Historia del Witral

 Historia del Witral

El witral es el telar tradicional del pueblo mapuche, un instrumento que acompaña a esta cultura desde tiempos prehispánicos y que sigue vivo en las manos de las tejedoras del sur de Argentina y Chile.

Más que una herramienta, el witral es una extensión del territorio: su estructura de madera representa el equilibrio entre la tierra y el cielo, y cada urdimbre simboliza un camino por donde circulan memoria, identidad y comunidad.

Por eso, incluso en su adaptación contemporánea, el espíritu del witral sigue intacto: invita a crear con las manos y a conectar con una tradición que se construye hebra por hebra.

Durante siglos, las mujeres mapuche han tejido en estos telares mantas, fajas, ponchos y piezas ceremoniales. Cada diseño —llamado ngümin— guarda un significado: los rombos, las guardas, las diagonales y los colores hablan de linaje, naturaleza, roles familiares y cosmovisión. Nada es casual, nada es decorativo; todo es lenguaje.

Originalmente, los tejidos se realizaban con fibras locales como llama o guanaco, teñidas con raíces, cortezas y minerales. Con la llegada de la oveja durante la colonización, la lana se integró al oficio sin alterar la esencia del telar. El gesto de tejer —abrir la calada, pasar la trama, peinar cada hebra— permanece como una práctica de paciencia, introspección y continuidad cultural.

El witral es, en esencia, un espacio de transmisión: de técnicas, de historias y de vínculos entre generaciones. Tejer implica hacerlo con intención, sostener un ritmo y habitar el tiempo de otra manera.

Hoy, reinterpretado en formatos más pequeños y accesibles, el telar continúa su viaje. El Witral Albor recupera ese legado y lo acerca a nuevas personas: un objeto simple y conceptual que honra un oficio ancestral y abre la puerta a la experiencia de tejer como gesto cultural, creativo y meditativo.

El witral no es solo un telar. 

Es una historia que se sigue tejiendo.

The witral is the traditional loom of the Mapuche people and one of the oldest and still-practiced textile technologies in southern South America. Its use is documented long before European colonization, extending throughout what is now southern Chile and much of Argentine Patagonia.

More than an instrument, the witral is a cultural system—an environment where technique, spirituality, identity, and collective memory are interwoven.

Traditionally, the loom is set up vertically or at a slight incline, held between two posts or a wooden frame—sometimes installed inside the ruka (home), and other times outdoors. Its structure is made up of pieces with their own names in Mapuzungun: witrawe, coliwe, tononwe, ngerewe, wichalwichalwe, and zuwewe. Each one plays a precise role within the warping and weaving process.

The act of weaving is considered knowledge passed down from generation to generation. Mapuche women learned from childhood by observing their mothers and grandmothers, and every piece they wove marked a rite of growth, maturity, and belonging.

The designs—known as ngümin—are not mere decorations; they are symbols representing elements of nature, spiritual forces, paths, lineages, and relationships within the community. The repeated patterns of diamonds, diagonals, crosses, and geometric figures carry deep meanings that can be read as a textile language.

Before the arrival of sheep, the Mapuche people wove with fibers from llama, guanaco, rhea, and native hemp. With the introduction of sheep’s wool during the colonial period, the fiber was quickly incorporated into the craft, while ancestral techniques of spindle spinning and dyeing with plants, bark, roots, and minerals were preserved.

The witral was also closely tied to family economy and women’s autonomy. Through weaving, they produced blankets, ponchos, sashes (trarihue), shawls, and coverings that protected them from the weather, were exchanged in fairs, or served as dowry in ceremonies and agreements.

To weave was—and still is—a way of sustaining life.

Today, the witral remains alive: Mapuche weavers keep the craft vibrant, and many contemporary creators reinterpret the loom with new aesthetics and materials without losing its ceremonial essence. Weaving on the witral means opening a shed, passing the weft, tightening, repeating. It is a simple yet profound gesture—an invitation to enter a different rhythm: slower, more intentional, more connected with the environment.

In its small, contemporary version, the Witral Albor carries that legacy forward to make it accessible to new hands. It respects the logic of the original loom, its vertical orientation, and its essential structure, translating it into an approachable object that allows anyone to learn the basic movements of Mapuche weaving.

Each mini loom is an invitation to create, explore, and honor a tradition that has been alive for centuries.

The witral is not just a tool.

It is a way of understanding time, community, and our relationship with the land—

a language that continues to be woven, thread by thread.