Weaving Wisdom: Community Learning Through Wool Crafts

Fabiola Hernandez Cervantes

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.

Textile Wisdom

Figures 7. and 8. Piece by Cervantes using naturally dyed wool yarn dyed with cochineal. Lola Cervantes, 2024.

Figure 6. Representation of the meaning of Tsik+ri and parts. Drawing by Lola Cervantes, 2023.

Tsik+ri is a craft that features geometric patterns and visual configurations, similar to other types of crafts that have been produced in many regions and cultures. Tsik+ri is said to reflect the union between man, nature and the energies that surround them, transmitting protection and knowledge, and acting as a sacred symbol of the guardians of the hikuri (Bonilla & Nájera, 2021). According to Lumholtz (1900), the Wixárika made a tsik+ri for a newborn child, accompanied by a prayer asking it to watch over the child, thus making it a protective craft. Lumholtz (1900) interpreted this Indigenous craft as God’s Eye. As a result, the tsik+ri is now widely recognized by the name Ojo de Dios (spanish lang.).

According to Lumholtz (1900, p. 154), the meaning of tsik+ri for the Wixáritari is: "the power to see and understand unknown things." When a child is born, the central eye is knitted by the father, and then another ´eye´ is added for each year of the child's life for five years. It is believed that this ritual object protects a child and his mother before, during and after childbirth (Negrín, 2003). It is noteworthy to mention that some ritual objects are not meant to be seen by the teiwari – non-Wixáritari – (Neurath, 2003, Kantonen & Kantonen, 2017).

According to Kantonen and Kantonen (2017), tsik+ri´s design and colors symbolize the cardinal points. The most important Wixárika sacred sites can be found according to four general directions that do not equal compass points (Figure 6). In the Wixárika culture, in many ritual objects and artworks, north, south, east, west and center are often or usually represented by either a circle or a rhombus (Kantonen & Kantonen, 2017).

During peyote ceremonies, some natives of northwest Mexico and throughout the southwest U.S., have had visions in which they received guidance from gods who appeared before them in many shapes, through the eyes of the God. To show others the vision they had, they made the Tsik+ri using yarn colored with various types of berries, flowers, and other materials (Negrín, 2003). In the past, naturally dyed wool was used in the art and craft (Figures 7 - 8), but nowadays due to the price, time and resources, the Wixáritari use acrylic and other wool blended yarns that they acquire from craft shops. I came across this knowledge while talking with a Wixáritari artisan who works with yarn paintings.

The Tsik+ri, is a three-dimensional sacred object used in rituals and believed to offer protection and an ancient cultural symbol evoking spiritual associations for the Wixáritari (Negrín,1979). Although the Tsik+ri has its roots in the ancestral culture of the Wixáritari, it has transcended regions and borders and currently has become a globally recognized craft. Its aesthetic and meaning has captivated people from different cultures, expanding its presence in the artistic and decorative field.

In addition, recent studies show that similar artifacts have been found and identified among the Pano people in Peru, in Ucayali, as well as the Cashibo (who call them basimëti) and the Shipibo. Outside of Peru, they are used by the Cuna people of southern Panama; Similar artifacts were also important to The Aymara people, an Indigenous group native to the Andean regions of present-day Bolivia, Peru, and Chile (Ministerio de Cultura de Perú, Agencia Andina, 2018). The Cora people have similar artifacts found among the Tarahumara people, who call them wisi'ma (Lumholtz, 1900, p. 160). There is additional evidence that the Navajo and Cochiti in the Southwestern region of the United States – particularly around New Mexico and Arizona – have also adopted them (National Museum of the American Indian - Smithsonian, n.d).

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