The Bahamian craft of plaiting palm fronds into hats, bags, and baskets is not a tourist performance. It is a demanding, physically exacting practice that takes years to learn, pays modestly, and may not survive another generation. On Long Island, women who learned from their mothers between the ages of five and seven still produce yard after yard of hand-plaited straw, each yard taking about twenty minutes of continuous, focused work. The silvery underside of the silver top palm, harvested from secret locations in the bush, becomes the raw material. The craft has been recognised by UNESCO as part of Nassau’s designation as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art in 2014.
Most current artisans learned plaiting as children. Few of their children continue. The craft may vanish within a generation.
This article traces the full process — from harvesting the right palm frond to the finished product sold at market — and examines the social, economic, and cultural conditions that keep the practice alive, just barely, in the twenty-first century. It draws on detailed reporting from the Long Island Museum and the advocacy work of Creative Nassau, the organisation that helped secure the UNESCO designation for Nassau.
Bahamian straw craft is a genuine, endangered hand-skill with deep regional roots, not a generic souvenir trade. The same item you see in a Nassau market represents hours of labour, inherited knowledge of specific palm species, and a set of plaiting patterns that are not written down in any widely accessible form. The craft’s survival depends on whether it can be made economically viable for a younger generation that has other options.
At a glance, the craft breaks down into a handful of core pattern types, each with its own difficulty and known practitioners.
| Pattern / Technique | Difficulty Level | Notable Practitioners | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fish pot | Considered most difficult | Patricia Darville | Darville can execute it blindfolded. |
| 11-string | Standard | Multiple Long Island artisans | Common underlying weave structure. |
| 15-string | Advanced | Multiple Long Island artisans | Wider pattern, often used for bags. |
| Smoked straw | Specialised technique | Oramae Pinder, Patricia Darville | Straw charred over kerosene lamp for black colour. |
About ten standard patterns exist in total, according to the Long Island Museum. None of them are written down in a centralised pattern book accessible to the public.
The Silver Top Palm: What Grows Where
The favoured palm for Bahamian straw work is the silver top palm, named for the pale, silvery underside of its frond. Only certain secret locations yield the best quality fronds, and harvesters trek through thick bush to reach them. Cutting must be done with care: poor technique can damage the palm permanently.
Artisans harvest mature fronds, then dry them at home before separating them into single blades. Each blade is split and stripped to remove rough edges. The process is labour-intensive before any plaiting begins. Oramae Pinder, a Long Island artisan, described the preparation as the most tedious part of the work.
A video from The GUANIMA Project documents proper harvesting technique and sustainable palm care, emphasising that the resource itself is not unlimited.
If you visit a straw market and admire a hat or basket, ask the vendor about the palm species used. “Silver top” is the name to listen for. Artisans who harvest their own material will often be happy to describe the process — and it gives you a concrete way to recognise work rooted in local knowledge rather than imported factory goods.
From Frond to Fibre: Dyeing and Smoking
Once stripped, the straw is boiled in plain water with dye, soaked overnight, rinsed, and dried away from direct sunlight to prevent fading. The result is coloured straw ready for plaiting.
The smoking process is rarer and more difficult. Only Oramae Pinder and Patricia Darville among the Long Island artisans still practise it. The artisan passes the smooth side of a prepared straw over a kerosene lamp flame until the surface is just charred, then wipes it with a cloth. The straw turns a glossy, permanent black. But the window for use is narrow: smoked straw must be worked immediately, or it becomes brittle and useless. Smoking is messy, smelly, and done one straw at a time.
The Plaiting Itself: Patterns, Pace, and the Economics of Time
Actual plaiting begins once the straw is prepared. The artisan works from an underlying weave pattern — 11-string or 15-string are common — and may modify the look by introducing dyed or smoked straw at intervals. The weave patterns are relatively few; the artisans use about ten standard ones, and the same pattern can produce very different results depending on colour choices and tension.
Patricia Darville, who can execute the fish pot pattern blindfolded, learned it from her mother. Her mother, she recalls, would tear a substandard plait and criticise it sharply. “Set your plait” was the instruction: tight strands, no visible holes.
