What Abundance Built · Episode 6 of 8 · 39 min
The Women Who Sewed a Revolution: Guna Molas, Gold, and 1925
The Guna of Guna Yala in Panama can still be watched making and wearing molas, layered cloth art, alongside gold nose rings and necklaces. Reef and forest abundance supports the art, and it survives because the Guna fought for it, rising in the revolution of 1925 when Panama tried to ban their dress and winning an autonomous territory they govern today.
Who's who
- Nele KantuleChief of Ustupu and principal strategist of the 1925 revolution
- Simral ColmanChief of Ailigandí and co-leader of the revolution
- Richard Oglesby MarshAmerican explorer who helped the Guna organize and draft a declaration
- Belisario PorrasPanamanian president linked to the assimilation policy
- John G. SouthU.S. minister who helped broker the settlement
Where it happens
- Guna Yala, Panama+3 more episodesAutonomous Guna territory of about 360 reef islands
- San Blas Islands, PanamaFormer name of the archipelago
- Ustupu, PanamaIsland community led by Nele Kantule
- Darién, Panama+1 more episodeMainland region where Guna ancestors lived
Timeline
- 1903Panama separates from Colombia and asserts authority on the coast
- 1915Colonial police stationed among the Guna
- February 1925Guna Revolution; rebels declare the Republic of Tule
- 1925U.S.-brokered settlement ends the revolt
- 1938San Blas Comarca established, the country's first Indigenous territory
- 2011Panama renames the comarca Guna Yala
Still debated
Marsh aided the 1925 rebels but also promoted a rejected 'white Indians' claim, and U.S. motives were mixed. Casualty numbers vary by account, and island and population counts are approximate.
← PreviousEaster Island Didn't Collapse: What Ancient DNA Just OverturnedNext →Does Abundance Free Us — or Just Reinvent Inequality?
