Panama · Textile / Reverse Appliqué
Mola (Dulegaya, the Guna language)
The hand-sewing of mola panels by Guna women of Panama's Caribbean San Blas Islands, in which two to seven layers of contrasting cotton fabric are stacked, cut downward through successive layers with small scissors, and the raw edges folded under and stitched — the inverse motion of ordinary appliqué — evolved directly from a pre-colonial body-painting tradition and, after the Panamanian government banned the wearing of molas in 1918–1919, the object at the center of the armed 1925 Guna Revolution that won the Guna their own self-governing comarca.
Risk level: Vulnerable · Not currently inscribed on a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list under this specific technique; Panama ratified the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004 and could nominate this technique in the future.
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