“Many cultures around the world, from Native Americans to Sikhs, believe that hair has a special significance. Many ancient cultures believed there is power in uncut hair. While each culture and belief are distinct, many are strangely similar.
Since 2006 I have been working on a personal project (Dear Long Hair) where I search and photograph women with long hair in Latin America, mainly Argentina. Since indigenous communities rely on oral history to pass on their culture, my research was mostly based on interviews to these women and members of their community. A leader of the Kolla community (Argentina’s largest indigenous population) once told me: “Your hair is important; that’s your connection to the land. It’s the teaching that’s been passed down from generation to generation”. The value of cultural heritage isn’t in cultural manifestation itself. But in the wealth of experience and skills passed down from generation to generation.
For indigenous communities, hair is the physical manifestation of our thoughts and an extension of ourselves and the same is true with the thoughts of Mother Earth. Plants, since ancient times, have been used by indigenous people for medicinal purposes and physical healing rituals. This relationship is based on a profound spiritual connection to Mother Earth that guided indigenous peoples to practice reverence, humility and reciprocity. It is also based on the subsistence needs and values extending back thousands of years. Everything is taken and used with the understanding that we take only what we need, and we must use great care and be aware of how we take and how much of it so that future generations will not be put in peril.
For 18 years I have been going back to the same indigenous towns. Sadly, each year I find less and less girls with long hair. Trendy barber shops where youngsters get modern haircuts are spreading even in the smallest mountain towns. Grandparents struggle to pass on the same cultural teachings that their own grandparents taught them: weaving, looking after animals, Pachamama, long hair. Increasingly, these youth are choosing what they see in the mass media instead of looking to their cultures and traditions. Along with the disappearing long hair tradition goes the loss of connection with their land with negative consequences to the environment.”
amandla
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