Traditional Craftsmanship
Traditional Craftsmanship
Traditional craftsmanship in the 2003 treaty of Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO, particularly focuses on the skills and knowledge involved to create traditional craftsmanship.
The traditional craftsmanship of Curaçao consists of different types of material such as, among others, clothes, clay, rope, leather, wood, straw, paper, calabash, wood flakes, shells, etc.
The products can be jewels, musical instruments, artefacts of everyday life, decorative art, transportation vehicle (kitoki (primitive two-wheeled wooden passenger carriage pulled by a donkey or horse), dori (kind of primitive two-wheeled wooden passenger carriage pulled by a donkey or horse), small wagon), children’s toys, clothes, sambarku (peasant sandal), etc.
Concretely, this means that it’s very important to have knowledge about the kind of wood to use to make a pal’i lele (type of whisk), for example. Knowledge about the right time to cut the wood in nature and what to do with it (skills) in order to get to the final product, which is the pal’i lele. [téknika] So, it’s important to have the knowledge and skills to make the pal’i lele.
-
Mention some traditional craftsmanship products and explain what knowledge and skills are needed to make the product.
Answer
- Pal’i lele (you need to know what kind of wood to use, when to cut it, what to do with it, etc.)
- Pal’i Funchi (you need to know what kind of wood to use, when to cut it, what to do with it, etc.)
- Barí/ tambú (drum) – (you need to know what kind of hide to use, from what animal, how to treat the hide, how to stretch it, what kind of wood to use to make the drum, etc.)
- Gobi (calabash used as a drinking cup) – (you need to know what size of calabash is the right one, if it’s better to use a green or dry calabash, how to treat the calabash to avoid it from breaking/damaging, etc.)
- Chikoti (bat) – (you need to know what kind of wood is the right one, the exact size, when is the right time to cut it, etc.)
- Calabash Whipping top (you need to know what kind of calabash to use and how to treat the calabash in order to make the final product)
- At a certain moment in time, traditional craftsmanship is considered as a relic and gets passed on from generation to generation.
- The skills to create traditional craftsmanship enrich the cultural expressions of a community.
- The modern generation learns a lot from this vast knowledge.
- This knowledge will also help to contribute to a productive development of the community’s cultural industry.