Gorontalo's 'kerawang': Beyond a threadbare existence

Bruce Emond, The Jakarta Post, Gorontalo City

Every Thursday is kerawang day in Gorontalo City. Civil servants head off to work in the traditional hand-drawn threadwork of the province, the women in two-piece shift dresses, men wearing baju koko (high-collared shirts).

The needlework is one of the proudest claims to fame of Gorontalo, the country's second youngest province which separated from North Sulawesi in February 2001. The back section of the Gorontalo Post, its pages filled with stories of land disputes, jilted wives taking revenge on their usurpers and second-billing music groups coming to town, is titled Kota Kerawang (Needlework City).

Kerawang, with its intricate, painstaking art of drawing the thread from the fabric, stands out from the batik of Java, the songket (gold-thread weavings) of Sumatra and the ikat of eastern Indonesia.

There are few other examples of drawn threadwork in the archipelago. Michael Hitchcock, in Indonesian Textiles (Periplus Editions, 1991), notes drawn threadwork in textiles thought to come from Bali, but these were done on woven fabric, not the delicate cottons and chiffons of the best kerawang.

Although the history of kerawang is proudly acknowledged at every turn, it, like so many Indonesian textiles, seems caught in the awkward limbo between tradition and modern demands.

As it has for generations, production remains a home industry, with housewives who are members of cooperatives and workshops doing the craft in their free time. Kerawang provides a small but much needed extra source of income, but it has a limited scale of production, with most of the artisans only able to produce from three to five pieces a month, and the supply of fabric dependent on imports from Java.

"We've been sent to expos in Indonesia and abroad, and people always liked the designs," said Hian Ismail, the head of the embroidery cooperative Pertiwi, which groups about 240 women living in the surrounding kampong.

"But when we went to Singapore, for example, they wanted us to fill a big order, which was impossible for us to do."

The women are paid for each product they complete, including shawls, dresses, tablecloths, fans and drink holders. A shawl sells for Rp 30,000 to Rp 35,000 at one of the kerawang shops along Jl. Suprapto in the city center.

It's meticulous, time-intensive work, especially for the women who must delicately draw the thread to prepare the fabric for the needlework.

Arfa Hamid from the Gorontalo office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which provides training for the women in the Pertiwi cooperative and others in outlying villages, said eye disorders were an occupational hazard.

"They are being paid for the pieces they complete, but what if they have to go to the doctor when they get sick and have to pay for their treatment?" she said.

In Telaga, about a 20-minute drive from downtown Gorontalo, the Naga Mas workshop is run by Iko Lihawa Mantali and his wife. They opened the workshop in 1985 after seeing an opportunity to help local women, many of them school dropouts, learn the trade.

The couple have been successful in their efforts; groups of travelers come by to view the products, including Muslim clothes, displayed in the front three rooms of their comfortable home. On one wall hangs a photo of Mrs. Mantali receiving the Upakarti award from then president Soeharto for her efforts in opening up job opportunities in the area.

"We still have to overcome problems, especially in finding skilled, professional tailors to make dresses with kerawang motifs.

"When we take part in exhibitions, everybody wants ready-to- wear fashion, but we have to buy the fabric from Jakarta first to be made here," said Mrs. Mantali.

Hian and the Mantalis said the local government needed to do more to raise the profile of the threadwork, aside from the frequent declarations of pride in the tradition.

However, a concerted campaign will take money, and funding priorities for the young province may lie elsewhere.

Still, the local government's plans for the future include cooperating with fashion designer Samuel Wattimena, known for his long-standing interest in traditional fabrics and for his work as the fashion consultant to President Megawati Soekarnoputri, in improving the design process.

Arfa Hamid also said men would be encouraged to handle managerial positions for workshops and cooperatives.

"There should be no difference between the sexes in trying to improve professionalism," Arfa Hamid said when asked if the presence of men would negatively affect the traditional women's domain.

"In the Islamic tradition, the Prophet himself gave the example that he could sew buttons on his shirt by himself."