Should a Nobel Prize for Culture be Awarded for Saving the Stunning Artistry of Ancient Peruvian Weaving?
Nilda Callañaupa, a Master Artist and Weaver, Protects and Expands Her Quechua/Inca Culture in the Andes
(all photos © April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved)
Story and Photos by April Orcutt
“If there were to be a Nobel Prize for culture,” said Wade Davis, a National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence, “Nilda Callañaupa would deserve to have it.”
A master indigenous Quechuan artist who spins, weaves and knits in traditional styles, Nilda Callañaupa is also a scholar and the director and president of the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco in the Andes Mountains of Peru. From roots as a young girl with gifted abilities as an inheritor of millennial-old Inca traditions of weaving in the Sacred Valley, Callañaupa honed her craft and traveled the world to speak at universities and museums about the disappearing art of Inca weaving and its symbolism. Then — to save those cultural traditions and to inspire poor Quechuan women to improve their economic circumstances — she created the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (El Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco or CTTC).
“Traditional weaving practices on ancient-style backstrap looms were left in the hands of the elders,” Callañaupa said. “Young people were not learning to weave.” Techniques and patterns were disappearing as weavers turned to more-easily-accessible and faster-setting day-glow-colored chemical dyes. So in the early 1990s using connections in Chinchero that went back to her childhood, Callañaupa brought women together into a cooperative to share skills and techniques as well as revive textile traditions dating back 2,000 years.
Callañaupa knows well the plight of the local Quechuan Native Americans, descendants of the Inca. She herself grew up in a small village and, like all the other local children, began tending a big flock of sheep when she was six years old.
Her mother, Guadalupe Alvarez, taught her to spin yarn and weave not only sheep’s wool but also that of llamas and alpacas. “Weaving was in my blood,” she said. By the time she was in her early teens, she was hooked. She financed her college education in Cusco by selling textiles, and her skills brought her world-wide fame. She wanted to share those skills at home.
But change is difficult. In the early 1990s Callañaupa’s vision of revitalizing Inca weaving met resistance. “The elders were totally against it then,” she said, “but now they’re embracing it. They’re gaining respect [from this].”
Still, she had to find a location for a weaving center. She needed legal advice and help establishing bylaws and a non-profit organization. And she had to decide whether she just wanted to help her village of Chinchero, which is near enough to Cusco to get some tourist traffic, or to “dream bigger.”
After two years of sorting through all this, she decided to dream bigger, include other communities and name her organization the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco in order to encompass the surrounding area. She wanted the works from weavers throughout Cusco and the Sacred Valley to reach a larger pool of potential buyers — which also meant “tourists.”
The National Geographic Society gave her seed money from an Expeditions Council grant to help start the CTTC in 1996. Over the past 25 years the Centre has expanded to include a shop for top-quality local weavings, a textile museum, a gallery, an area for weaving demonstrations and a headquarters for training in both textile and business skills.
In addition to preserving this historic craft and helping struggling Quechuan families, Callañaupa also wanted to inspire better quality textiles. She dreamed of a competition to inspire weavers to not only do their best work, but to continue to improve.
In 2005 she teamed up with Jim Kane, founder of Culture Xplorers, a company dedicated to sustainable travel and to building relationships that can help communities. Together they created and funded the annual Weavers Awards. Around 600 weavers from nine communities now compete for up to $7,000 in prize money; and women, men and children all enter the competition.
“Jim has been a big supporter of the awards,” she said. Over the past 15 years Culture Explorers has not only made direct donations, it has also emphasized the importance of the awards on its website and brought in visitors who appreciate the high-quality weavings, tapestries, hats, purses and other utilitarian items.
Just as Callañaupa and Kane had hoped, the contest has proven motivational. While some entries are individual projects like hats or bags, large panels are made communally by many members of each village. These communal projects not only motivate everyone to do her (or his) best, they also foster the sharing of techniques among community members, helping to ensure that those skills and symbols will continue to be passed along rather than be lost for eternity.
The results have been impressive. At the award ceremonies, weavers talk about the economic incentive of the awards themselves as well as about the status and recognition the honors convey. That public recognition allows the weavers to charge more for their works when they sell their crafts to shops. And the award money and increased profits have allowed some of them to improve their living conditions, have surgery or send their children to school in Cusco.
“The awards encourage them to continue producing high quality textiles with old, re-introduced techniques which are not practiced anymore,” said Callañaupa. “The awards are so appreciated and are shared with their families. Their self-esteem goes up. Weavers feel recognized, which inspires them to continue with more intricate techniques.”
“Nilda is a national treasure,” said Wade Davis. “She has done more to revitalize traditional textiles in the southern Andes than anyone. Because of her, the quality of weaving being done [in Peru] today surpasses anything woven since the early days of the Conquest,” when Spanish invaders took over the area in the sixteenth century.
Asked how the CTTC and her experiences with the weavers have changed her own life, Callañaupa said, “I like to see the improvement in their weavings. I am proud of my culture and the weavers and how much talent they have. I feel privileged around the master weavers.”
If You Go:
Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (El Centro de Textiles Tradicionales de Cusco), Avenida Sol 603, Cusco, Peru; Tel: +51 (084) 236880; textilescusco.org. The CTTC’s store, gallery and museum are located near Qorikancha, the Inca Temple of the Sun. Often local weavers work in the exhibition area.
Culture Xplorers, 6001 Oak St., Kansas City, MO 64113; Tel: +1/215–870–3585; culturexplorers.com. Culture Xplorers promotes sustainable travel and creates independent trips designed to connect visitors with local culture. They have brought small groups to Peru almost every year to watch the Weavers Awards and to meet the weavers.
Find more of April Orcutt’s stories and photographs at Medium.com/BATW-Travel-Stories, Medium.com/Travel-Insights-And-Outtakes, AprilOrcutt.Medium.com, and AprilOrcutt.com.
