TIERRADENTRO is the denomination that it represents
to the products realized
by craftsmen belonging to the pastoral communities
of the Meseta Central of
the Province of the Chubut, in the Patagonia Argentina.
The
TIERRADENTRO handworks are inherited from ancient
knowledge transmitted from generation to generation,
and they constitute the material expression of
their culture.
Their
products are related to the social and fisical
environment of their aboriginal communities, and
for this reason they are the reflection of their
understanding of the world, their relationship
with nature and their lifestyle.
They
are completely handmade, supported by manual tools
and mechanical devices as the distaff, also known
as "rueca".
For
all that the TIERRADENTRO handworks are autochthonal,
exclusive and an authentic expression of the Patagonian
Meseta'cultural identity.
THE
HISTORY AND THE TIERRADENTRO´S PROYECT
Since
ancient times, when they were the only inhabitants
of the Patagonia, the aboriginal people developed
processes and techniques for the elaboration of
everyday use tools. The handmade stone tools,
the pottery, the ropewalk and the knitting constitute
the ancestral knowledge of those people.
Their
traditional lifestyle was abruptly affected by
the "Conquest of the dessert" at the
end of the XIX century. Some aboriginal were forced
to move to another lands. The constitution of
the population that integrates the Central Meseta
(table-land) region of Chubut dates from those
times.
The
financial difficulties that these communities
had to face caused the migration of some of their
people, and the progressive abandonment of many
practices that constitute their identity and ancestral
traditions.
To overcome such situation, a group of small producers,
artisans and researchers are working to rescue
and motivate the continuity of the cultural elements
typical of these people. At the request of the
support of the government of Chubut that attends
the rural communities and local governments that
constitute the Comarca (region), economic resources
are being generated to allow to value and reproduce
their lifestyle.
To
accomplish these goals is created TIERRADENTRO,
an organization that embrace the production of
artisan work in the Central Meseta of Chubut.
This
project intends to combine in armony the concepts
of enterprise and commerce with the principles
of cultural identity, enhancing production and
commerce circuits that allow the families to gain
new incomes and remain in their communities.
TIERRADENTRO
is, then, an enterprise in which the government,
the small producers the organizations and the
artisans of the Central Meseta of Chubut actively
participate, generating responsibilities and self-management,
and allowing the continuity of the communitarian
work and its benefits. With this project social
aid is replaced by sustainable work which allow
to augur a much more promissing future for these
communities'coming generations.
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