T

imor Tengah Selatan (TTS) regency in East Nusa Tenggara has registered 29 out of its 117 traditional handwoven fabric motifs for design rights at the Law and Human Rights Ministry’s directorate general of intellectual property rights (HAKI).

“Ten motifs were registered in 2015 and 19 motifs were registered in May 2017,” TTS Regent Paulus Mella told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

Eighty-eight motifs of the traditional textiles are still waiting to be copyrighted, Paulus said.

The motifs are copyrighted under the name of TTS Handicraft Council (Dekranasda) due to difficulties faced by the regency administration in finding the legal heirs to the handwoven fabric motifs that came from Mollo, Amanuban, Amanatun, Kie and Kolbano villages in the regency, Paulus said.

“These motifs were inherited through the generations from before Indonesia’s independence and so it’s difficult for us to find their original creators. Thus we decided the copyright owner of these motifs is TTS Dekranasda,” he said.

The regent, who is currently serving his second term, asserted the importance of copyrighting the local fabric designs, saying it was necessary to make TTS handwoven fabric designs more recognizable nationwide.

Paulus said TTS handwoven fabric motifs were like no other in Indonesia because the textiles are made of cotton.

On June 13, the TTS regency administration is scheduled to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Agriculture Ministry and Industry Ministry in Jakarta on the development of cotton.

“This cooperation is to support the handwoven fabric industry in TTS, where cotton is the primary material of the textile,” Paulus said, adding that for the initial stage, the regency administration had prepared 50 hectares of land in Mollo, Amanatun, and Amanuban, which are the centers of the handwoven fabric industry.

Meanwhile, a local community figure from TTS, Army Konay, said traditional handwoven fabric was not merely clothing, but harbored a deep philosophy and was full of sacred nuance.

The textiles are intended for private use and for customary purposes.

“Handwoven fabrics are sold as the last resort when one faces heavy economic difficulties,” Konay said.

However, as time goes by, TTS handwoven fabrics are hunted by buyers for their motifs that are different from other traditional textiles in East Nusa Tenggara, Konay said, adding that production of the fabrics was still dominated by women, especially housewives.

“One piece of handwoven fabric from TTS is worth Rp 2 million [US$150] to Rp 4 million. If someone can make one piece of handwoven fabric in a month, it’s already enough to support the family,” he said.

Konay further applauded the TTS regency administration’s move to register TTS handwoven fabrics for copyright, saying that the trademark was important to preserve the traditional textiles from extinction.

Even though TTS handwoven fabrics might only remain as an art object, it is important to ensure that some locals still master the technique of weaving so that handwoven fabrics continue to exist, he said. “We should remember what happened in Manado, North Sulawesi, where traditional handwoven fabrics are no longer produced because there is no one who can make it. It’s ironic when Manado handwoven textiles are preserved at a museum belonging to the Netherlands,” Konay said.

Meanwhile, deputy head of HAKI Facilitation and Regulation at the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf), Ari Juliano Gema, expressed his appreciation and support to the TTS regency administration, saying that he encouraged other local governments to protect traditional cultural expressions and heritage.

“When the original creators of the traditional cultural expressions are unknown, the HAKI will be held by the government. In this case, no individuals or groups can arbitrarily put a claim on the object’s copyright,” Ari said.