Pace is steady but not fast. A yard of plait takes about 20–25 minutes. A typical order from a client is 20–30 yards, so a single commission can represent 10–12 hours of plaiting alone, before preparation and assembly. An average lady’s handbag requires about 12 yards of plait, which translates to four to six hours of plaiting plus the preparation work already described. The compensation is low.
Clients order specific patterns, widths, colours, and yardage. There is no mass production. Each piece is made to order, and no two pieces are identical. The variations reflect individual artisans’ styles and the particular batch of straw they prepared.
Who Teaches Whom: Transmission Across Generations
The Long Island Museum demonstration in June 2023, organised by Patsy Cartwright and Sheena Cartwright, featured a different artisan each day: Isabella Knowles on Monday, Eleanor and Pearl Cartwright on Tuesday, Patricia Darville on Wednesday, Oramae Pinder on Thursday, and Marjorie Cartwright on Friday. All of them learned between the ages of five and seven, typically from their mothers.
Plaiting provided extra income during the 1940s through the early 1990s, a period when the Family Islands had few other cash-earning options. It taught self-reliance. But the economic logic has shifted. Younger islanders see the work as poorly paid compared with tourism, retail, or digital jobs. The craft is not passed on because it is not seen as exciting or lucrative.
One exception: Malachi Johnson, a boy of about ten from Hamilton’s, attended the full museum week and was proficient at plaiting by Friday. The museum staff noted him as a hopeful sign but also as a rare one.
The question of how to preserve the craft is active and unresolved. Suggestions from the Long Island Museum include a national craft guild, expanded local craft collectives like Starfish Traders, a directory of island plaiters, fair pricing, a central straw market on Long Island, an internet portal for international sales, teaching plaiting in schools, and university-level courses. Naming plaiting as The Bahamas’ national craft — by analogy with sailing as the national sport — has also been proposed.
It is common for visitors to assume that all straw goods sold in Nassau markets are handmade by the vendor. Many items are imported or machine-made. The difference matters: a hand-plaited silver top palm bag represents 4–6 hours of skilled labour; a machine-made bag from a factory represents minutes. Learning to distinguish the two — by the irregularity of the weave, the feel of the palm fibre, and the price — is a small way to support real craft.
Markets and Recognition: From Long Island to UNESCO
The Nassau Straw Market is the most visible outlet for Bahamian straw craft, but it represents only the final stage of a long chain. Creative Nassau, the organisation that obtained UNESCO Creative City designation for Nassau in 2014, has worked to position the craft as part of a broader cultural economy. Vice President Patricia Glinton-Meicholas and Long Island–born straw plaiter Rosemary Brice contributed to Veronica Main’s book Straw Plaiting: Heritage Techniques for Hats, Trimmings, Bags and Baskets, published by Bloomsbury Press. Brice’s coloured pencil drawing “Miss Emily’s Eleven Strings” appears in the book.
Creative Nassau president Pam Burnside first connected with Main after responding “out of the blue” to an inquiry. The two met in person in London in October 2023, when Burnside presented on Bahamian straw craft at the Costume Institute of the African Diaspora’s second Biennial Dress Conference. The UNESCO designation, Burnside and Glinton-Meicholas argue, validates the urgency of making Bahamian straw craft recognised for its social and economic importance.
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The book Bahamian Straw Craft – A Guide to Making Native Straw Bags by Barbara Knowles Jesubatham is considered the definitive guide to the craft. It is out of print but still sought after by plaiters and researchers. A search for used copies or library holdings is the best way to find it. The broader tradition of Bahamian straw craft connects to the heritage of the Family Islands, where the knowledge remains most concentrated.
Context and Comparison: Inside the Craft, Outside the Market
Bahamian straw plaiting is often compared to straw work elsewhere in the Caribbean, but the comparison is not straightforward. The materials, patterns, and social context differ significantly from, say, Jamaican straw weaving or Haitian palm work. The following table outlines some of the key differences and similarities as they relate to The Bahamas.
