Meet our team!

Ana Maria Parada- Darkinjung, Central coast NSW Australia- Founding Director

Ana Maria is a descendant of the Muisca people of Colombia, with 7 traceable generations from the sacred land of Boyacá. Artistically known as Oroana, she creates art with the aim to increase visibility of diverse voices and ancestral ways of living. She also works in the Australian Indigenous Governance sector full time. 

As the founder of Mami Watta Collections, she trades with groups of Indigenous artisans in Colombia, establishing long-lasting connections with families to support their craft-making and capacity building to inject back into their art practice. Ana co-designs collections of beaded works, based on common visions and socially-minded goals. For the past 8 years, artisans have been commissioned to create unique pieces, paid up-front and given the platform they deserve for their expertise and unique talents. 

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Luz Mila Wazorna- Mistrato,Rirasalda Colombia Beading Specialist/Head Beader

Luz Mila is a proud family woman from the Embera Chami tribe, she has been practicing the art of beading from her 6 years of age. She recalls having her mother and aunties beading around her from her earliest memories, and when she was given the chance she already knew how to bead, from many generations ago. Having experienced forced migration away from her traditional land in Risaralda, Colombia, she is the backbone of her family, who all dedicate to beading and creating mesmerising wearable artworks. 

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Nemr Haidar- Darkinjung Central Coast NSW, Australia

Market Facilitator 

Nemr is a nomadic traveller with a passion for the underwater world, culture and arts. He has spent the last 10 years travelling through South East Asia, creating bonds with communities and exploring the oceans as a diving instructor. He is passionate about connecting with First Nations around the world and bringing his unique skills in woodwork, multi-languages and as an advocate for kindness. 

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Victoria Marquez- Sydney/Ungurra Country, Australia

Workshop Facilitator

With a background as sociologist, she worked intensively with women and young groups around Colombia for almost a decade with main topics like human rights, always emphasizing womens rights, social cartography, territory and land rights, integrity and public sense. After a long journey in Australia she intends to reconnect with territory through migrant interactions, their movements and the ways the reconnect and ways of rebuilding belongings using new pedagogical tools to find ways of auto care and belonging to new territories.

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Deborah Prospero is a youth advocate, English teacher, and emerging writer. An intersectional feminist with a Uruguayan-Chinese background, she is rediscovering her Latine heritage through the Mami Watta beading and artisanal practices.

Passionate about Indigenous affairs, gender equality, as well as racial and ethnic equity, Deborah supports the elevation of Indigenous knowledges and practices, particularly around environmental sustainability and land rights.

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Alfonso has 27 years of experience in financial management of multinational companies in the pharmaceutical sector plus 10 years of previous experience in information technology.

Him and his family come from the interior of Colombia (Boyacá).  For Alfonso, working at Mami Watta Collections holds great meaning because it is a way of promoting the Indigenous Colombian culture, of knowing, working with, and supporting the Colombian indigenous communities that were separated from their roots by the Spanish invasion. Valuing their creativity and work in handicrafts.