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Janet Nkubana. Photo by Harvey Morgan II

Janet Nkubana is grateful. The co-founder of Gahaya Links in Rwanda, a group of women artisans whose basket-weaving has provided vital income for them following the Rwandan genocide of 1994, deserves gratitude herself from many people. But she’s clear that the International Folk Art Market has been instrumental in this amazing story of recovery and empowerment.

She puts it like this: “Thank you for being a beacon of hope to many of us, your support has touched so many lives in our country and has restored our dignity and values.”

Rwandan women have for centuries passed on to their daughters the skills to weave baskets using a variety of organic reeds and grasses, and carrying designs with longstanding cultural meanings.

Following the genocide, Gahaya Links was founded as a way of turning Rwanda’s ancient basket weaving tradition into a source of livelihood for the rural women who found themselves without any means of support.

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Orijyn artisan, Bandith Ladpakdy

Having a sense of belonging and community is something for which we all can be thankful. For the artisans of Orijyn and the Saoban cooperative in Laos, the Market provides a community that spans the globe.  From the inspiration provided by a network of fellow artisans, to the tireless determination of Market staff and volunteers, to the positive reinforcement from enthusiastic Market patrons – Orijyn’s artisans find strength, belonging, pride and a shared appreciation of the importance of handicrafts in sustaining culture and tradition. It’s the people in the Market community for whom they are the most thankful.

“Since our acceptance into the show, the Santa Fe Folk Art Market has been a blessing,” says Mark Sloneker of Orijyn. “It was not just the great sales, though the sales have been very helpful in building revenue. It’s the network that has long-term value.”

Orijyn first brought its exquisite silver jewelry from Laos to the Market in 2009.  Orijyn works with PADETC, a non-profit school in Laos that houses Saoban, a silversmith cooperative working to preserve traditional art forms by teaching a younger generation and providing education and healthcare to artisans.

Sloneker says the Market community has raised the credibility level of Orijyn’s artisans and increased the confidence of prospective wholesalers in the cooperative’s ability to develop and maintain professional business relationships. The increase in revenue from direct sales at the Market, twenty new wholesale relationships, catalog and online sales with National Geographic and two large orders from QVC have had a direct impact on the lives of artisans and their families in Laos.

The new revenue has enabled Orijyn to train new staff and add 50+ artisans to the Saoban silversmith group.  Its new microloan program is providing supplies to artisans that cannot afford to make the initial investment in materials.  Programs to teach accounting and co-op development, as well as basic healthcare have all increased.  It has opened a store in Vientiane to capture the tourist trade and develop the Saoban brand. Sloneker is proud to report that the store is both self-sustaining and generating new wholesale customers from around the world.

Students and artisans with the Saoban handcraft division of the PADETC

The Saoban handcraft division is leading the way for the other divisions within PADETC – becoming a profit center and a model for supply chain development, branding and marketing.  The managers are now teaching other Lao entrepreneurs how to build and sustain a business.  Orijyn and Saoban are reaching their goals through the support and assistance of the Market community.

“We now have lifelong friends around the world,” says Sloneker. “We share our experiences and trials, and offer each other support and ideas to improve the work we do. We don’t feel alone in our endeavors”.

Without a doubt, a community to be thankful for.

Josnel Bruno

Josnel Bruno, from Croix-des-Bouquets in Haiti, makes beautiful recycled oil drum bowls and platters, and 2012 was the first year in which his work was available at the Market.

Visa problems meant Josnel himself was unable to attend, but the impact on his life from the sale of his work at the Market has been profound.

Financial support from the Market and sponsorship from HAND/EYE Fund, covered the cost of his booth and longtime friend and supporter of Haitian artists Susan Tselos worked at the booth on his behalf.

Keth Recker of HAND/EYE (and Market Board Member) says, “HAND/EYE Fund’s roots in Haiti are deep. We published an entire issue of HAND/EYE Magazine focused on the art, craft, design and spiritual traditions of Haiti. We have operated, with funding from the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund, an artisan development program called the Artisan Business Network. And we have had a strong artisan grants program since 2010.

“Among the grants we are most proud of are our sponsorships of artists headed to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market. Included in this group are bead-and-sequin artist Mireille Delisme and metalworker Josnel Bruno.”

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Naema Birala. Photo: © Bob Smith

Moroccan jewelry maker Naema Birali from the co-operative  Artisanat des Femmes de Khenifra was a first-time attendee at the Market this year. The co-operative has been working with Marcia Newlands from the Peace Corps to reflect on their experiences in Santa Fe, and plan for the best use of the money they earned.

The women of the co-operative shared their earnings based on the sales of each of their items, and they put 30% of their money back into the co-operative. Marcia explains, “They will also use some of the money to buy supplies to make more jewelry.  However, they feel that they can now look to making some sort of difference in the community if they are invited back, and are discussing possible activities.  One thing they want to do is to teach other young women the art of making the jewelry.  They also want to study English and several of them are joining together to pay a teacher to help them.”

