Traditional Backpacks From Colombia

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

In the fourth installment of the Special video series with Kika, Colombian influencer Kika Rocha visits the Arhuaco indigenous people of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in Colombia. This is a community very concerned with caring for the earth's natural resources and with an ancient textile tradition that has been passed down from generation to generation. Today they continue to weave some backpacks of which we are going to tell you all the details and that, in addition to being a precious fashion accessory, they hide a message that goes much further.

According to José Ricardo Villafane, accordionist and Aruhaco musician, the design of the bags is not only decorative, it has a very deep meaning. "[This] represents infinity and music," he says, showing the print of a backpack made by his aunt. "Backpacks are a living language that the Aruhaco people have […] who want to shout that message of protection to Mother Earth."

"The backpack is an accessory born in this culture that has transcended to become a trend thanks to characters like Carlos Vives who wears it proud of its origin or the designer Johanna Ortiz, " explains the fashionista.

Weavers, always women, take between 15 days and a month to make each of these backpacks. As Rocha explains in the video with one of the weavers of the tribe, women learn this technique when they are very young, between 3 and 5 years old, and when they finish their first backpack they give it to their mother.