Textile art in guanaco fiber: (im)material heritage of Patagonian peasantry. Past and present

Abstract

Textile crafts made from guanaco fiber provide a common thread through the pre-Colonial period of Patagonia, reclaiming native peoples’ collective community project. Under this assumption, the article seeks to uncover practices involving the relationship with wildlife and techniques for fiber harvesting, spinning and weaving on the wïtral (Mapuche loom) currently used in rural Patagonia and highly valued by local peasants – ancestral practices that had been silenced by genocide, the introduction of sheep, fencing off and exile from the land.

As a replicable example of sustainable use of guanaco, this paper describes an ex- perience in Rio Negro Province promoting guanaco fiber harvest from wild animals (fo- llowing Animal Welfare Protocols) by small rural producers and intended for use in local craft production circuits by traditional spinners and weavers from rural areas.

Since wild fauna is considered a “public natural resource”, and given the high value of guanaco fiber, the article highlights the urgent need to develop a Sectorial Agreement for guanaco similar to that existing for vicuña, with the aims of protec- ting peasants’ right of access to the resource and of preserving the species as well as the knowledge that makes crafts valuable heritage.