Biboki women convey social change through weaving

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta

Entering the exhibition of Biboki weavings at Erasmus Huis is like being drawn into the atmosphere of an old customary house amid the barren landscape of Timor Tengah Utara regency, West Timor, in East Nusa Tenggara province.

Here, Biboki women from eight villages demonstrate the fruit of their efforts in working collectively to preserve their traditional ancestral culture of weaving.

In this regard, economic survival is not merely an end to such efforts, which has won an international recognition through a prize from the Prince Claus Fund.

The fund, which was founded by and named after the late Prince Consort Claus of The Netherlands, works for and honors activities with a contemporary approach to the themes of culture and development.

Thirty-seven cloths in a curation of Joanna Barrkman of the Museum and Gallery of the Northern Territory/Darwin are proudly shown along the black-covered walls of the Erasmus gallery; weavings telling their own story and history, with motifs indicating their village of origin, their ethnic group and their societal level.

The weavings were made in the past 12 months, but their quality is of such elevated level that some specialists thought they were antiques.

The quality of the textiles are telling for the weavers who do not wish their works to be purchased out of pity. People must buy because they recognize the value of quality and the importance of this art form, says Yovita Meta, the leader of the Tafean Pah cooperative.

Yet, while the Biboki women create their textiles with pride, and understanding that they also weave to maintain cultural identity, they also know that by so doing, they create a more prosperous future for their children. School and higher education have become affordable.

The Biboki weavers, working with the Tafean Pah foundation, distinguish themselves from other weavers in the country by their persistency in keeping to the motifs of their ancestry. Although chemical dyes are making inroads to the younger generation, and commercial cotton thread makes weaving easier, most of the weavers continue doing the long and time-consuming preparation of natural dye and continue processing themselves the cotton plucked in their own garden.

This, however, does not mean that they are stuck in antiquity. Contemporary motifs inspired by present day life and the changing environment are found side by side with motifs handed down from generation to generation.

The textile arts of Biboki are marked by their basic motif, Mak'aif, a hook and rhomb design forming a diamond shape, created by using a unique two-stage process. Dominating colors are red, white and black, with yellow, green, grey and light red as complementary colors.

In addition to futus (warp ikat), there are also buna (warp striping and supplementary weft wrapping) and sotis (warp-faced alternating float weave)

The number of hooks in a cloth used to indicate the social status of the wearer: the single hook was for the commoners, two hooks for daily wear and three hooks for ceremonial wear. Fut Biboeksa motif, once restricted to royalty, has now undergone many variations, which commoners are free to make and wear.

In the tais, a type of tube skirt, made by Susanna Mutik from Kuluan and Ima Ito from Saniup village, for example, the high number of hooks in the mak'aif motif (seven) and the three rows of buna, indicates aristocracy in the wearer.

Contemporary motifs, revealed in the cloth made by Romana Suat from Tunbaen village, were inspired by the natural material -- beab kataf, the stalk of a locally grown plant -- used to make the walls of contemporary Biboki houses, following government policies that declared thatched dwellings as unhealthy.

The exhibition comes with an excellent overview of the fascinating Biboki ikat-weaving skills and the process of natural dye-preparing, in a video made by Mella Jaarsma.

Block

For a Biboki woman, weaving is a skill determined by birth. Baby girl's birth ceremonies are held to beseech the gods that she may become a good weaver. Weaving is also a condition for marriage, through an underlying belief that weaving is a guarantee for a good and prosperous life.

But for the women in the arid land of the Biboki, to be prosperous was a remote dream, a mission impossible -- until Yovita Meta emerged and inspired them with her charisma, personal energy and new visions of cultural integrity. Now, instead of a meager Rp 5,000 (US 60 cents) for a cloth that takes a year to make, a weaver can pay for her children's education thanks to this cooperative.

Yovita Meta's rise from a graduate of a home industry school to leadership did not happen all of a sudden. The eldest in a family of eight children, there was no opportunity for higher education, as she took over the tasks of her sickly mother.

When at barely 20 years of age, she married the late Andreas Joseph Meta, a bureaucrat, she entered Dharma Wanita, the organization for the wives of civil servants.

She soon excelled as the organization's secretary, became a member of the Timor Tengah Utara regency council (1987-1992), and was subsequently reelected at the request of the Biboki people (1992-1997).

Recognizing the low esteem of women in society as well as their rich potential, she initially worked with the widows, who rose in respect after they showed they could earn a living by using their weaving skills.

While empowering women, Yovita's vision embodies the aspirations of the whole community, and weaving was linked to developing agriculture focused on organic and sustainable planting, animal husbandry and a credit-saving system, including the weavers' husbands, sons and brothers.

Leading Tafean Pah, which means "wake up the world", Yovita Meta wakes up the world to the hidden powers of weaving as a vehicle for social change.

-- I-box Monet Tok Tann'Ni -- Skills for Life exhibition Erasmus Huis, Jakarta Until Feb. 7, 2004