“Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources, Folklore and Gender was the subject that attracted some 100 participants, mainly women from local indigenous and rural communities, to a two-day seminar held in October in RÃo Hato, Panama. They came to analyze their problems and successes as producers of traditional handicrafts; to learn which intellectual property (IP) tools could help them protect and market their products; and to benefit from the experiences of other indigenous communities in exploiting IP. With cheap imitations undermining sales of traditional handicrafts, the seminar, organized by WIPO in cooperation with the Industrial Property Registry of Panama and with financing from the Inter-American Development Bank, proved to be a timely event…”
Panama: Empowering Indigenous Women Through a Better Protection and Marketing of Handicrafts
Female empowerment remains an important goal around the world. Education is essential to this goal. Without knowledge of what feats are possible, and how to accomplish those feats, women remain unaware of their potential and without the tools to realize it.
This article reminded me of my personal experiences in western Turkey, where I lived for two years during my early teens while my father worked for NATO. My family came to appreciate Turkish art, including copper and gold pieces, scarves, and carpets. My mother began to collect the carpets as individual pieces of art, as one would paintings, with the goal to represent as many Turkish villages as possible in her collection. The key was that each village incorporated signature characteristics into their carpets, making the work unmistakably identifiable to connaisseurs, or even to young American amateurs like me. These characteristics include particular colors, such as the deep red in a carpet from Yagcibedir; shapes, such as the ubiquitous octagon in rugs from Kars; and knot size, like the very tight knots in Hereke rugs.
My family bought carpets through two very different means. First, we could visit one of our trusted (male) dealers in Izmir, and sip our fresh chi with sugar cubes served as carpet after carpet was tossed on the floor in front of us for our appraisal. While this method was undoubtably the most efficient, we did not realize the value of the carpets and the stories behind them until we learned that we could visit the villages where the carpets were made.
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