Artisanal crafts and women's entrepreneurship as a tool for cultural preservation in Peru

People watch a fashion show of clothes made by women artisans during the Chazuta Fair, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/ FPP

On 14 February, indigenous women entrepreneurs from the San Martin region gathered at a craft fair where they exhibited their traditional products, from handmade soap and traditional pottery to hand-woven chumbes (traditional belts) and clothes incorporating indigenous iconography in their designs. 

The president of the Federation of Indigenous Kichwa Peoples of Chazuta (FEPIKECHA), Marisol García Apagüeño, welcomed visitors to Chazuta, a small village on the banks of the Lower Huallaga River.  

 "[This is] A fair that reflects the struggle of the indigenous peoples here in the San Martin region. All the work you see here is based on the protection and defence of our territories," she said. 

The fair was an opportunity for the women to highlight the importance of the traditional knowledge they possess and their role in preserving it and ensuring it is passed on to the next generation. FPP attended the fair and spoke to some of the women who participated.  

"Each one of us have our own products to offer, according to our area of expertise. Whether in food, in soaps, we are here with dresses, embroidery, right? Everything there is to offer.” - Leovino Chujandama Pinedo. 

"I feel happy and content seeing how many women have taken up from their ancestors to live again, what their grandmothers have lived and done. And we are now holding this fair with a lot of energy and a lot of joy". - Loida Cajanama Pizango 

To learn more about ceramics, which is a National Cultural Heritage of Peru, read the conversation with two women ceramists here.

Leovina Chujundama Pinedo sits at her stall selling her handmade natural products at the Women's Fair, Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP

Traditional soaps made from coconut oil with ancestral plants from the Amazon rainforest. Women's Fair, Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP 

Juana María Chujandama Amasifuén and her handmade garments with traditional colours and iconography. Women's Fair, Chazuta, Peru. February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP 

My craft is textiles, I studied fashion design. I make all the clothes with Chazutina iconography, always preserving our culture, our tradition. Because all the embroidery is the iconography from here. And it's mostly based on medicinal plants, flowers, fauna, everything. Each one has a meaning.  

And what relationship does your craft have with your land and the territory? 

We work in a way that conserves nature. For example, the garments are all handmade. We do not harm the flora and fauna. For example, if we use feathers in our earrings, it is because we found them fallen on the ground. We don't destroy our environment, we don't kill our animals. 

Juana in her workshop sewing clothes to sell. Chazuta, Peru, March 2023. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP 

What cultural, economic, social and spiritual significance do the garments have? For example, the colours. 

The colours of the iconography are red, black and white. For example, our grandmothers always used this, this black stone to give colour to the jars, because before it was only the iconography on the jars, on the ceramics. But now, in these times, we are also putting it on the dresses, always preserving our tradition.   

And it is also very important to teach our children to the generations to come. So that it is not lost. Because it is part of us, our identity, our essence. 

Loida Cajanama Pizango at her stall at the women's fair in Chazuta, with her chumbes and other handmade products. Peru, February 2025. Credit: Frances Jenner/FPP 

I am 65 years old, but nobody thinks I am that age. I am 65 and that has served me well. 

I have had my house, my things in my home so that I could raise my siblings. I worked from that age, I finished primary school at ten years old, but I don't regret not having studied more, I have learned many things from my ancestors. That has lifted my spirits a lot. I am well strengthened in my Kichwa Yanayaku community because I have many women teaching this learning. I have many elders who are ingenious in having their work in hand so that we can mobilise and keep our minds busy so that we don't have a stroke, so that we don't get depressed. 

I am well strengthened with everything. I have my medicinal plants for all kinds of illnesses. Another time I am going to bring my medicinal plants twig by twig to show you what it is for. How you are going to take it, how you are going to make it and all those things.  

How do you feel looking at the fair that has been set up today? 

I feel happy and content seeing how many women have taken up their ancestors to live again, those that grandmothers have lived and done. And we are now holding this fair with a lot of energy and a lot of joy.  

And where did you learn to make the crafts you do?  

In my community. I am from the native community. That's where I made the decision to see the grandmothers do what they did. And when I had my daughter I said; I'm not going to live my whole life waiting for my husband to bring me something to put food on the table. No, I have to do my own thing, I have it in my mind.