I got to know Mama Tierra during my first-ever visit to NEONYT: their colorful booth and unique craft stood out of the crowd, not only thanks to their beautiful creations but also their meaningful cause: Mama Tierra was not there for profits, but for indigenous people.
About Mama Tierra
Mama Tierra (which means “mother earth” in Spanish) is a non-profit organization working for and with indigenous people in their strive for self-determination. Founded in 2014, Mama Tierra found a way to support the Wayuu community: Located in an area called La Guajira in Colombia and Venezuela, this community consists of 600,000 indigenous people who live in extreme poverty, making them struggle for survival. Indigenous in these areas have no access to running water or electricity and climate change is making their land increasingly infertile. With such conditions, growing food is hardly possible. According to the RCN, and for these reasons, 50 Wayuu children under the age of five die each month in La Guajira.
Did you know? Indigenous people call themselves indigenous peoples to emphasize the social aspect.
Women play important roles in the Wayuu community, as they are in charge of the well-being of their families and communities. Inspired by their strength, heritage, knowledge, and craft, Mama Tierra‘s team knew one thing: as long as the Wayuu women are fine, their community and nature will thrive. In order to support their financial independence, Mama Tierra opened trade routes for the Wayuu, taking their ethnic craft to the global market. By commercializing ethnic accessories, Mama Tierra supports the financial independence of these women, allowing them to care for their children, families and themselves.
Women Empowerment, Fair Trade, Cultural Value, and a social anthropological-Based Approach: Mama Tierra’s Work
“Our ethnological research has taught us the importance of craftwork to the Wayuu society,” said Katherine Klemenz, CEO of Mama Tierra. “In their culture, it represents intelligence, perseverance, skill, and ability to learn, therefore, Mama Tierra only sells handicrafts made with the cultural heritage of the Wayuu, like the famous Wayuu bags. These bags are carefully handmade by skilled Wayuu women weavers, assuring the highest quality which should be appreciated financially”.
The Wayuu women are amongst the best weavers in the world: Their traditional designs are inspired by nature, and elements like river streams, animals or star constellations are often featured in them. Unfortunately, some companies know that well and use their skills to create faster, lower quality bags in unfair conditions. Due to the low wages, Wayuu women are rushed to make the bags faster, with simpler patterns and lower quality. By shortening the production time from ten days to two days, the bags lose not only the quality of craft but also the spiritual and cultural significance.
Mama Tierra made it their mission to provide these women with fair payment for their work and combines the indigenous hesitate with western trends, seasonal color styles, and motifs. “our goal is not-profits: our goal is that our partners, the Wayuu women who produce the crafts, would be able to continue and improve their own lives and their children’s and communities’ lives as well, sustain their children and send them to school”, said Katherine.
In addition to the adequately paid work, Mama Tierra supports the Wayuu with monthly nutrition programs, provides access to solar energy, supports children centers in Venezuela, promotes commercial activities of indigenous women in Colombia and even offers soap making workshops to women, as regular handwashing with soap is one of the most effective precautionary measures against diarrhea diseases.
Protecting Nature: Mama Tierra’s Sustainability
Nature is an integral part of the Wayuu culture and nature protection is at the core of their beliefs. That’s why all Mama Tierra bags are made with eco-friendly, sustainable and vegan materials that are better for the environment, for the animals, for the Wayuu health and for us all. Their bags are made with GOTS-Certified organic cotton, recycled PET bottles, and vegan leather alternatives like Piñatex, which is made from pineapple leaves waste, and the new Desserto cactus leather, which is gonna be used in their upcoming Isashii Collection.
Heartwarming Transparency
The thing that made me smile nonstop when getting my mama Tierra bags was the little tag attached to each of them: each of their bags comes with a very special tag that tells you who made your bag, what’s her name, who many children she has, the production date and location and even includes a picture of her and her kids! when seeing this tag, you realize how your purchase has helped a woman in need, her family and her community. It makes it much more personal and sentimental (at least for me!) and I really enjoy reading this information, and knowing how my bags came to life.
My Small Mama Tierra Collection
The first bag I got from Mama Tierra is a small, lovely bucket-bag made out of gots-certified organic cotton. With its dreamy vacay vibe, it would be a great bag to wear when strolling around the city or by the beach during the upcoming spring and summer, and it works well with my winter outfits, too! Inside this bag, you will probably find my evil eye-clutch: it is made out of recycled PET bottles and I use it as my wallet and really enjoy it. The little cardholder you see in the pictures is part of the new Terra collection and is made from the new, famous cactus leather “Desserto”- it was the first time I’ve seen someone using this material, and also the first time I’ve seen it in real life, so I was quite excited to try it! It works perfectly with my smaller bags, soft to the touch and has a beautiful green color. I use it to store my business cards, and it does its job 🙂
When purchasing an item from Mama Tierra, you are supporting the Wayuu community, indigenous women in need, their children and their whole community, education, and healthcare and the well-being of a unique, inspiring community. Don’t feel like buying anything? you can donate the organization right here. You are gonna make a big impact, even with a small contribution!
My Outfit: Tawast Clothing
If you like the top+culottes set I am wearing, you’d probably love the story behind it, too! It was custom-made for me by a small, vegan, slow, made-to-order Finnish brand called TAWAST. This little brand is run by one talented, sweet girl called Milla Tawast, who does it all by herself: from marketing and customer service to designing, stitching, and packing in plastic-free and sustainable packaging – Every TAWAST piece goes through Milla’s hands. All the garments are made to order, so she doesn’t produce more things into the world than there is a use for. The style of TAWAST is minimal and made to be as timeless as possible, in order to go from one season to another.
Quality, Comfort, and practicality are huge design factors and you can definitely feel them when wearing these items and as an addition to all these wonderful things- the brand is donating 5% of sales to animal sanctuaries. Transparency is in the heart of Milla’s business, and when getting your order, you will receive a card with all the information you’d need about the journey of your item, from the origin of the fabric to the amount of time it took Milla to make it. She even attaches a picture of your item during the process of making which is so cool! You can get 10% off all TAWAST clothing using the code NOA10 🙂 this small business is a wonderful one to support, too! You can watch my small video review here
What I’m wearing:
Bag, clutch, cardholder: Mama Tierra*
Top + Culottes: Tawast (use code “NOA10” for 10% off)* **
Boots: Avesu
Jewelry: Loft & Daughter
All Photography by the lovely Ksenia Poliak, Cruelty-Free & Vegan Makeup by my wonderful Paula Fay (Both Via Lumo Creative Studio)
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Until next time,
Noa
*This post was made in collaboration with non-profit Mama Tierra- Style with a Smile is proud to partner with them and support their mission. Please note, items marked with (*) were kindly gifted to me. Items or codes marked with (**) are part of an affiliate program. All the opinions shared are mine. To read about my work ethics, visit my ethics page.