Innovando la Tradición

Pottery making tradition in Mexico is a millenary way of being in the world. Innovando la Tradición has worked alongside traditional potters only for twenty years. In the midst of its extinction, our goal is to make sure they have the conditions to continue another four thousand years by strengthening capacities in indigenous potters to challenge the future by creating bridges to the modern economy, developing skills, discover new narratives of indigenous identity, and making an archive of their knowledge.

The question we want to answer is: How can indigenous knowledge become a source of answers to the most pressing problems of our civilization?

Our mission is structured in what we call In Mexico, milpa. The milpa refers to an ancient Mesoamerican intercropping method of planting corn, squash, and beans together, as well as a variety of chiles and quelites, or young, edible greens. The way these species interact creates a balanced ecosystem that utilizes available resources—water, light, and soil—and produces a highly nutritious diet.

The Milpa of Innovating Tradition is made up of Four Movements, four guiding principles, four interconnected and complementary areas, not unlike the Mesoamerican milpas, that offer a comprehensive solution to the decline of traditional pottery and of the know-how of the communities.

Each Movement contains ideas like seeds that grow into pilot projects, then long-term projects.

MAIZE | LEARNING COMMUNITY OF POTTERS

An educational space where potters share their knowledge and develop skills in new fields of interest. This space is all about trust, collaboration, fellowship, and harmony, where we all have something to teach and something to learn.

The future vision of this movement is to create a bachellors degree and the University of the Earth.

BEANS | HOUSES OF CLAY

Our goal is to transform the dominant narratives, starting local, through a network of spaces (Houses of Knowledge) focused on pottery, hand-made objects, and the know-how of the villages. These spaces for workshops, sales, and exhibitions also allow potters, designers, researchers, educators, and enthusiasts to come together.

The future vision is to create an Indigenous Art Center in the city of Oaxaca where indigenous knowledge is showcase and strengthen, where artisans can develop economical autonomy, that has beautiful accomodation to host an international residency program and a gorgeous open kitchen to promote local gastronomy. This infrastructure will be connected to a series of spaces in the villages to revitalize the learning process and social recognition.

The Bachellors degree and the University will be hosted in this network of spaces.

SQUASH | KNOWLEDGE IS HANDMADE

We document and share how we do what we do—our tools, processes, and principles—, as well as the artisans’ know-how, thereby fostering more collaborative projects and companies based on solidarity.

The future vision for this program is to have an archive of materials in the shape of books, collections, technical manuals, documentary films and digital material to inspire new generations and preserve old techniques from the wise potters that hold precious secrets in their fingers and memories.

CHILI | COOPERATIVA 1050°

As a social and cooperative enterprise, we take pottery to all corners of the world, opening new paths for more people to touch its deep wisdom and beauty. With a solidarity economy we achieve deep transformations in families of potters, supported by fair, stable and dignified economies. At the moment our cooperative integrates 15 women leaders from 7 villages and 3 states: oaxaca, puebla and chiapas.

Our future vision for the cooperative is to create an example of economía solidaria within capitalism that does not puts money at the center, but relationships.

We dream of having a cooperative integrated by all the pottery villages of Southeast region of Mexico.

It is funded by the Valle de Huajes Network, a group of more than 70 individuals in Mexico and the US.