REKINDLING THE ANCESTRAL FIRE

BECOMing 'KIN'

Indigenous traditions are at a crossroads.

On one hand, against great odds and despite centuries of colonialism, many indigenous traditions continue to thrive and even develop in vibrant and inspiring new directions.

• Indigenous musicians such as Supaman (Crow Nation) and Balam Ajpu (Maya) are blending traditional language, dance, and indigenous wisdom with new forms, like hip hop, to engage indigenous youth and reach wider audiences.

• Textile weaving arts, traditions with over 5,000 years of history in Central America, are vibrant and varied, with many weavers producing textiles for increasingly more accessible, high-end markets. And many women (the great majority of weavers) are self-organizing into cooperative business models for greater work autonomy.

• Many indigenous communities are turning traditional, land-based ways of living into sustainable educational and tourist enterprises that teach outsiders about indigenous culture.

• And more Native youth are pursuing an interest in the arts or fashion design with a focus on designs and motifs inspired by their tribes and upbringing.

Indigenous news outlets have publicized some examples such as the above, but many people remain unaware of such developments.

On the other hand, indigenous traditions still face many CHALLENGES.

Some of these challenges have existed since the beginning of colonialism. Others have come into play in the more recent past. But all indigenous cultures face some or all of these threats:

• Around the world, young indigenous people continue to migrate to the cities to find better jobs, moving away from the older generations who would normally pass onto them the traditional stories, language, and customs.

• Indigenous languages are being lost as tribes are fragmented and assimilated into mainstream culture. Half of the world’s 7,000 languages face extinction, and only 0.1 percent of the world’s people hold a full 80 percent of its languages.

• Not only are languages themselves lost, but a wealth of knowledge about the relationship to nature, plants, animals, medicines, land renewal techniques, farming, cultural histories, and calendric knowledge, as well as wisdom about rearing children, rites of passages, or peacekeeping accords, are lost with them.

• Many indigenous peoples face economic marginalization through systematic exploitation of their lands by extractive industries (such as mining, petrochemicals, and palm oil plantations, to name a few). For many indigenous peoples, land is life. 

• Seeds of indigenous food crops, such as maize, the traditional farming methods used to grow them, and the farmers who sustain their families with them, are threatened by the industrialization of agriculture and patent control of hybrid seeds by giant agribusinesses.

• Cultural appropriation of “tribal designs” abounds within the fashion industry, with little to no recognition given to the origins of the designs, their cultural significance or the Native designers. This undermines the value and cultural significance of traditional dress, reducing the deep meaning of such designs to their market value at the expense of real cultural understanding and respect.

• Mainstream culture and consumerist lifestyles are glorified and dominate the media, while the authentic voices and portrayals of indigenous cultures and traditions by indigenous people are marginalized. A lack of platforms and channels for cross-cultural dialogue and exchange leads to a lack of cultural understanding.

Xol Original stands right at the middle of these crossroads.

Since 2012, we’ve been building relationships with indigenous artisans, artists, musicians, shoemakers, farmers, poets, weavers, ceremonialists, and educators.

Ourselves shoemakers, we began with a shared meal and an inspired design collaboration with a single shoemaker in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala.

Since then we’ve helped make custom shoes for hundreds of people, and we've talked with hundreds more about indigenous traditions, artisanship, and realities. We’ve donated technical equipment and raw materials. 

But we’re not stopping there. In 2015, we became a non-profit with a mission to safeguard indigenous traditions.

• We’re developing the Xol Original Traveling Fashion and Art Exhibit, to incorporate original, interactive educational material about the rich diversity of indigenous traditions in Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States.

• We’re fostering collaboration between artisans in Guatemala and Mexico.

• Most importantly, we’re developing our Kinship Program and offerings to you, the supporter of our initiatives, to shine a spotlight on cross-pollinating creative endeavors by indigenous traditions around the world.

This is just a start. We have many more things planned for the coming years.

Walk with us, in your shoes.

Become Kin today and join the Xol Original family of small-scale, indigenous, beautiful craftwork, dedicated to preserving the roots of that work. As Kin, you pledge through both financial and spiritual means, to the restoration of indigenous cultures.