St. Lucia’s traditional pottery can be seen any day in the Castries Market on sale for locals and tourists alike…but the truth is that it is a highly endangered craft.
In the days when many more homes did not have the convenience of a gas stove, the ‘coalpot’ was in use on many a kitchen’s back step – perhaps even two or three were used to cook up the food for the day. But progress makes its changes and today, the demand for these items has dwindled.
But it’s not just the lack of customers for these products that ails this tradition – the craft of making traditional pottery is itself about one of the most hard physical labour intensive things you could choose to do…and to boot, these beautifully simple utility crafts are made in even simpler unassuming huts and sheds on the potters’ lands. These characteristics of the craft have the unfortunate result that not one single child of the existing potters is interested in continuing in the craft.
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