Mapuche designs

Aconcagua haversack decorated with fringe and with a külpuwe ñimin design, which meaning is associated with a sacred snake. (photo by Heinrich Sanguinetti)

All our handmade haversacks and saches are decorated with symbols depicting geometry patterns, inspired by the rich Mapuche textile tradition. Each design has a meaning, as described below:

Star design.

Arms in a hugging gesture, suggesting care and love.

Symbol of the eyes, windows to the soul and the physical body.

Common to all Andean cultures, it is a symbol of status used by the chief.

Symbol of the heavens and life; also a cosmological symbol of the world.

The Plan of the Master Weaver
Author Unknown

Our lives are but fine weaving
That God and we prepare,
Each life becomes a fabric planned
And fashioned in His care.

We may not always see just how
The weaving intertwines,
But we must trust the Masters hand
And follow His design.

For He can view the pattern
Upon the upper side,
While we must look from underneath
And trust in Him to guide.

Sometimes a strand of sorrow
Is added to His plan,
And though it's difficult for us,
We still must understand.

That it's He who fills the shuttle
It's He who knows what's best,
So we must weave in patience
And leave to Him the rest.

Not till the loom in silent
And the shuttles cease to fly,
Shall God unroll the canvas
And explain the reason why.

The dark threads are as needed
In the Weaver's skillful hand,
As the threads of gold and silver
In the pattern He has planned.

Unique inspiration, original design

Many of our products are decorated with a pampa trim (known as "guarda pampa" in spanish), which reproduces a traditional textil design of the Mapuche culture. The Mapuche are a wide-ranging ethnicity composed of various groups that shared a common social, religious and economic structure, as well as a common linguistic heritage. Their influence extended from the central and southern Chile to southern Argentina. The Mapuche people are the only indigenous group which withstood the atacks of the Inca and were never conquered by them. They are also the only South American indigenous group that was never conquered by the Spaniards.

Among the Mapuche, the pampa design was known as the "Chief's Trim", since the chief was the only one allowed to use it, emphasizing his authority and his role as pillar of the comunity. Traditionally, the pampa pattern indicated the social status of its bearer. The higher number of steps of the design, the most sucessful was the person showing the trim; which, for the Mapuche, translated in owing more women, lands and horses.

This pattern also represented the stairs used by the guardian spirits of the tribe to move from heaven to earth to protect the people.