7 - Spinning Our Stories

Susanna Suchak (April 2006)

All of us have heard, "A stitch in time saves nine " And we also know that it means if you take care of a problem while it's small you won't have a bigger problem to deal with later. Or, as Dr. Who likes to say, "A stitch in time takes up space." And I say, "you cannot be invisible if you take up space?"1

Spinners and knitters know that you must use what methods, tools, and tricks that you have to overcome invisibility; over centuries we have labored over our wheels, spindles or needles for utilitarian purposes ? creating garments that kept out the cold, the wind, the wet, wet sea, but also so that we would be remembered. For we also know that women's work has traditionally been taken for granted and devalued in the process.

Many people watching us meditatively sitting at spinning wheels or with knitting needles in hand, praying with each stitch, may have been lulled into thinking that this woman's work is of no great import ? certainly not as vital as art or commerce. But they have not met the women I want to introduce you today. Come with me. Listen, to the buzz of voices, the clackety-clack of knitting needles, the hum and whirr of spindles, the songs, the laughter.

Those sounds are the sounds of women deemed too poor, too domestic, too simple to compete in this chaos we have named globalization. They have refused to be blanketed with oblivion. Instead they are "picking up stitches"2 and knitting in a new direction. These women are challenging and changing the world's assumptions about women engaged in woman's work.

Those involved in these worker-owned women's collectives of Latin America are opposing silence and an imposed order, because they do not wish to cast off their language, traditions and culture; because they refuse to be assimilated into an urban lifestyle; because they challenge the god of consumption and perpetual economic growth that is Globalization. Perhaps "fairer" sex doesn't equate with "weaker" but "principled".

Actually, globalization, "is not really global ? it is an uneven process in which there is a cleavage between skyscraper economies and shanty towns." Some believe that Globalization stems from and bears the same racist attitudes of Imperialism, the Father of Colonialism, the bastion of patriarchy. Shantytowns thrive on the backs of exploited workers including children working in sweatshops. These sweatshops highlight the widening gap between rich and poor3 and the "feminization of poverty"4.

In North America we call what these women are doing "community development". But this is a new word to describe an old thread that we are recycling in different ways. At it's best it is a textural and contextual process. It works best as a consultative and democratic partnership of equals. It builds community from the infrastructure up in much the same way that a garment is knit, stitch by patient stitch. It is complicated and simple at the same time. It cannot be rushed. A hurried process creates a garment that is fragmented, left unfinished, or worse one so ugly that it is discarded to the bottom of the closet ? a waste of effort, time and money. Stitches must not be dropped else we create a garment full of holes that require us to "darn"5.

Communities have always traded with one another. Ancient cultures have left petroglyphs outlining trade routes that span the Americas. It was, in times past, a win-win system to obtain goods you needed, but didn't have the raw resources to produce yourself. Today, we might call it Fair Trade because that is what it always was ? somewhere along the way it lost it's sense of right direction ? trade became consumptive and unbalanced.

But lately a new facet has been embroidered onto trade practices that is helping it to find its way back to what it always was ? fair. And that is listening to cultural wisdom, tapping into ancient practices and using resources close at hand. Trading not only goods, but the stories of their lives. The original peoples of Patagonia have a story they tell about "The Gentle People". I'd like to share it with you.

Long, long ago this land6 was home to a community of gentle people who were as happy and content as they could be. They lived in complete harmony with one other and with all the natural world around them.

Theirs was a beautiful land, crisscrossed by clear streams. The countryside was blanketed with sweet-smelling flowers, because when one was picked, two more grew in its place. All the wild animals, even the shyest creatures, were fearless and tame. Life was so good that the gentle people often could think of nothing to wish for.

Everything they needed was right at their fingertips, but they were forbidden one thing ? to journey so far north that they could no longer see the stars of the Southern Cross. Since no one had any desire to leave, this one rule posed no problems.

One day a member of the community chanced upon a bird unlike any seen before. Its shimmering feathers were the colours of the rainbow and its song was so haunting that it stopped the person in their tracks. Shortly, the desire to capture the bird overtook the person, but each time they approached close enough the bird flitted a short distance away ? just out of reach. So the person would advance and the bird would flit away. Advance ~ Flit ~ Advance ~ Flit ~ Advance ~ Flit. This went on so long that soon they entered the forbidden forest. A place so dark that you cannot see your hand in front of your face.

Suddenly they were surrounded by fierce looking people with ragged and pale skins, yellow pointy teeth and weapons in their hands, who immediately killed the beautiful bird. This violent act so frightened our gentle person that he fled in horror. Running until he thought his heart would burst until finally he was home ? surrounded now by the community of gentle people.

Everyone became very sad to hear that the greedy and selfish people would now be able to find them. They were no longer safe. For the first time ever the gentle people could not smile because they were sad and afraid.

Together they brainstormed their options to protect their lovely paradise. They could arm themselves like the fierce people, but no one wanted to become greedy and angry and fierce, so they decided that was not their best option. Finally, a leader jumped up and called, "follow me!" Off the gentle people hurried up and up into the hills, and not a moment too soon. The greedy and selfish people were hot on their heels, trampling flowers and kicking up the stones as they came.

