Embroidery, Resilience, and Discovery

This chapter explores how embroidery as a visual mapping tool can address situations of historical trauma and increase community resilience through a process of conscientisation and grassroots organizing. The author will draw from her fieldwork with a group of indigenous Wayuu women in the Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia, a region that has been significantly affected by climate change and decades of armed conflict. The women created embroidered maps of their daily lives, analyzed these maps for common themes and challenges, identified the root causes of the oppression they experience daily, and discussed action steps to address these power disparities. The author suggests that embroidery is a powerful healing tool for engaging indigenous women in a dignified manner by illuminating their narratives of resilience in order to address historical trauma.