TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Flores women weave a safety net for tradition
For the women of Sikka regency, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), weaving cloth is not about craftsmanship but is a way to keep the old tradition alive
Change Size
For the women of Sikka regency, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), weaving cloth is not about craftsmanship but is a way to keep the old tradition alive.
A documentary on a group of women weavers in Nita village gives a bright picture of how the priceless local wisdoms contained in tenun ikat have survived modernity.
Directed by Dodid Wijanarko with support from the Australia-based Big Stories, Small Towns ' a multi-platform documentary initiative, Au Lorun (I'm Weaving) centers on a medical doctor who has been assigned to the village.
Played by actress, singer-songwriter and harp player Mesty Ariotedjo, who is a medical doctor in real life, the doctor interviews the members of Lepo Lorun (House of Weaving) community about their life struggles, hopes and dreams.
The women learned to weave traditional cloth from their mothers as a main requirement to enter womanhood.
'A bride-to-be may have to weave at least 25 pieces of cloth for the fiancé's family as her belis [dowry] for the marriage. So we don't enter into our husband's family empty-handed and the men in the family have to treat us with respect because of that,' said Alfonsa Horeng, 40, the founder of Lepo Lerun.
Alfonsa, who learned to make her own cloth starting at the age of eight, said that Flores women by nature were more patient, strong and independent because of weaving.
'To make one piece of cloth we have to go through 45 steps of processing and use 23 devices. It includes making the threads from natural materials and dyes. The whole process may take up to nine months and we weave while doing our house chores and tending to the children.'
The one-hour documentary also shows the rituals that started the weaving and the rich motifs of the cloth the women so skillfully create without following patterns.
The community has become an international destination for researchers and enthusiasts eager to learn about tenun ikat and the local culture.
'There is science in tenun ikat that has not been revealed. Somehow our ancestors knew the best time to pick the materials for the dyes and that a certain color would not come out if made when we are menstruating,' said Alfonsa.
The village women, with the oldest being 84, provide homestay accommodation and workshops in their outdoor studio for visitors for prices ranging from Rp 150,000 to Rp 25 million, depending on the package and period of stay.
They also tour to other villages to share the fading weaving culture and encourage people to make their own inventory of motifs and coloring, Alfonsa said.
'The cloth we make is not a craft, a commodity. We are not craftspeople, we are not menial workers. We are maestro, a professora. We don't weave for money; we do it because of our belief in tradition. The cloth is our heritage.'
Dodid said he chose to focus on the women weavers instead of the motifs of the cloth, for instance, because during his initial survey he was impressed by how they held an important role in their family and traditional rituals.
'Without realizing it, they practice feminism that comes from local values,' he said after the premier screening of the documentary to open the first Plaza Indonesia Film Festival (PIFF) on May 26 at Cinema XXI at Plaza Indonesia shopping mall, Central Jakarta.
The four-day festival, themed Celebrating Women, did indeed pay homage to feminism by screening six films about women and their life struggles.
Besides Au Lorun, the PIFF also screened musical film The Last Five Years with Anna Kendrick in the cast and Two Days, One Night (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne). Marion Cotillard was nominated for Best Actress in a leading role at the last Academy Awards for the film.
Indonesian films Siti, which recently won an award at the Singapore International Film Festival, Selamat Pagi, Malam (In the Absence of the Sun) and 7 Hati 7 Cinta 7 Wanita (7 Hearts, 7 Love, 7 Women) gives a complete picture of Indonesian women and their issues.
'This event mirrors our support for our creative industry by the selection of quality Indonesian films, while it provides alternative entertainment to our visitors,' said Plaza Indonesia manager for marketing and communications, Zamri Mamat.
' Photos courtesy of Dodid Wijanarko
