This week, there was a Master Producer Workshop (MPW) at Gantsi Craft. Producers from three different settlements – New Xade, D’Kar and Ghanzi – came to Gantsi Craft from Monday until Friday to participate in various craft workshops and training sessions. They stay in tents set up in the yard for the week and many of women have their children with them. All the meals are cooked in the traditional way over fire in large cauldrons.The producers who attend the workshop can then go back to their settlements and disseminate the information and skills learned to other members of their community.
Each morning of the MPW is started with an opening session that involves all of the producers singing and dancing. I am so amazed at how beautiful the singing is because it always seems so effortless. The singing is followed by a prayer. I participated in this exercise two mornings this week (I was out of the office the other mornings) and really enjoyed it. The rest of the day consists of workshops on various issues such as Quality Control (of the craft products being produced), Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, and Natural Resource Management.
I was responsible for developing and presenting the session on Natural Resource Management. I was slightly nervous because this was my first presentation here but also excited to have a tangible task to work on. The presentation had to be very simple but also informative. Many of the producers are elderly women with very little to no education. Also, none of the producers speak English. Goise, one of my co-workers, acted as a translator throughout my presentation. I decided it would be best to simply ask the producers many questions about what they though natural resources were, why they are important, what they can be used for, and how they feel they can preserve them and then fill in any gaps if necessary. This way, I could get an idea of what everyone’s basic understanding was to begin with and then build off of that. It was very strange, asking questions and not being able to understand any of the responses from the women until they were translated back to me. But everyone was very responsive and engaged in the discussion. For the most part, all the producers had a good idea of what natural resources are. There were some areas of disagreement for example – one woman said that natural resources are things in nature that can never die. I went on to explain that while there are some resources that last forever, like the sun, there are many resources that will eventually run out and that is why we have to know ways to conserve them. Everyone in the group understood that natural resources are incredibly important for their well-being, as they contribute to everything from building shelter, having food and earning an income (all of the craft products they produce are made from natural resources). Ways that you can help to preserve natural resources were also talked about and the producers worked together to brainstorm ways they could conserve resources in their settlements. An area of further exploration that was identified is community trusts that are responsible for the natural resources within the community. Overall the workshop went very well, and I was happy that so many of the women were open to discussion. I will likely be building off of this presentation to hold sessions at other MPW’s in the future.
Between each workshop session, the women able to spend some time each day actually producing the crafts as well. This is so that they can improve the quality of their crafts and ensure that what they are producing is up to standard so that the crafts can be sold. They can also exchange design ideas and production methods.
The process begins with whole eggshells. In the past, the eggshells used to be collected in the wild. However, due to land disputes and instability in collecting the resources, the eggshells are now retrieved from a local ostrich farm. The shells are then shattered into many small pieces to be shaped into beads. Some of the shells are also painted and sold whole.
The shattered pieces then are drilled with a needle to create a small hole in each one. The pieces are then strung on a long string. Each piece is then cut individually using nail clippers (in the past, knives were used but today nail clippers make the process much easier) to approximately the right size for the required beads. The women use their thumb to measure the size.
After all the beads on the string have been cut, the string is laid out across a board. The beads are smoothened by scraping a rock against them over and over. A little bit of water can be added to make the beads easier to smooth. This step needs to be done very carefully to ensure the beads are not broken.
Once all of the beads are smoothened and the same size, they are ready to be used to create the jewellery. Some of the beads are burned to change their colour. If they are burned slightly, the white beads will turn a tan colour. If they are burned a little bit longer they will go black. The only downfall is that burning the beads makes them more brittle, so the jewellery that is made cannot use completely coloured beads or it will break.
While each piece of jewellery has certain things that should never change such as length and width of the product (although this is one of the biggest challenges because the producers often do not understand these guidelines) the producers have the freedom to create whichever designs they like. The crafts that they create are a representation of their culture.
At the next workshop, I hope to try these techniques for myself and maybe I will be able to create a pair of earrings or something small. It is incredibly time consuming and labour intensive but the end result is beautiful. I doubt I will ever be able to create anything close to what these women do because it is a skill that they have learnt over a long time and worked on....but I would love to at least learn some of the traditional techniques.
The MPW was successful and the producers were able to produce many high quaility crafts that Gantsi Craft could buy. I also learned a lot throughout the week and look forward to working with the producers again.
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