationship building with individuals and their communities who have consented to sharing their knowledge with us and the public. As multi-generational migrants, locals and foreigners, we seek to nurture a mutual understanding of the realities, ancestral and present, with our Indigenous collaborators through our practice in order to create didactic audio, visual and written representations of their ancestral knowledge for the benefit of the Indigenous people. Below is an open work of this documentation.
Photography: Davis Torres / Tui Anandi / Mike van Kruchen
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