3rd Grade - Molas

3rd Grade learned about South American molas. In Dulegaya, the Kuna's native language, mola means shirt or clothing. The mola originated with the tradition of Kuna women painting their bodies with geometrical designs, using available natural colors. In later years, these same designs were woven into cotton, and later still, sewn using cloth bought from the European settlers of Panama.

As part of a traditional costume of a Kuna woman, two mola panels are incorporated as front and back panels of a blouse. The full costume traditionally includes a patterned wrapped skirt (saburet), a red and yellow headscarf (musue), arm and leg beads (wini), a gold nose ring (olasu), and earrings in addition to the mola blouse (dulemor).

We created our molas from colored construction paper, scissors, and glue.