In my previous post I wrote about the history of plant fibers from ancient to modern times. In this post I will focus on the history of three natural dyes in particular that have complicated histories as a result of European colonization in the America’s. I mentioned these dyes in the land and history acknowledgement I wrote in my book on page 6, and here on the blog I have the opportunity to expand on that a bit.
COCHINEAL
Cochineal is a parasitic scale insect native to South America and Mexico that colonizes nopal, prickly pear cacti. Indigenous peoples of Mexico have been selectively breeding the insects for their red pigment (carminic acid) which only the female insects contain, for thousands of years. During the conquest of the Aztec Empire led by Hernán Cortés in the early 16th century, imperialist Spain took great interest in what they called “grana cochinilla” and began exporting it by the tons. Indigenous cochineal producers were not only robbed of their intellectual properties but also subjugated and exploited while Spain grew rich and built an empire on their stolen monopoly. Throughout Europe, royalty and Catholic clergy displayed their status and power by wearing cochineal dyed garments. To this day the intellectual property of the indigenous engineers that created the world’s most radiant red natural dye has barely been acknowledged.
If you want to learn a more of this history I recommend reading Amy Butler Greenfield’s book A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.
LOGWOOD
This rich purple dye is derived from the heartwood of the logwood tree which is native to Mexico where it has long been used as a dye by the Nahua people. Cortés became aware of its dye potential during his brutal conquest of Mexico, and colonial Spain began exporting it by the tons to Europe as a commodity. Pirates quickly realized its value and began targeting ships carrying logs of it. Eventually these pirates caught on that it would be more profitable to harvest logwood trees right from the land, so they set up logging camps in what is now Belize and enslaved African people to do the labor. Logwood was eventually introduced to the Caribbean Islands where it was grown on plantations that were also sustained by forced labor.
INDIGO
Indigo bearing plants are native to both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and there have been samples of ancient indigo dyed textiles discovered all over the world. Like cotton, indigo cultivation in the United States has a complicated history. Many African people were stolen from their homelands, displaced through the Transatlantic Slave Trade and forced to raise this crop. The work of growing and extracting blue indigo pigment that enslaved men, women, and children were forced to do greatly benefitted the economies of colonial America and Europe. Most of the indigo plantations were in the South Carolina region. It’s believed that the most prominent African indigo masters were sought out, stolen, and sold for a premium price in the slave markets. Their lives uprooted and their generational intellectual properties stolen and exploited for this new nation to build an empire upon.
Despite the complicated histories of these dyes and fibers (mentioned in my previous post) I still choose to work with them. I acknowledge these histories and I also respect the plants and the resources it takes to raise them. The plants should not be punished for the human wrongdoings of the past. The seeds of these plants deserve to be planted and the plants that sprout forth deserve to be lovingly tended to. Each day going forward we have an opportunity to slowly and intentionally shape a regenerative future based on reciprocity in place of greed and exploitation. These slow processes and direct connections from seed, to harvest, to a finished handmade item are a medicine the modern world needs. They act as inoculants that reconnect us to the natural world. Through such connections and slow intentional acts we become grateful for and appreciate the things we take part in producing in ways that we cannot when we don’t have these connections. We need the plants as much as they need us and together we can plant a better future.
