Peyal Güç, from the city of Van in Turkey, makes walking sticks. He began to make them after he had to stop working in the vineyards and orchards after a heart attack.

Peyal Güç (55), who lives in the Uysal (Virkonîs) neighbourhood of Gevaş district in the city, had learned the art of making walking sticks from his neighbours when he was a child.

Güç uses wood from the hawberry tree (in Kurdish, “Gîhûşk”) to produce two walking sticks a day. The process of producing walking sticks is a laborious one.

He gifts the sticks to elderly people who need them as well as shepherds. He adds that he takes great pleasure in producing them.

Güç says walking sticks are an important part of Kurdish culture: “People took walking sticks with them wherever they went in the past. The making of walking sticks represents an important tradition in Kurdish culture. I am trying to sustain this tradition”.