Nisa Yam Richy

Image: Work by Nisa Yam Richy

Contemporary Yucatec Maaya belonging and artesania

"El arte del Bordado Maya de Yucatán nos habla con hilos y colores. En cada puntada se guardan memorias familiares, relatos de la tierra y la cosmovisión de un pueblo que ha sido mantener viva su tradición. No es solo una técnica heredada: es una forma de contar quienes somos y cómo nos reconocemos en comunidad"

Biceño., & Lapidus (ed), 2026, p. 9

This practice-led research aims to articulate through theory and practice how contemporary Maaya peoples of the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico, re-member and belong through the interconnectedness of weaving, embroidery and corn. Weaving and embroidery in the Yucatan Peninsula has been practised long before colonisation began. Using Indigenous autoethnography, anti-oppressive and Indigenous methodologies, this research seeks to understand some of the ways in which the interconnection of corn, weaving and embroidery is experienced, produced and reproduced by Originary Maaya peoples (both in the diaspora and on their homelands), and how this comes to fruition in creative practices.

About Nisa Yam Richy

Nisa (she/her) is a Queer Originaria Yucateca/Maya, Mexican, Crimean Tatar and Southern European artisan, researcher and arts worker, working and living in so-called ‘Australia’, on unceded Aboriginal lands. Her creative practice focuses on collaboration, writing and researching beyond binary thinking, and anti-oppressive methodologies in looking at and creating art.