The people ran, until they reached a river. The leader told them once they crossed to the other side they would be changed. So they splashed into the shallows and as each one emerged on the far shore they were turned into guanacos, relatives of the gentle llama and alpaca. Here they remain, gentle creatures gathered in herds.

Now, it is said that whenever a guanaco dies, a gold-tipped blue flower springs up in its place. Whenever we see the Bird-of-Paradise flower we are reminded to live in harmony with all people and the natural world as once the gentle people did long ago.

Like you I love this imagery; I too long to live in harmony with all people and through research I discovered some gentle people who love the guanacos, llama and alpaca and the Andes where they originate ? people and gentle animals. I'd like to take you there, so let's travel to Peru, high in the Andes where hundreds of rivers are born, where we will meet some other gentle, perhaps even a gentle, angry people.

These people, women, focus on fibre production as a means to end the systemic poverty in their country while competing in a global economy within the context of fair trade. Rather than engage in the trade war of globalization, they choose to follow the old ways, living in harmony with the creatures and the natural world around them while creating a sustainable economy for their communities.

Peru is well known for its luxurious long staple cotton called pima. Another ancient cotton strain is naturally colored and indigenous to Peru, where it "can be grown without irrigation"7. It comes in a gentle palette of soft white, beige, rust, avocado, copper, brown, chocolate and mauve. This naturally colored cotton is grown without using pesticides and since it is naturally colored, does not require any harsh chemical dyeing.

The cotton is grown in small rural garden plots by local native women artisans who often inherit cotton trees from their mothers. They process their product from deseeding to copo in a refurbished textile mill near Arequipa, where another group of women belonging to an urban women's cooperative is involved in the further textile processing required to ready the copo or batt into yarn for market. It's mom and daughter shops all the way to the world market!

An important offshoot of this operation, and one which all involved are extremely proud is that the growing of "native cotton has already replaced several thousand hectares of clandestinely cultivated coca leaf from which the fatally addicting cocaine paste is synthesized."8 (http://www.perunaturtex.com/meaningf.htm ) How much more effective than the "war on drugs" has ever been!

Another unique Andean product is organic suri alpaca. To spinners and knitters, this fibre is pure luxury ? a dream to handle as well as to wear, but rare and thus expensive to produce.9 Or is it? In operation since 1995 is a 7,000-hectare farm belonging to a regional NGO, which might well be Heifer International ( http://www.heifer.org/ ). It is estimated that more than 700 families will benefit eventually from the improved nutrition and higher income generated through assistance in herd management, nutrition and business opportunities. Business opportunities provided by an ever growing, more educated world market.

Alpaca, llama and guanaco are from the camelid family ? claimed to be the "livestock of the future" because these gentle creatures are easy to raise in an environment most of us would consider hostile. These creatures are at home in the rocky terrain and thin air of the altiplano of the Andes, and they are very environmental-friendly!10

The Internet's creation of a perceived global village has created a sisterhood where word spreads fast and conscience does not permit one knitter to exploit another. These North American and Western European artisans do not knit for utilitarian purposes and they have disposable income they feel justified in spending on this kind of luxury fibre. Not only does it feel good running through the fingers, it feels good to receive the compliments when they wear or share the garment and they express a feel-good satisfaction when they fairly compensate the people who produce these raw materials for their use. It is a win/win/win situation and truly contributes to a global community within the context of a fair and just global economy.

The shrinking world and the media have created consumers who are starting to question how they can be part of the solution through better-educated purchasing choices. Now, it is time to question retailers about their supply practices. And to this end I have given each of you the website for Coop America ( http://www.coopamerica.org/ ) who publishes a guide to retailers who fail to meet their "no-sweatshops" criteria. Is it any surprise that Wal*Mart received an "F" grade?

This "radical revolution of values"11 espoused by Martin Luther King Jr. recognizes that within the threat of globalization there needs to be a "shift from a ?thing-oriented' society to a ?person-oriented' society."12 13From King's perspective we must shift our focus from "profit motives and property rights" to conquer what he calls, "the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism"14. As consumers we have a very powerful role to play in shifting this focus. Indeed, we are the only people with the will to do this.

Community economic development is an empowerment process that is in some ways similar to teaching someone to knit. The project must grasp their imagination, the threads and yarns must delight their eye and hand, the work must be their own. However, those resources often are out of the financial reach of the new learner. We can subsidize the learner from our affluent stash. The new "knitter" must know that there is help when it is needed while they build skills and someone to share their successes and frustrations. New knitters need mentors.

If you would like an opportunity to mentor women in northern Peru there is a way. It's called Heart-Links ( http://www.heart-links.org/ ). With work awareness trips annually they are helping to break the cycle of poverty and empowering women to preserve their dignity, to feed their children and knit together their broken communities all the while allowing people like us to build friendships, share struggles and scarcity, and come home enriched beyond measure. Another win/win!

Just as a well-knit garment is beautiful and practical, these worker-owned women's collective projects are usefully beautiful and beautifully useful. These women have used a traditional, domestic art to "win back the right to say her own word, to name the world" as Paulo Freire15 would say. And you can help her to knit together her community, with just a little effort, or a few dollars. You can make all the difference, that one stitch in time, that one special hue, that perfect glint of silver thread that will make the world tapestry sparkle, like a pure, clear river in the Andes. The women of Peru and I thank you.