Nathalie Kelley partners with PAKA to debut a new short film, Yachapa.
PAKA
From a shared vision for sustainability and a commitment to preserving the traditions of the indigenous peoples of Peru comes Yachapa, a short film from actress and activist Nathalie Kelley and the certified B Corp apparel brand PAKA.
Kelley may be best known for her roles in The Baker and the Beauty, The Vampire Diaries, and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, but there is nothing more deeply personal for the actress than the making and meaning of projects likes Yachapa.
“I made a promise when I was just 18 years old that I was going to find some way to reconnect with my ancestry in a meaningful way,” Kelley shared in an exclusive interview. Born in Peru, Kelley is of Quechua heritage, tracing her roots to the indigenous peoples of the Andes who descended from the Incas, and who continue to carry their language, culture, and traditions into the present day.
Nathalie Kelley visiting the communities of indigenous weavers in Peru who work directly with PAKA.
PAKA
“My mom really instilled in me this value for my culture, for our heritage, for specifically our indigenous Quechua culture,” Kelley said. “There need to be more stories told about the resiliency of our people and how much we have to offer to the world.”
Yachapa is one of those stories, shot on 16mm film and directed by Sandra Winther. It delves into Kelley’s personal journey to understand and embrace the culture and people of her native Peru, while celebrating the Quechua people’s most important and time-honored traditions: weaving.
“In these communities, weaving is like an ancient technology that has been passed down for generations, with so much deep meaning and storytelling embedded into these threads,” she says. “It’s more than just a tradition, it’s a wisdom and a cosmovision of this ancient culture that contains so many valuable lessons for the modern world beyond just Peru.”
Nathalie Kelley wears PAKA while visiting indigenous communities in the Andes that work with PAKA.
PAKA
Yachapa was created in collaboration with PAKA, a Peru-based sustainable apparel company founded in 2017 by Kris Cody. The company sources natural alpaca fibers from local alpaqueros —alpaca herders—and employs communities of weavers to create beautiful pieces of outdoor apparel. Every purchase supports these Quechua communities with economic opportunity and fare wages.
Kelley explained that their partnership began serendipitously, when she found herself in the brand’s flagship store is Cusco looking to purchase apparel in preparation for an upcoming trek. “After learning a little bit about the mission I met Kris, and as we connected it was clear that we had so many shared commitments when it comes supporting to these alpaquero communities,” she recalled.
“The word regenerative is thrown around a lot, but what PAKA is doing truly is supporting these regenerative economies by upholding and uplifting these ancient cultural practices of weaving, and the communities that hold them.”
Nathalie Kelley visits with weavers who are keeping their traditions alive while passing on generations of knowledge and craft when it comes to transforming alpaca wool into handcrafted textiles.
PAKA
Kelley’s connection with PAKA has only deepened since that first encounter, and is now beautifully captured for the world to see through film. Yachapa was shot in Peru’s Sacred Valley, in and among the very communities where PAKA works. The film weaves the brand’s knits into the storyline in a way that seamlessly mirrors Kelley’s own journey of reconnection with her ancestral lands and people.
Yachapa makes its debuts in New York this evening at an intimate private screening event hosted by Kelley. It marks an exciting next step for the actress in what is an ongoing mission to use storytelling to convey the power of regenerative fashion to create positive impact in Peru and beyond.
Kelley continues the work offscreen by joining PAKA’s advisory board to continue to guide its storytelling and impact initiatives for years to come. She joins the council alongside Nilda Callañaupa Alvarez, PAKA’s head weaver, and Gisella Garate, the brand’s director of impact. “We’re reimagining what a regenerative business structure could look like, and we’ve even sat down and made a 100-year plan for what we hope to see come from this mission in our lifetimes and beyond.”
Nathalie Kelley wearing PAKA’s new heritage collection products, co-created directly with master Quechua artisans in communities in the Peruvian Andes.
PAKA
In addition to the film and her work on PAKA’s advisory board, Kelley says there’s much more to come, including efforts to engage travelers in ways that promote a more sustainable model for tourism in Peru. “Tourism has been a double-edged sword here,” she explained. “But we know that by empowering indigenous people and embedding them into the ownership structures of hospitality companies, the economic impact of tourism in Peru can flow downstream to the communities that really need it most.”
“When I first met Kris and I heard his passion for the alpacas, for the alpaqueros, for the weavers, it felt really in alignment with that feeling that I had had at 18 years old, when I went back to Peru and I thought, we need to tell this story differently,” Kelley said. For her, Yachapa feels like the exciting first chapter of that retelling.