Exposition

Weaving Wisdom: Community Learning Through Wool Crafts (2025)

Fabiola Hernandez Cervantes
open exposition

About this exposition

Wixárika crafts are a testament to resilience and adaptability, they have been preserved since pre-Hispanic times. The evolution of some of these over the past century, influenced by global movements in the 1960s, has created a niche for Wixárika art and craft. Influenced by tourism, new styles, colors, and symbols have been introduced, serving as a form of resistance against the erasure of traditional knowledge and practices 500 years after the colonial period. Tsik+ri has gained global popularity as a method to create decorative geometric yarn pieces, but this craft not only provides insights about Indigenous cultures, experiences, and embodied knowledge, but also raises discussion about land and cultural appropriation by non-Indigenous individuals. In this exposition, I present a series of workshops held in the region of the Arctic Circle, where a development project is taking place to improve and enhance the use of sustainable wool by revitalizing craft heritage in a multicultural way. The method of this study is Art-Based Action Research. The study makes visible an essential feature of this textile artifact: its ability to transcend geopolitical and cultural borders, embodying a unique fusion of heritage and contemporary design. Indigenous craft practices from the Mesoamerican Wixárika culture, such as the Tsik+ri, are rooted in the multicultural identity of Mexico. The workshops served as platforms to communicate the culture and challenges of Wixaritari to Arctic and international contexts. This research sustains that implementing craft practices in the context of contemporary art requires profound knowledge and respect for its origins.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsindigenous knowledge, decolonization, sustainability, art based research, community learning, ritual textiles, wool crafts
date28/11/2023
published12/06/2025
last modified12/06/2025
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationThe University of Lapland
copyrightFabiola Hernandez Cervantes
licenseCC BY-NC-ND
languageEnglish
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/2410897/2410898
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/ruu.2410897
published inRUUKKU - Studies in Artistic Research
portal issue22. Indigeneities


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nametsikuri - cervantes
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nametsikuris woven by cervantes
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nametsikuri aurora
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namekummapuu2
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namekuuma puu_artwork
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namedrawing of tsikuri example
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namerealte north_collage _ symposium workshop-cochineal piece
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namemap of wixarika
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namecollage tsikuri workshop akaslompolo
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namecollage2 tsikuri workshop akaslompolo_installation group
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namerealte north_collage _ symposium workshop
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namewkshp tbgobra collage
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namewksp tbgobra detail
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nametsikuri instructions_idea1
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