Biboki women convey social change through weaving

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