The money the women took home will go to help with day-to-day expenses, such as school supplies and clothes for their children, or perhaps buying a refrigerator for their homes, or a fan to help with the heat (it averages 110 degrees and higher for at least three months every summer). Read the rest of this entry »

A documentary film coming soon

“Silk weaving originated with our ancestors; it’s what sustains us,” said Ramalene, a traditional silk weaver from Sandrandahy, Madagascar. She is a member of a collective who appears in a new documentary called “The Silkies of Madagascar.” Award-winning filmmaker David Evans tells the story of how access to sustainable, global, fair-trade markets preserves an ancient tradition, empowers women, and changes the future for their children. A Peace Corps volunteer and a folk art visionary team up to help the Silkies of Madagascar.

Meet Rado and Natalie at booth #59 at the Market.

Market artist, Zilo Bong will board his first plane and travel 6,700 miles to Santa Fe

A local boy at a traditional Vanuatu ceremony. Photo: Paul Ross

This year the Market will be seeing a new face from a place that’s about as far from Santa Fe as one could get: artist Zilo Bong from Vanuatu.

If you haven’t heard of Vanuatu, you are not alone. Vanuatu (formerly New Hebrides) is a group of 83 Pacific Rim islands nestled 1,000 miles off the coast of Australia, just west of Fiji, some 6,700 miles away from Santa Fe. Needless to say, it isn’t on the well-trodden voyaging paths of most individuals.

Travel writer Judie Fein wrote that she felt like “a pioneer encountering little-known people and places” when she visited the islands.

Check out Judie’s story and Paul’s photos on the Huffington Post: Exploring Exotic Vanuatu In The South Pacific

There, she and her husband Paul Ross, a photographer, were able to explore and photograph some of the culture and artwork of the people.

They even learned a few words in the common language for the islands, a pigeon English called Bislama.

She wrote, “The most important Bislama word I learned is ‘kastom.’ It refers to the deep, fascinating tribal culture that has persisted in spite of the colonizers’ and missionaries’ attempts to wipe it out. When I visited ‘kastom’ villages and experienced the intriguing ancient ceremonies, music, dances and beliefs of Vanuatu, I was Marco Polo.”

Fein and Ross helped the artists from Vanuatu apply to the Market this year. Zilo Bong, who has never left Vanuatu, will get on his first plane to come to Santa Fe and represent his work and others in his village.

Zilo will display his beautiful drums and folk art at Booth #79 during the Market.  And on Saturday, July 14, at El Museo Cultural, join Fein and Ross for a special Vanuatu event, featuring video and photographs, as well as an authentic kava ceremony performed by artist Zilo Bong himself. The event starts at 7:30 p.m. and is not to be missed!

- Emilou Kinsella

Guest blogger, Emilou Kinsella is a Montreal ex-pat living in the Bay Area who loves people’s stories, be they told in person or through podcast.

A photo essay on the weavers of Sandrandahy, Madagascar

For artists in the remote Madagascan village of Sandrandahy, weaving a single raw-silk scarf takes four to six weeks and requires the work of 15 to 30 people. But few outsiders ever saw these intricate weavings until last year, when Peace Corps volunteer Natalie Mundy helped local artists bring their work to the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market for the first time. Photographer and filmmaker David Evans, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, traveled to Sandrandahy in April to film a documentary about Federation Sahalandy, a local cooperative of about 80 weavers. Evans’ images capture the essence of this revered folk art tradition.

Sandrandahy sits in the central highlands of Madagascar, seven to eight hours by car from the capital city of Antananarivo. Much of the impoverished country, located off the east coast of Africa, is inaccessible by road. Extended families live together in traditional two-story homes—shown here on the outskirts of Sandrandahy—built of mud and dung, adobe bricks, and thatch roofs and set among rice terraces. Some houses in the village center have electricity for a couple of hours a night, but as with most communities in Madagascar’s remote, rugged interior, there is no running water or fresh-water wells.

Here women harvest rice at the end of the rainy season. “Weaving isn’t the only thing they do in Sandrandahy,” says Evans. “This is a subsistence culture. Everyone has to grow rice.” Village children help with harvest by taking double handfuls of the rice stalks and beating them on a wooden base until the kernels fly loose.

Weaving raw silk is an elaborate process. First, wild silkworms must be harvested from the country’s tapia forests. Eighty percent of Madagascar is deforested, so the cost of silkworms continues to rise. Next, weavers remove the silkworms and stack the silk cocoons on top of each other on long wooden nails, as pictured left. Then they boil and wash the cocoons several times and throw them against walls to dry.

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