Indigenous Women Expanding Economic Opportunity in Argentina’s Chaco Region

An association of 2,600 Indigenous women artisans from Argentina's Chaco region is conquering the fashion world in New York, Rome, and Buenos Aires with its natural-fiber textiles after successfully scaling its operations with support from IAF grantee Fundación Gran Chaco (FGCH).

Before forming their association, many of these women had little of their own income and autonomy. Members of different grassroots women's associations belonging mainly to the Wichi, Qom, and Pilagá peoples from the provinces of Chaco, Formosa, and Salta came together to create the Cooperativa de Mujeres Artesanas del Gran Chaco (COMAR) in 2009. Their mission was to market and give legitimacy to their traditional handicrafts made from wool and other natural fibers and to take advantage of new production technologies while also protecting the environment in a resource-rich, but fragile region. COMAR is now the largest association of women artisans in Argentina, bringing together 24 local associations.

At first women faced opposition within their communities for joining together and taking on more leadership roles, but they carried on. By organizing, they found they could better respond to discrimination and exercise their rights. "We make the handicrafts and sell them. We manage our money. We buy things for the house, for our family and our children. We learned many new things," explained Norma Rodríguez, COMAR's president and a Wichi artisan and community leader.

Along the way, the women of COMAR received timely support and technical assistance from FGCH, first to form their association and then to build its institutional capacity to add value to and market their products. With IAF funds, artisans have gained skills in areas such as quality control, pricing, design, marketing, and incorporating new materials and technology. As their capacity grew, they took over management from FGCH of a working capital fund that gives members small loans to cover operational expenses-for example, to save money on craft materials by buying in bulk-that they later pay back with interest once their products have sold.

FGCH also connected COMAR with fashion entrepreneurs to help artisans increase their sales in high-end markets of Argentina and beyond. Together they created the "Matriarca" native art brand. The name in Spanish references the tradition of the native peoples of the Gran Chaco for community life to be centered around the mother's house and celebrates the production techniques passed down over generations of women. "This is the ancestral knowledge of our grandmothers, our mothers, who may not be here today, and this knowledge is born from the community, from the home, seeing a grandmother weaving, a mother. Now our girls also want to continue weaving," said Jessica Sosa, a Pilagá woman who is the secretary of the Campo del Cielo community.

The women of COMAR learned to improve the volume and quality of their products and have since taken full ownership of the brand. Now they manage the entire production chain, from cultivating the raw materials like chaguar(a native plant in the Gran Chaco) and wool in an environmentally sustainable way to planning the marketing, sales, and export strategy. More recently, FGCH has been supporting COMAR's growth through improving digital connectivity in their communities and in equipping them to use the new technology.

COMAR successfully achieved certification for Matriarca as a B Corporation that advances social good as well as profits, resulting in monthly sales of more than US$19,000 from more than 10 national and international markets. For example, a new collection created in collaboration with two Italian designers was showcased in November 2023 in New York, and followed by the launch of a pop-up store there in January 2024. Other collections have been featured in recent years at fashion shows in Rome, New York, Buenos Aires, Asunción, and Montevideo.

FGCH's Broader Reach

COMAR's example is impressive by itself, yet it is only one of approximately 90 Indigenous and Creole (people of European and Indigenous descent) organizations in Argentina's Gran Chaco Region that have strengthened their capacity to operate independently and increase their income over time with targeted support from FGCH.

Beyond artisanal crafts, FGCH has also helped organizations representing diverse rural communities to use technology to create new value with their sustainably grown food, forestry, and livestock products and to position these in new markets. This has brought in valuable income streams during a period in which the poverty rate in Argentina rose to a 20-year high of above 50% and inflation has skyrocketed by more than 275%. At the same time, the Chaco region's semi-arid climate, coupled with severe droughts, forest fires, and rapid deforestation, has made it increasingly challenging for families there to make a living in traditional occupations like farming.

The result is a network of grassroots organizations better equipped to manage themselves, implement their own projects, and engage public and private sector partners around community priorities. Sharing a strong regional identity, these organizations are looking to the future together to solve local problems and promote sustainable, inclusive development in an isolated region with little access to basic services and few income-generating opportunities.

In the case of COMAR, members have boosted their incomes by 50% on average, improving the quality of life for them and their families. "Marketing our handicrafts is always a better option," shares Jessica Sosa, "but also, through our handicrafts, we can achieve projects that benefit our communities. We are around 5 Pilagá communities, but other communities also call us to come and do the training; they want to join."

Earning income by selling abroad in countries like Italy, Japan, and Germany has also helped them keep pace with inflation, making their work more sustainable. Each artisan maintains her own bank account, a sign of her individual autonomy and connection with the broader financial system.

With FGCH's support, the women of COMAR have made great strides in promoting economic opportunity and social inclusion for Indigenous women, but they have bigger goals on the horizon. "We were able to organize ourselves to be able to get everything that we always wanted to have," says Norma Rodríguez, before adding, "I continue to fight to be able to achieve more things for women."

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.