Biboki weavers honored for a modern spin on an old craft

Carla Bianpoen Contributor Jakarta

On Wednesday, Maria Yovita Meta and the Biboki weavers from West Timor will be presented the prestigious Prince Claus Award from the Netherlands at the opening of the Biboki Textiles exhibition at Erasmus Huis, South Jakarta.

They are among the 10 award recipients this time around, honored for living up to the theme, "The Survival and Innovation of Crafts" -- an important highlight in building the prominence of crafts in the ongoing evolution of today's cultures. Previous Indonesian winners of the awards, given since 1996, included Heri Dono, Sardono, Jim Supangkat and Ayu Utami.

While the award honors the Biboki weavers collectively, it is a particular tribute to Yovita Meta, whose vision and personal dynamism, charisma and cultural integrity have motivated the women of her native land to reawaken an appreciation of their own skills.

The founder of Tafean Pah, a weavers' cooperative which encourages the modernizing of ancient techniques, cherishes cultural heritage while at the same time stimulating social development, Yovita understands that the survival of traditional art is an urgent matter of economic security and social justice, and also of cultural pride.

Those who buy the cloth with its distinctive ikat motifs must not do so out of pity, but rather because of its quality and value as art, containing traditional stories that explain the designs, she contends.

Experts attribute much of Tafean Pah's success to Yovita's inclusive approach, holistic vision and leadership that recognizes the potential for inclusion of the husbands, fathers, brothers and sons of the Biboki weavers, which also represents the local Atoni world view of a cosmos where the roles of the sexes are mutually complementary. Today, in addition to 406 women working in 25 self-managed weaving groups, there are 697 men involved in related agricultural and animal husbandry projects.

The virtues of this extraordinary woman are further illustrated by her willingness to move to a small pavilion while making available to Yayasan Pah the house where she had lived with her husband until he passed away in 1996. As for the 25,000 euros from the Prince Claus award, it will not be spent on a much-needed car that would minimize the hardship of using public transportation to traverse almost impassable roads to visit the remote villages.

Instead, the money will be used to finish the building for the cooperative, the construction of which was brought to a halt due to a shortage of funds. Situated close to a bus terminal, the building is a boon to members who come in from the villages to offer their goods. There will be room for them to stay if need be, Yovita said.

I joined Mella Jaarsma of Cemeti Gallery/Yogya and Widarti Gunawan, the deputy president of the Femina Group, in visiting Biboki last month for a first-hand view of Yovita Meta and Tafean Pah's successes. We stayed in Kefamenanu, from where we traveled in the company of Yovita to Matabesi, Saeniup and Sapaen villages.

Kefamenanu, a small town in West Timor, is the hub of Tafean Pah's activities, lying some 200 km from Kupang and around a five-hour trip by road. From here, it is another three to four hours to reach the 12 villages scattered over the arid soil of what once was referred to as the indigenous princedom of Biboki, now encompassing the subdistricts of North Biboki (11 villages stretching over 26.340 square kilometers), South Biboki (15 villages covering 34.910 sq km) and Anleu (five villages on 20.640 sq km), located in the main administrative district of North Central Timor.

Leafless trees along the mountainous and rocky roads seem to signal the utter barrenness of the land. They were even more haunting during our trip in mid-December as their silhouettes stood out against the glorious skies.

A skillful driver ensured our safe passage through the precarious roads cutting through mountainous, rocky land. It is so dry and barren that only 15 percent, at most, is fit for agriculture. Most farmers apply slash and burn methods on arable land, some planting corn, taro and peanuts. Hunger -- even famine -- are frequent in a dry season that usually lasts longer than the rainy season.

West Timorese live in some of the most destitute and isolated parts of the Southeast Asian archipelago. Beset by all the natural disadvantages of the area, poverty is endemic and widespread, evident from the increasing number of people living below the poverty line in West Timor, which rose from 30 percent in 1998 to 80 percent in 2000.

For Yovita Meta and her husband Andreas Joseph Metabegan, their lives in the remote villages of Biboki had dragged along, with development slow in coming and an uncertain future lying ahead.

Matabesi was Yovita and Andreas' starting point. Here lived people who had been relocated from their traditional villages on the pretext that they should be closer to accessible services. But the land they inhabited was so barren that no tree was hardy enough to survive.

Andreas, who hailed from the area, started working with the farmers, planting trees watered through a simple bamboo drip irrigation system, while Yovita encouraged the women to resume their almost extinct art of weaving.

Herself born in the land of the Biboki, Yovita closely associated with the region's rich weaving traditions. Like other Biboki women, Yovita learned weaving from her mother. In fact, from the very first moments after birth, weaving is part of life, and associated with crafting a better future.

