About Us
The Wayuu are an indigenous community of Colombia. The women of the community hand-produce wonderfully designed and individually hand-made bags (kato’u in their language Wayunaiki). The designs and patterns of these bags carry specific meanings in Wayuu culture and are central to their cultural traditions and economy. Each bag that you buy is an original design and a one off. While others, such as the monocolour bags also sold here, have been given a modern twist. At Akuaipa Artisans we work with local members of the Wayuu community to support the survival and growth of their language, weaving traditions and other cultural practices. This philosophy is expressed in our company’s name. Akuaipa means culture, tradition as well as knowledge in the Wayuu’s language. We buy the wonderfully designed and individually hand-made bags (kato’u in Wayunaiki) from our Wayuu colleagues at fair trade prices to support their artisanal traditions. We also designate 10% of our profits to events and institutions that strengthen Wayuu cultural knowledge within and outside of the Wayuu community. We work directly with local indigenas schools and schoolteachers. With our wonderful Wayuu colleagues, we carry out workshops in these schools using bilingual Wayuu literature written in Spanish and Wayunaiki to help the next generation learn and preserve the Wayuu language and culture. For an example of this see following the link to read about the impact project with the Wayuu community carried out by Dr Paul McAleer, formerly with the University of Hull:
We will continue to support Dr McAleer's project which now has over 10 participating schools. We also work with the Wayuu institution Ana’a Akuaipa, which is dedicated to disseminating Wayuu knowledge among the Wayuu community.
Photo of Workshop in Wayuu school organised by Dr Paul McAleer's educational project.