Stitching Memory into Movement
In Patagonia, hiking is more than a physical journey — it is a spiritual and cultural act. Among a growing number of women walkers, a quiet revolution is taking shape: embroidery carried out during rest moments on the trail.
What began as a personal expression has grown into a form of storytelling, protest, and ancestral memory — stitched into fabric under open skies.
These “spirit threads,” as some call them, are not decorative crafts. They are stitched affirmations of identity. They are memory maps. And in some cases, they are messages of resistance. In solitude or community, women are using embroidery to speak truths that often go unheard in mainstream narratives of outdoor adventure.
A Needle in the Wild: Why Women Stitch on the Trail
Why bring embroidery to a hike, especially in remote and rugged Patagonia?
For some, it’s about slowness. The trail slows the mind; stitching slows the hands. Combined, they create space for reflection that’s almost meditative. For others, embroidery is a tangible way to anchor emotional experiences — to translate what the land evokes into colors, textures, and patterns.
Sofía Arancibia, a solo hiker from Puerto Natales, describes it like this:
“I used to bring a notebook, but words failed me. Then I started bringing thread and cloth. I stitched the sky when I couldn’t explain what I felt. Now each piece is like a memory I can touch.”
Mobile Altars: Embroidery Kits as Sacred Tools
What once was a simple kit of needle, thread, and cloth has evolved into what some call “mobile altars” — small pouches that carry more than materials. Inside you may find:
- Bits of dried herbs or petals from the trail
- Strands of hair from the hiker or her child
- Words or names embroidered as prayers
- Natural dyes made from local berries or stones
- Beads or tiny bones representing ancestors
These kits are often handmade and blessed before departure. Some women sleep with them under their heads while camping. Others leave a piece of cloth behind — tied to a tree, hidden in a rock crevice — as an offering.
Stories Woven in Silence
On long trails like those around El Chaltén or Isla Navarino, moments of stillness are part of the rhythm. During these breaks, women sit in silence, stitch in hand, eyes on the horizon or the earth.
They embroider abstract patterns, animal symbols, or phrases like:
- “Soy la hija de las que no se rindieron” (I am the daughter of those who did not give up)
- “Aquí dolió, aquí resistí” (Here it hurt, here I resisted)
- “El viento guarda mis secretos” (The wind keeps my secrets)
Each stitch is intentional. Each piece tells a story — not just of the hike, but of life beyond it: violence survived, love lost, borders crossed, lands reclaimed.
A Feminist Textile Cartography
What these women are creating is a kind of textile cartography — emotional maps that follow no topography but trace the trails of the soul. Just as traditional maps help hikers navigate terrain, these stitched works help women navigate inner journeys.
Some stitch while walking, slowly, wrapping the fabric around their wrists. Others work only during sunrise or after firewood is gathered — turning the trail into a daily rhythm of ritual and resistance.
In this context, embroidery is no longer passive. It is a political act. A declaration that women’s presence in wild spaces — their stories, their survival — matters and must be recorded.
Collective Projects: Embroidery as Resistance and Remembrance
In 2023, a group of women launched the Hilanderas del Viento (Wind Spinners), a collective project linking hikers who embroider across Patagonia. Each woman embroiders a strip of fabric with her trail, her story, and a symbol that represents her. The strips are sewn together into a massive banner — constantly growing — that travels between towns and exhibitions.
The project was inspired by the arpilleras movement in Chile, where women stitched the pain of dictatorship into cloth. Hilanderas del Viento adapts this tradition for women in nature, creating a visual history of feminine presence in outdoor spaces.
The pieces are displayed in public plazas, but also taken back onto trails — carried like flags, wrapped around shoulders, laid at sacred sites.
Trail Rituals Involving Embroidery
Here are some ways women are integrating embroidery into their trail practices:
1. Embroidery Circles at Campsites
Small groups form temporary embroidery circles, where silence is held as women stitch by firelight. Sometimes a song or poem is shared before stitching begins.
2. Stitching Gratitude
At the end of a hike, women stitch a symbol of gratitude: a spiral, a heart, a wave. Some do this on a communal cloth left at trailheads.
3. Trail Marker Embroidery
Some hikers attach small stitched flags to branches or cairns along the trail — a silent signal to others walking the same spiritual path.
4. Ancestor Stitching
Women stitch the names of female ancestors who could not walk freely. One common phrase is: “Por ti camino, abuela” — For you, I walk, grandmother.
Why Embroidery? The Psychology Behind the Practice
Embroidery has long been seen as therapeutic, but its presence on the trail introduces new layers of meaning. Psychologists studying trauma recovery have noted that repetitive hand motion, combined with outdoor exposure, enhances emotional processing.
On a biological level, stitching activates both hemispheres of the brain, linking memory with movement. When paired with the sensory immersion of a hike — smells, sounds, textures — the effect is grounding and restorative.
This explains why many women describe emotional breakthroughs not during hiking itself, but while stitching during a break under a tree, or beside a stream.
Portable Museums: Backpacks as Archives
Some hikers now treat their backpacks as mobile exhibitions. They stitch their packs with symbolic patches — a bear for protection, a moon for cycles, a name for someone lost. In some ways, each pack becomes a wearable archive, a traveling testimony.
Elena, who has walked more than 300 km solo across Patagonia, shares:
“People ask about my patches. Each one is a piece of a trail. A moment I survived. A lesson I won’t forget.”
How to Start Embroidering on Your Own Trail
You don’t need to be an expert or even experienced in hiking to begin this practice. Here’s how:
Choose Your Kit:
- A small piece of durable fabric (like linen or canvas)
- A few needles and spools of colored thread
- Optional: natural dyes, seed beads, or fabric markers
Set an Intention:
Before your hike, write a question or emotion on paper. Keep it in your embroidery pouch. Let your stitching answer it.
Stitch in Stillness:
Take breaks and sit with your cloth. Let your hands move before your mind does. Trust the shapes that emerge.
Leave or Keep:
Some women leave their embroidery tied to trees or under rocks as offerings. Others carry theirs home and sew them into a growing textile journal.
From Thread to Trail, and Back Again
At first glance, it might seem strange: a woman sitting on a log, needle in hand, in the middle of Patagonia’s wilderness. But look closer, and you’ll see something ancient and revolutionary happening. She’s not just crafting — she’s remembering. She’s recording. She’s resisting silence.
In each stitch is a whisper, a wound, a wonder. Her hands are weaving stories the wind will carry. Her threads are trails no map will ever show — but every woman will recognize.
Leonardo e Raquel Dias are a couple passionate about travel, exploring the world together and sharing their experiences. Leonardo is a photographer and food enthusiast, while Raquel is a writer fascinated by history and culture. Through their blog, they inspire other couples over 50 to embark on their own adventures.