Weaving Indigenous worldviews into digital livelihoods
In Brazil, UNHCR, the Jesuit Service for Migrants and Refugees, and other partners are working with displaced Indigenous artisans to bring e-commerce opportunities to local communities.
Forced displacement is a devastating experience for anyone. But for Indigenous communities, this rupture presents unique challenges. The deep-rooted relationship between Indigenous peoples and the land — a relationship that is foundational to individual and collective identity; cultural practices; psychosocial wellbeing; and economic and social systems — makes displacement an existential threat. Moreover, Indigenous groups are at heightened risk of discrimination when forced to flee.
On International Day for the World’s Indigenous Peoples, we’re spotlighting a project in Brazil that has worked closely with communities not only to boost the livelihood opportunities available to displaced Indigenous artisans, through e-commerce, but also to ensure Indigenous traditions, languages, and stories are carried safely through displacement. Hand in hand with refugees, this project — supported through the Digital Innovation Fund — has fostered digital inclusion, social wellbeing, and self-reliance.
The Challenge
Since 2014, more than 7,000 Indigenous people have fled from Venezuela into Brazil. Most belong to the Warao ethnic group, whose ancestral home is the Venezuelan rainforest. Other groups include the Eñepá, Kariña, Pemon, and Wayúu. The city of Boa Vista, in Brazil’s Roraima State, hosts the largest shelter for Indigenous refugees and migrants in Latin America. There, the UNHCR Brazil team identified the need to develop specific solutions for this population — ones that place value in the diverse skills, cultures, and perspectives they bring to the areas in which they take refuge.
UNHCR actively collaborates with Indigenous communities to enhance their skills and provide training to align with market demands. Such livelihood initiatives predominantly focused on crafting traditional handicrafts. However, although displaced artisans (mostly women, in this context) possess exceptional craftsmanship, they face significant challenges selling their creations. Their location in the Amazon basin presents difficulties in accessing markets; the expenses associated with establishing a physical retail presence and limitations in customer-service expertise create further barriers.
“It’s imperative to recognize that, far too frequently, we fall short in delivering the necessary platforms and training avenues to Indigenous communities,” says Oscar Sanchez Pineiro, UNHCR’s Deputy Representative in Brazil. “This oversight can result in a divergence between their rich cultural values and their aspirations within a swiftly evolving economy and society.” Pineiro highlights the tendency to stereotype Indigenous cultures as remnants of history; instead they should be acknowledged as indispensable components of our societal fabric and empowered to flourish within a contemporary digital landscape, while safeguarding their distinct worldviews and cultural heritage.
The Solution
In Roraima, UNHCR has worked with partners and local communities to introduce an e-commerce training curriculum that aims to equip Indigenous artisans with digital tools, skills, and techniques. The goal is to enable these artisans to expand their businesses and achieve more sustainable livelihoods by effectively showcasing and marketing their products online.
Ten women and nine men of the Warao, E’ñepá, Karamakoto, and Taurepang peoples participated in this pilot project. Although mostly working with buriti fibre — a silk-like fibre derived from a palm found throughout Latin America, which can be dyed, processed, and woven into goods like baskets, trays, bags, and wall decorations — several of these artisans are also adept at clay throwing and wood carving. Some even brought novel ecotourism business ideas to the training.
The participants played a key role in shaping the design of the project and their own learning journeys — an approach that worked to preserve their autonomy and ensure their support for the process. The artisan Argenia Centeno explains:
In each meeting, we expressed what was missing as social support and that was considered — for instance, the sales techniques, taking pictures, how to move forward.
Through consultations, the participants identified which skills they hoped to gain and determined that a time-split modality would ensure the training could slot in alongside other demands. The curriculum — which covered topics ranging from financial literacy and data-protection law to digital photography, corporate marketing and social media — was delivered in an intense one-month course.
Initiated and funded by UNHCR, the project was delivered by the Jesuit Service for Migrants and Refugees (SJMR), alongside other partners. A strong relationship with the Association of Indigenous Migrants of Roraima (AMIR) — an organization composed of Venezuelan Indigenous peoples — proved crucial. As a direct representation of the community, AMIR strengthened the project’s community engagement and ensured its impact spread beyond the shelters of Boa Vista.
The Impact
For the participants, the technical elements of the course have opened up new avenues for them to grow their businesses. But perhaps even more crucially, the storytelling focus of the instructors — an emphasis on exploring how the artisans’ products reflect and celebrate their history, heritage, and ancestry — had a transformational effect.“We, as Waraos, discussed how our sales were, our culture, our knowledge, and also the other indigenous ethnicities,” explains Centeno. The awareness that the culture passed down across generations held powerful value for communities beyond their own, and that it deserved to play a key role in their income-generating strategies, had a noticeable impact on the self-esteem and wellbeing of participants.
Although the learning period was short and intense, the participants came away with valuable insights that have helped to grow their businesses and provided greater economic security. For Bruno Avilio, one of the participants:
The project helped me to overcome many things. The most important was the knowledge in sales, how to sell our products on Instagram, take photos, how to publish them, and all of that. It was good to know how to send messages and how to manage to respond to customers on the same day.
Centeno, too, comments on the value of this technical element:
After the project, my ability as a sales person, artisan, and entrepreneur primarily improved, because I lost my fear and it was easier. Now I sell online, via WhatsApp — I present my products.
For UNHCR, this project also served as a valuable learning experience. While the agency is already involved in various initiatives run by or centred on Indigenous refugees, this endeavor provided key insights into the creative talents and entrepreneurial acumen of these communities. In doing so, it has forged potential avenues for future collaboration with Indigenous communities forced to flee, focused on enhancing their socioeconomic integration.
Going forward, synergies could be found among such initiatives and the Made 51 e-commerce platform — designed by UNHCR precisely to enable refugee artisans to reach new markets.
With its emphasis on self-reliance, equitable participation, and local engagement, the project not only supports communities to develop thriving businesses but also champions their narrative-rich material cultures. In challenging stereotypes that see Indigenous peoples and traditions as frozen in time or a world apart, it makes space for new understandings of and opportunities for these communities — as strong, essential threads in the complex fabric of our modern world.
Find out more about UNHCR’s Digital Innovation Programme here.
To get updates from the artisans who participated in this project, follow them on Instagram: @bisuteria_indigena_canaima @yurkelini @alilacoromoto @pintobiasy @ojidu_jau @waraononaanonatu @auxiliadoralerinswarao @torotoro.artesanato @kawaraoalpargatasartesanais @nonanonatoartesanato @juanperezartesanato @zurima.hernandez @kaikuseartesanato @ensismarmariano @filibertoriveroperez @kuriwayartes