| Context | Bahamian Practice | Common Outsider Assumption | What’s Actually True |
|---|---|---|---|
| Material | Silver top palm, harvested from specific secret locations | Any palm frond will do | Only certain palms yield the right flexibility and colour; knowledge of locations is guarded. |
| Learning path | Oral transmission from mother to child, age 5–7 | Anyone can learn from a YouTube video | No standardised teaching materials exist; the definitive book is out of print. |
| Economic model | Made to order, 20–30 yards per commission, low compensation | Artisans make a good living from tourism | Most plaiters earn very little; the craft survived 1940s–1990s as supplementary income, not primary. |
| Recognition | UNESCO Creative City (2014), one book, one museum programme | Straw craft is fully celebrated nationally | No national craft status; threatened within a generation; no central guild or directory. |
Veronica Main, the British straw plaiter who included Bahamian craft in her authoritative book, has over 40 years of research experience in the UK, Europe, and the United States. Her book contains 400 step-by-step diagrams covering more than 50 patterns. The Bahamian contributions — from Glinton-Meicholas and Brice — represent the first time the island tradition has been documented in a major international reference work on straw plaiting.
- Bahamian straw craft is a skilled, time-intensive, and endangered practice that cannot be separated from the specific ecology of the silver top palm and the social history of the Family Islands.
- Recognition — from UNESCO, from publishers, from museums — has grown, but the economic conditions that would sustain the next generation of plaiters have not kept pace.
- Supporting the craft means buying directly from known plaiters, paying prices that reflect the hours of labour, and advocating for institutional support (a national guild, teaching in schools, fair pricing standards).
Questions Readers Ask
How can I tell if a straw hat or bag is handmade in The Bahamas?
Look for irregularity in the weave. Machine-made items have perfectly uniform tension. Hand-plaited straw shows slight variations in width and tightness. The material should feel like palm fibre, not synthetic. Ask the vendor where the item was made and who plaited it. A real Bahamian straw piece will usually be priced higher than an imported souvenir.
Is the straw craft still taught to children?
Rarely. The Long Island Museum demonstration in 2023 identified only one child — Malachi Johnson, age ten — who learned to plait during the week. Most of the current generation of artisans learned between the 1940s and 1990s, and their own children have not taken up the practice. The craft is considered endangered within one generation.
Why is the UNESCO designation important?
Nassau’s designation as a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Art (2014) gives the craft international visibility and a framework for advocacy. Creative Nassau uses the designation to argue for government support, educational programmes, and fair pricing. Without it, the craft would have even less institutional backing.
What is the difference between smoked straw and dyed straw?
Dyed straw is boiled in water with commercial dye, soaked overnight, and dried. Smoked straw is passed over a kerosene lamp flame until charred, then wiped to produce a shiny black finish. Smoking is more labour-intensive, requires immediate use, and is practised by only two known Long Island artisans — Oramae Pinder and Patricia Darville.
Can I visit a place where plaiting is demonstrated?
The Long Island Museum in Buckley’s has hosted demonstration weeks, and the Nassau Straw Market is a year-round sales venue. However, there is no permanent, daily public demonstration site. Checking with Creative Nassau or the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism before a trip is the most reliable way to find out if a demonstration is scheduled.
What the Craft Reveals About the Bahamas
Bahamian straw plaiting is not a picturesque folk survival. It is a living, labour-intensive, economically fragile practice that connects the ecology of the silver top palm, the social history of the Family Islands, and the pressures of a tourism-driven economy. The fact that it survives at all — on the skill and memory of a small number of women who learned at their mothers’ knees — says something about the resilience of knowledge that is passed hand to hand, not through screens. Whether it survives another generation depends on whether that knowledge can be made visible, valued, and paid for what it is worth. For a deeper look at where to find original Bahamian art and craft beyond the market stalls, read Beyond Straw Markets: Finding Authentic Bahamian Art and Craft.
Sources and further reading
Moss, Shavaughn. “Creative Nassau helps take Bahamian straw craft to the world.” The Nassau Guardian. 2024. 🔗
“Plaiting Long Island, Bahamas.” The Bahamian Project. 2023. 🔗
“Woven History: The Story Behind the Straw and the Artisans of New Providence’s Famous Market.” Viva Wellness Drip. 2024. 🔗
Related reading on IslandHopperGuides
Traditional Music That Shapes Bahamian Identity — explores another strand of Bahamian cultural knowledge that is passed down orally and faces similar pressures from tourism and digital media.
Island Time, Community Spirit: Experiencing the True Meaning of Bahamian Hospitality — examines how community values and economic realities intersect in daily life across the islands.
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