Art of Embera and Wounaan
Who are the embera and Wounaan?
The Wounaan are one of the seven indigenous peoples ( Bribi, Bugle, Embera, Kuna, Ngobe, Teribe and Wounaan) who live in the Republic of Panama. Wounaan are one of the smallest groups in the 7 indigenous. Now Embera and Wounaan are generally known as one and they were originally called the Chocó. The name "Embera" means "people".
Embera Wounaan Indian women make beautiful baskets from fibers and chunga palm or nahuala plant - materials that grow in the rainforest of Darién. Making these baskets represents the deepest tradition of Embera and Wounaan culture. To make the baskets they must be woven from the materials they collect. It takes many hours to complete making a Embera or Wounaan basket - each one is a one-of-a-kind piece. Also, each basket is completely naturally made - including the dyes to colour the baskets. The basket designs often include religious symbols or cultural information. The patterns on the baskets come from the women's imaginations, memories, their souls, and everything that surrounds them - rivers, mountains, fresh forests, and life within.
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The hosig di, a very fine basket made from the chunga palm are the most difficult to make and are very tightly constructed. These were traditionally only made by Wounaan women. They were also not greatly decorated and were generally just all natural with occasionally having red or black colouring on it.
The dyes and colours on the baskets are created from boiling pieces of the cocobolo wood - this creates the colour brown. To create black, the same thing is done, which then mud is added to create the black colour. The colour red is created from extracting the colour from the achiote berry. The yellow colour comes from taking the colour of a root called yukiya.
Tagua is a very famous handicraft made by the Embera Wounaan native group. A tagua nut comes from several species of rainforest palm. Which then, they carve to recreate different kinds of animals that live in the tropical rainforests. One nut carving is about the size of an egg. Tagua art was originally used for making buttons, jewelry, dice, chess pieces, and cane handles.