At birth, the tools of a spinning thread are placed in a basket by the grandfather, together with the clay pot containing the placenta that is hung high up in the kusambi tree. Underneath, women relatives sit and weave, sing and dance, beseeching the ancestors to bless the girl with the skills to be a fine weaver.

Weaving is part of a woman's life in Biboki. But it was Yovita's visit to Sabu that inspired her to work with the weavers in making products that sell and can improve their welfare. In Sabu, she realized how weaving can provide cash income.

Yovita started with only eight weavers, but in 1990 she brought together a group of Biboki weavers from two villages. They collectively decided to establish a community-cooperative that became Tafean Pah, with the goal to preserve and develop Biboki textile art. Soon the number of participating weavers increased, and now includes 406 weavers in 25 groups. More would like to join, but they have to wait until a place comes free when a village is self-sufficient.

In pursuing the vision that success should be a shared achievement of men and women, natural dye is the preferred coloring and weaving activities are therefore intertwined with agricultural development, focused on organic and sustainable planting. Specimen gardens in the villages under the Tafean Pah network contain cotton plants and plants for the natural dyes.

Cotton is a major material used for the weavings of old traditional motifs, a specialized feature of the Tafean Pah weavers, who now enjoy the fruit of Yovita Meta's search into tradition and the efforts to adjust these sacred looms to modes of the present time. Long-forgotten names and meanings of traditional motifs must be searched and retrieved from the memories of old women in the villages.

Using raw cotton and natural dye is a long and time-consuming affair, but Biboki women take pride in doing so.

The process starts with the maturing of the cotton in the month of August when it is picked, dried in the sun, deseeded and cleaned. By means of a manually operated small wooden mangle with two smooth horizontal rollers set into an upright frame, the seeds are removed. Then the cotton is cleaned and fluffed using a bow, a curved piece of wood with a cord stretched from end to end. The cleaned cotton is then rolled into thumb-sized tufts; it takes 25 of these to fill a spindle, and 200-400 to weave a cloth.

Yarn is spun on a simple drop spindle, which is operated by twirling the spindle with one hand, while the other hand stretches out to hold the cotton. After a length of cotton has been spun, the yarn is wound around the spindle, still attached to the unspun cotton.

Red and brown with a smattering of black and white are the hues that mark the Biboki cloth, with the double-dyed red/black ikat weaving based on the mak'aif motif standing out. For the red dye, the inner bark of the roots of the morinda tree (Morinda citrifolia) is used. To make the yarn stronger, it undergoes a process by which prior to dyeing, the yarn is soaked in a diluted paste made of pulverized candlenuts, sandalwood and other leaves and bark from the coral tree. After overnight immersion in the mix, the yarn is boiled.

The dye process starts with crushing morinda roots to a pulp, which is then mixed with water and boiled. After the yarn has been soaked overnight, it is taken out to dry in the sun. To yield dark shades of red, the dyeing has to be repeated at least once a week for two or three months. Earth or mud from the lake is used to yield even darker shades.

To obtain the black dye, leaves of the indigo plant are placed in a ceramic jar of water to disintegrate. A yellow-green solution is the result of anaerobical fermentation, which makes indigo water soluble, a condition allowing it to penetrate the cotton fiber. Yarn, vigorously kneaded into the solution is hung up to dry, and upon exposure to air, the indigo oxidizes and turns blue. Darker hues demand many times the same dyeing process.

The designs of intricate linear patterning are based on an ancient "hook" motif, said to depict the interlocking arms of traditional dancers and symbolizing the power of community cooperation to link society together in harmony. Biboki traditional textiles with their intricate ikat patterns have gained international acclaim. Ikat means to knot or bind. The pattern desired is bound onto the thread and dyed before weaving. Ikat is a dye-resistant process in which the threads of a piece are wrapped with intricate designs and dyed repeatedly.

The woven cloth motifs are a creative and artistic expression of cultural tradition, says Yovita, explaining that the basic motif of Biboki weaving is mak'aif, which is created using a unique two-stage process. Motifs and colors identify a Biboki as well as individual social standing and ethnic origin. Tafean Pah has documented 30 motifs, but the search for more continues.

As Yovita Meta proceeds with her life mission, she continues to empower the Biboki people giving them options and letting them make their own decisions. With her consistency and determination, poverty will become a thing of the past in her area.

------------------------------------- Biboki Textiles Erasmus Huis Jl. H.R. Rasuna Said kav. S-3 Kuningan, South Jakarta Jan. 14- Feb. 7, 2004 --------------------------------