LECTURE AND SLIDESHOW ON THE GROUNDBREAKING COLLABORATION >>>

What happens when a local artist team travels to Bwindi, Uganda, to teach art-making to members of the Batwa pygmy tribe? You'll have the opportunity to find out  Wednesday, March 30, during a free lecture where trip participants recount stories of their extraordinary journey and their efforts to aid the Batwa people, inhabitants of the Impenetrable Forest who were evicted from their homeland after it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Batwa, followers of a traditional hunter-gatherer way of life, were expelled in 1992 after their ecologically-rich forest lands (home of the endangered mountain gorilla) gained protected status. In an ironic turn of fate, the original human inhabitants of the great forests crossing Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo were forced to abandon their dwellings without compensation or a means of income. As a result, they live in poverty - and they may face extinction, according to the Kellerman Foundation, a non-profit organization bringing development aid to the tribe. The Batwa remain in critical need of sustainable solutions.

Enter our visiting team of artists from the Puget Sound. In a full-circle maneuver, Seattle artist Marsha Conn envisioned a month-long trip to teach the Batwa art-making techniques that they could use to create crafts to sell to the gorilla-trek tourists (who fork out $500 for a park permit alone). In January, artists Lynn Di Nino and Jim Robbins of Tacoma, along with seven Seattle artists, landed in Kampala, Uganda, and hitched an 11-hour bus ride to Bwindi to launch the collaborative project. After a year of planning and fundraising, they at last hunkered down with their Ugandan counterparts and set to improvising colorful folk art and jewelry with simple tools, using locally sourced materials such as cloth and bottle caps. The experience was mutually enlightening, according to those involved.

"We worked to develop products [for the Ugandans] ahead of time, with the idea we could show them how to make things while being green.  But the Africans have been recycling since the beginning of time. . . they already are green!" says Di Nino. After collaborating on a merchandise line, the Batwa artists placed their newly made products in a local souvenir shop run by the non-profit Batwa Development Program, and sold out immediately. They made a profit of $600 - a fortune to a people whose annual income of $25 ranks among the lowest in the world. More paintings and crafts are in the works, and the indigenous artists are seeking ways to broaden their market at home and abroad.

"They are very poor [but] they are motivated to improve their standard of living with the help of making crafts," says team member Carol Brady. In the wake of the recent, month-long exchange, Di Nino notes, "The culture shock does not move from this direction to their culture....The culture shock is returning home and walking into a supermarket where there is too much space, too much artificial light, and too, too many products to chose from."

Art Without Borders

What: Lecture and slideshow on the groundbreaking collaboration between local artists and the Batwa pygmy tribe of Uganda
Who: Marsha Conn (project organizer), Lynn Di Nino, Cheryl Johnson, Annie Moorehouse, Joan Robbins, Elinor Maroney and Carol Brady
When: Wednesday, March 30, 7-8:30 p.m.
Where: Northwest Costume, 2315 Sixth Avenue, Tacoma
Admission: Food and beverages to share