Molas: Sacred Stories Stitched by Kuna Hands

The Living Textile Tradition of Colombia's Indigenous Women

The Kuna are sea people who live along the North coast of Colombia and Panama's San Blas islands. Their society is matrilineal, meaning that lineage and inheritance are traced through women. This structure places women at the center of community life and as keepers of sacred wisdom.

This wisdom manifests in their extraordinary artistry, as mothers teach their daughters how to carefully cut and stitch together fabrics into molas, which means "cloth" in their native language. Molas feature kaleidoscopic colors and sacred designs, depicting animals, flowers, birds, and the sea. They also tell the story of a specific Kuna community's history and beliefs, often alluding to cultural stories passed down through generations.

The Indigenous Perspective: Stories Within Stories

The Indigenous perspective is evident in mola designs—there's a story within a story, a circle within a circle. That's what Earth Wisdom Collection represents as well, and why we connect with molas and want to share them with more people. By wearing molas on your body, both the viewer and the wearer absorb the story and the vibration.

Earth Wisdom co-founder, Nando, grew up in Colombia and worked as the Environmental Counselor in his State, representing over 100 NGOs. For over 35 years, he's been supporting and working for the preservation of Colombia's 115 Indigenous communities and their traditions, from helping organize their territory to protecting their rights. He explains:

"The expression in the textiles, you know, is where they record even songs. Let's say they see a bird and it's singing. The textiles are their way of recording that, of writing it down. If you follow the patterns of the textiles, you can feel a melody captured there. In their own language, they can sing that. They put their hands on the textiles and sing the vibration."

While the modern world captures moments with smartphones, the Kuna have always recorded their world through art. The Western world developed science differently than Kuna science. They'd never think about writing the way Westerners write, but they write in their own form—through the intricate patterns of molas.

The Rich History of Molas: Cultural Adaptation and Resistance

Traditional Origins

Molas originated from the Kuna women's tradition of wearing skirts and painting their bare upper bodies with geometric designs using available natural pigments. When missionaries arrived during Spanish colonization, they required women to wear tops.

Colonial Influence and Cultural Resilience

The materials to make molas—cloth, thread, scissors, and needles—were brought to the region by Europeans beginning in the 18th century. The Kuna began transferring their traditional designs onto fabrics, first by painting them directly, then developing the distinctive reverse appliqué technique we see today.

Women as Cultural Guardians

The making of molas has remained an exclusively female task. Depending on the tradition of each Kuna island, women begin making molas when they reach puberty. Each woman carries a story, a melody, and therefore, each woman crafts her own molas, creating different designs for different purposes—from daily housework to special ceremonies that mark their initiations into adulthood.

The Kuna women who wear modern clothing are in the minority, as most believe the mola is very important—it's their main work of art that identifies their culture.

Nando explains, "They don't make their crafts for money. They make it because they love it. And because it's just going through them. It's just like a poem that you sing."

The Intricate Process of Creating a Mola

Molas are made completely by hand with 2-7 layers of different colored fabrics sewn together. The most highly-revered molas have extremely fine sewing, where small and thin needles are used. They can take from a few weeks to 6 months to make, depending on the complexity of the design.

Each mola is truly one-of-a-kind, and you will notice many variations used in Earth Wisdom Collection designs.

"The materials are very important," Nando emphasizes. "Natural materials play the biggest role because it shifts the intention of the clothing. It carries the intention of uplifting, to a higher version of yourself. And the materials are coming from these cultures, from pure people. This is pure knowledge and pure Earth."

Duality and Symmetry in Mola Design

In the Kuna worldview, there's a strong concept of duality. They believe all beings have a purba—an invisible double—a concept that manifests in their mirror image mola designs. Even their ritual chants are performed in pairs, each verse echoing its twin, just as each layer of a mola reveals its complementary color beneath.

"All of these expressions of art are codes," says Nando. "But for the Indigenous, they don't even have the concept of an encyclopedia. They write down their wisdom in their art. And all of their pieces of art hold a deep meaning in their communities, in their world."