Karin le Roux is the founder Director of the Omba Arts Trust, a registered fair trade organization in Namibia that aims to support the sustainable livelihoods of marginalized communities. Supporting artisans from eight regions in Namibia, Omba has showcased artists from four distinct Namibian tribes at IFAM.
The Omba Arts Trust has not only helped rural artisans develop contemporary products utilizing traditional skills but also has revived ancient San traditions like ostrich eggshell bead-making. Omba provides a regular and reliable income to rural artisans who have limited opportunities for employment. Omba’s artisans and artists produce a range of strikingly innovative-and astonishingly beautiful-items, from baskets to jewelry.
Basket making is common is agricultural cultures and in northern Namibia they are used to harvest pearl millet. Over 25 years of workshops, dye experimentation with a variety of plant material, and rewarding excellence, the Omba baskets from the Kavango region have evolved into some of the finest contemporary baskets in Africa.
Omba’s artisans produce a range of jewelry that will almost certainly be unfamiliar to most western audiences: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and more using beads made from ostrich eggshells. This is a 72,000-year-old tradition made by San, the indigenous peoples of southern Africa and must surely rate as the oldest craft tradition at our IFAM market? Other statement-making jewelry is bracelets made from recycled PVC pipe. These are made and worn by the semi-nomadic Himba people living in the remote Kunene region in western Namibia.
Glass beads have been worn, traded, and given as gifts by the San for hundreds of years. Omba has helped the San artists combine their love for and tradition of bead adornment to create new beaded artworks combined with embroidery onto linen fabric. The interpretation of rock art and gathered plants are carefully portrayed in these unique artworks.
Whatever their creations, the women and Omba Arts Trust are dedicated to innovation, artistic expression to produce both functional and beautiful and unique artwork of the highest caliber.
Негізгі бет Фильм және анимация IFAM Presents: Karin le Roux, Director of the Omba Arts Trust
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