It is my pleasure to introduce you to my passion in life.

I am a collector and a seller of molas, I appreciate the beauty and colors of this art, the hours of work that is put into each piece and every Kuna Artist for giving the best of their Visual Art.
Every Mola from Mola Art & Craft is made with care, artistic quality and expressions, truly exquisite, unique, one of a kind piece, and the special gift for your love ones.
The Mola reverse appliques are sold as applique blocks and used for art lessons, by quilters, crafters all over the world, the sale of molas is a main source of income for the Kuna womens and contribute to preserve the Kuna cultural identity and traditions.

Protection of Indigenous Art

| 17 February, 2011 12:43

Protection of Indigenous Art in Panama


Panama government has acted to protect a specific kind of indigenous craft:

"The Mola".  The Cuna population is well organized and very protective of their

Culture.

The high demand for indigenous art has contributed to the commercialization of

molas.  To respond to that specific demand and increase their earnings, many

souvenirs shops in Panama begun to sell copied molas to tourist.  Example are dress shirt

or t-shirt with mola printing which is actually a copy, a coffe mug, etc.


What about copyright of molas???


 

The molas are not considered to be a protected work, molas and indigenous art in general are regarded as folklore as defined in article 2 (11) of Panama's Copyright Act.

More over article 9 of the Act clearly specifies that it does not cover expressions of folklore.

However, we need to make sure to understand what copyright means.

Copyright Legislation:

Copyright means the right of a creator over his or her work.  A work is defined as "an original intellectual creation that maybe artistic, scientific and literary and may be dessiminated or reproduced in any way.

In other words, a work is the result or product generated by the mind, intelligence and imagination of its creator.

A creator is  "a natural person who perform an act of intelectual creation".

This means the Cuna women's who sew molas are creators.

Copy right protect's the creator exclusive right...

Creators also have the exclusive right to lend or sell their work.



Information came from:

Inter-American Workshop in Intellectual Property Rights

Ottawa 1999

 

Shop for Molas at:

http://www.molaartandcraft.com/index.php


E-mail:  ritasmithwc@att.net 

 

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