Rural women of Winterveld reap what their needles sew
What started as a small embroidery project has blossomed into a site of empowerment for hundreds of women who get to earn a living while expressing themselves. By
About 90km from Johannesburg, on the outskirts of Pretoria, lies the rural town of Winterveld. Between potholes and half-finished, uneven roads that become especially difficult to navigate after it rains, it is not an easy place to get to. This is where the Mapula women’s embroidery project is based. The Mapula project was initiated in 1991 by members of the Soroptimist International Club of Pretoria as an income-generating empowerment project for women in the Winterveld area and has developed into one of the most important community art projects in South Africa. It started with just 14 women and now has more than 170.
Describing the problems faced by residents, the women of Mapula say they have been without electricity for two months and the water supply is erratic. The roads are in such bad condition, they say, that sometimes buses carrying children to school get stuck and need residents to help. In addition, dumping contributes to environmental degradation.
With few jobs in the area, the women of the Hlanganani community in Winterveld have turned to the Mapula Trust for a sense of purpose and, more importantly, a source of income for themselves and their families. They use embroidery to artistically tell the stories affecting their community, as well as historical accounts, which they then sell to the public. They also receive commissions for specific artworks, many of which have
Dorah Hlongwane at the Mapula project in Winterveld.
Women of the Winterveld: Hands Become Voices for our
Planet. been exhibited around the world, earning several awards.
Sense of purpose
Speaking to DM168, Dorah Hlongwane, who joined Mapula in 2001, says she works two days a week as a domestic worker and spends the rest of the time at the embroidery project to supplement her income. “I found a sense of purpose and confidence through Mapula and I see the impact it has on women in the community who are now able to get an income. It makes me feel empowered.”
Hlongwane says she taught herself how to do design and now considers herself one of the best designers in the project. She is also chairperson of the Mapula board and a trustee.
“I joined Mapula in 1991 when it started,” 64-yearold Rosina Maepa says. “At the time I was in matric and used the money that I earned towards further studies. I also managed to educate, clothe and feed all four of my children through Mapula.”
Maepa is now the coordinator of a group of 82 embroiderers, and a designer and embroiderer herself. And while she will retire from teaching Northern Sotho next year, “I will never retire from Mapula – it has helped me so much, even my youngest child is now a member of Mapula”.
Climate message
Currently exhibiting at the Javett Art Centre in Pretoria, Mapula’s latest piece, Women of the Winterveld: Hands Become Voices for Our Planet, depicts the climate crisis and stands 2m tall and 10m wide, showing through intricate embroidery the damaging effect that environmental degradation is having on poor communities. It was conceptualised and executed by five designers and 42 embroiderers from Mapula.
Pinkie Rasenga, who has been with Mapula since 1994, says: “The reason we did the climate crisis work was to show that when our environment is polluted it impacts us in terms of things like not having enough water to cook, to grow food in our gardens and even for our livestock to drink.”
Mapula Embroidery Trust chair Sally Currin says the work raises awareness about climate change and aims to promote an urgent response in the women’s own families, community and far beyond.
“Mapula’s hope is that by engaging with this work the public of all generations will engage seriously with the issues of the climate crisis, climate action, vulnerability of women (rural women especially) in gender-unequal societies and their intersectionalities,” says Currin.
Mapula’s climate crisis piece has been awarded one of the 10 Rupert Museum 2022 Social Impact prizes and will travel to Stellenbosch to be exhibited in the Rupert Museum from 1 December to early 2023 and to Gauteng in May 2023.
Women at work at the embroidery project.