A discovery of Mapuche weaving & the women behind it.

SUR TEXTURES – PATRICIA A TRECANAO Wüitral Casa del Telar.

I’ve been living in Pucon for almost 3 years & I’m always blown away by the hidden magic among the trees & up in the mountains. Today’s destination was up in Menetue Alto, south east of tiny town called Catripulli en route to the Argentinian border.

A dirt pebbled road, almost clayish, all up hill & kind of in the ground is the road to Patrcia’s taller (studio in spanish) & home. It’s super campo (country) & I can imagine no one would ever think that green pastures like this could exist off the highway, but they do. I took my parents 4×4 & it was a little tricky, a lot of back wheel drifting, I was also referring to the location Patricia had sent me via Whatsapp for direction.

Much like the Araucaria region, the land is home to the Mapuche, as is Menetue Alto where Patricia familys land is. This is where she grew up. A panoramic view of volcan Villarrica & Quetrupillian, Coihue trees, a lot of greenery, quaint farm cabins painted in cute colours like blue & green, lots of chickens bopping about the tiny road, fresh clean air & lots of birds chirping, it’s like the opening scene of a Disney film.

Patricia is one of 4 daughters, one day her mother gathered all her daughters in a room & told them that they need to learn to spin, dye & weave because one day they will have to weave clothes & home goods for their families & also jumpers for their dad & blankets, socks, beanies & gloves for the brutal winters in the south. Patricia is the only one out of her 4 sisters who continued to weave to this day.

Weaving has never been Patricia’s main source of income but more a necessity. She told me that “back in the day” they would either shear the sheep or trade veggies for sheep wool with a neighbour. Then they’d wash, spin & weave or knit what they needed. Getting to town meant jumping on a horse & carriage & travelling a total of 5-6 hours or even an entire day to get to & from the closest town, Pucon a Villarrica.

Patricia only weaves when she’s asked for something specific like a poncho for a man in town & or when she has time, sweaters for a family that discovered her at the fair when they were visiting on summer vacation. After her mother died, she has little time to weave as she was left to care for her father full time who she says is 96 years old but according to him he is 100+ because recording births 100 years ago in the south of Chile was a little more non existent, which I can imagine because of how isolated they live from the “real world” & also because they’re people of the land.

In a disappointed & sad tone of voice she tells me that when she dies the craft of Mapuche weaving her mother taught her will die with her, the only legacy she leaves behind is the weaves she has sold to people or what she made for her nieces & nephews- “Los jóvenes no le importan esto, la artesania, de donde viene.. No están interesando en aprender, se pierde la cultura”, (Young people aren’t interested in this, in the artisanal crafts of the country, where it comes from. It’s not important, this is how we lose culture.)

There’s this cute little basket full of scissors sitting on the teaching table, I picked it up because it is the perfect size basket to hang off your wrist & run errands with- one of those baskets you’d see some influencer promoting on Instagram & referring to a fashion icon from the 70’s #birkinbasket. I’m a basket collector so naturally I pick it up & hang it off my forearm, ‘I love it Patricia, I just love it, where did you get it from? I want one!” She tells me that she took a basketry course about 15 years ago, a man came to the town & taught a free class. When the man asked her what kind of basket she wanted to weave she said, “One that fits up to 7-10 scissors for when I have my teaching weaving studio”, my heart just melted with the sweet humbleness of her story. Patricia never planned on having a weaving studio, but as she grew older & never married, with her father, they began to build her little studio to teach weaving & dye wool. Her teaching studio is this lighthearted space with white walls, a centre table with 7 mini looms, a cotton sheet hanging on the wall with dyed wool & the plants used to create the colour labelled under them, larger size looms around the room, a big basin to wash the wool & a wood oven to dye the wool on.

And in one corner sitting in 3 bags, all her current pieces she kindly unpacks to show me. The pieces are incredible, all naturally dyed, hand woven on a Wüitral loom, unique, one of a kind designs. The raw sheep socks & slippers have been my saviour & maintained the heat of my body during the winters, they’re literally the only socks I wear during winter or on the plane. Beanies, headbands, tube scarves, bed runners & bed feet rugs, textiles to last a lifetime unforgettable ones- Patricia sells them when she has time to set up at a fair.

Everything she shows me is hand dyed by her, wool from local sheep & woven on her loom at the home where her father lives. Her studio is frequented by students from the world & government organised groups coming to learn exactly what her mother taught her.

Wüitral is the name Patricia has given her brand. I hope you get to meet her, feel her textile creations, buy them & maybe even come & learn from her one day. Thank you Patricia for inviting me to your land, home & studio. And for telling your story & teaching me & those who read this. Esta luego amores, thanks for reading.

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