Artisans

Atis Fanm Matènwa

Atis Fanm consists of a group of women from Matènwa, a rural village in the mountains of la Gonave, an island off the coast of Haiti.

The women create beautiful paintings on silk scarves. Their culture, voodoo religion, the bible and the flora and fauna of the island are the inspiration for their brightly coloured drawings.



Daily life in la Gonave is, as elsewhere in Haiti, hard. Massive poverty forces the residents to continue the logging of forest to make money. One consequence is the soil erodes and washes into the sea, putting further pressure on the fish population.



In 1998 in an attempt to stop this downward spiral, the director of a local school with the help of an American artist started a project enabling the women of Matènwa to develop their creativity and generate revenue at the same time.



This has led to the setting up of a small, locally organised and talented collective of artisans that over the years has grown from eight to forty-eight women, creating unique hand painted and signed silk scarves.



Take a look at the scarves from Atis Fanm.

Atis Fanm artisans and their creations