Okaina Niou Basket
Origin : Okaina community, La Chorrera township, Amazons, Colombia
Technique : basket weaving
Materials : yaré vine and cumare
Approximate dimensions : 8” d x 5” h
With its distinctive, rounded shape, the woven Niou basket is a beautifully decorative element for any corner of the home. A perfect accent piece for your entrance console, a table center, or simply placed on top of a pile of books.
Also known as the 'sons of tabaco, coca and sweet yuca', the indigenous Okaina community, located in the southern-most part of Colombia, has a population of just 285 people. Basket weaving has traditionally been an important part of the cultural activities of the community. For more than 15 years, under the leadership of Don Jose Pablo Neikase, 26 artisans have been working together to maintain the social and economic sustainability of the community and keep this ancestral technique alive.
Each Okaina wicker basket is crafted using ancestral symbology, and their designs are dictated by a story ... a story of the people, the region and the nature that surrounds them.