photo by Miller Sierra
Aside from the gorgeous landscapes and culture and endless adventure trip options , the best part about traveling to Colombia is being able to scope out the amazingly vibrant Wayyu mochila bags. These in vogue bags are perfect for the beach, a trendy night out with your main squeeze or used as a daring office outfit accessory.
photo by Alejandra Quintero Sinisterra (via Creative Commons)
Mochila bags: A practice
So what are Wayuu mochila bags? They are special hand-woven bags/purses made with different coloured twine, wire and cotton fibres. And the women from the Wayuu tribe, who reside along the Caribbean peninsula desert called La Guajira, are the craft masters of these beautiful stunners.
Taught from a young age, girls from the Wayuu tribe learn how to weave these striking bags as a right of passage. And each mother teaches her daughter how to weave in different stories, folklore, myths and traditions into each creation.
As such, the people take pride in these creations as these bags are a symbol of economic freedom, intelligence and artistic virtue. And with each bag taking up to a month of continuous meticulous work before being completed, it's no wonder globetrotting trendsetters have been treating these accessories as true works of art and showing them off in their news feeds.
The Wayuu tribe: A history
Craft tradition is incredibly important to the Wayuu people as the women are the centres of the households. Children take their mother's maiden names as their last names and decisions are made by the matriarchs. And as the women create, men focus on agriculture practices, tending to the animals as well as being masters over the outside chores.
Sprinkled along the border of Venezuela and Colombia, each Wayuu community is small and isolated by tradition as tribes did not want to mix up ownership of key necessities including goats, cows and crops.
As far as living conditions, the Wayuu people sleep in hammocks lovingly placed under a thatch roof made up of palm leaves, cactus and/or other shrubbery packed with dried mud to keep everything carefully placed and packed. And as far as supper time, just like many tribes in Fiji and partying college students alike, the Wayuu people use fire pits to cook up all sorts of delicious morsels.
For communal areas, they have similar set-ups that are used for business meetings, social gatherings, special events and the like. In general, these people do their best to live off the land as much as they can per tradition but some goods including rice and coffee are often purchased from shops.
Ethical fashion: A turning point
In recent years, ethical fashion practices paired with consumer awareness has brought sustainable textile practices to the forefront of the fashion industry. Many celebrities have even joined in and started thanking folks working on the assembly lines for their designer award season gowns and dresses.
And with this growing awareness, one-of-a-kind pieces from indigenous peoples including the Wayuu tribe are getting the opportunity to be exposed to a worldwide audience. In the past, ethical fashion meant a brown paper bag but today it means haute couture.
So if you would like to grab an authentic Wayuu mochila bag and be the envy of all your friends back home, make sure to ask your Colombian adventure tour guide for the best places to snag these hot accessories and feel good about helping indigenous tribes thrive in the process.
Visit the land of the Wayuus in Uncharted Colombia's La Guajira adventure tour.