3. Beautiful Old Ulos will turn Back to the Villages III into a Celebration of the Batak Weaving Arts

A few blogs ago, I wrote about Stephanie Belfrage, the thoughtful Australian woman who decided to return her Indonesian batiks to Java. That sparked a short repatriation ceremony in which her batiks were gifted to Museum Batik in Pekalongan, a ceremony made possible through the efforts of the non-profit Pekalongan Heritage Community and especially Arif Dirhamzah.

What I didn’t mention in the blog was that Stephanie originally contacted me about her Batak textile collection and not her batik textile collection. Pulang Kampung III is, in part, my response  to her request to have the textiles go back to Tano Batak. They are to be housed permanently and well in Jakarta’s Museum Tekstil, but first, this summer, they will join the Back to the Villages III tour and sail around Lake Toba where they will delight and inspire all who see them.

I saw Stephanie's textiles for the first time in Jakarta with
Lasma Sitanggang, my Batak 'daughter'.

I commend the direction and staff of Jakarta’s Museum Tekstil for their decision to join us. If the people can’t make it to the museum, let the museum go to the people.  Museum Tekstil in Jakarta is an enthusiastically engaged institution that values not just the work of indigenous weavers, but also the weavers themselves. They do everything in their power to encourage the weaving arts in the archipelago. This time, they are taking it upon themselves to transport Stephanie’s textiles to North Sumatra and set up a makeshift exhibition in a different village on each day of the journey. It will be a lot of work, but they do not shy away from hard work.

Room devoted to weaving equipment in
Jakarta's Museum Tekstil

I hope and expect that the Back to the Villages exhibition series will be mutually inspiring. The staff of Museum Tekstil will get to know the Batak through their reactions to the textiles, and the Batak will be given the opportunity to reflect on the changes in their weaving arts. Stated more directly and clearly, they will be confronted by the disappearance of their woven heritage and it will undoubtedly give them pause.

I am thrilled with the two focuses of the upcoming Back to the Villages journey: film and textiles. What could be more synergetic? The film is about ancient textile techniques and there will be a textile exhibition to complement and support it. The addition of the textile exhibition has turned Back to the Villages III into a celebration of the Batak weaving arts.

1. Announcing Back to the Villages / Pulang Kampung III

MJA Nashir's poster for Back to the Villages III

In 2010 I brought my book Legacy in cloth, Batak textiles of Indonesia to the weavers in North Sumatra, so that they would have a record of their weaving heritage.  This was the first Back to the Villages Project.

The results of the journey were so spectacular that I swore to do it again, whenever I had published anew about Batak culture. I made good on my promise. In 2011 I brought copies of my exhibition catalogue, written for our exhibition in Jakarta’s Erasmus Huis to North Sumatra. It was intended especially for the people who figured in the exhibition. The catalogue was entitled Pulang Kampung / Back to the Villages, and it was about the original repatriation project in 2010. MJA Nashir accompanied me on this journey and we distributed copies of his book, Berkelana dengan Sandra, Menyusuri Ulos Batak at the same time. MJA Nashir was the photographer on the original journey and the book was his wonderfully detailed account of the journey. This second Back to the Villages project was relatively small and low key.

In the same year that we conducted Back to the Villages 2, MJA Nashir and I set to work on a film about Batak weaving techniques entitled Rangsa ni Tonun. That film is finally finished and now the time is ripe to conduct our third Back to the Villages project. During this journey, we want to travel as much as possible by boat to the villages around Lake Toba showing our film in a different village every day as soon as the sun goes down.

MJA Nashir has just finished designing the poster for this repatriation project. If we manage to find sufficient funding, the voyage will take place at the end of August and the beginning of September. This time our plans are bigger than ever and we are tailoring the project to focus on the most important facet of the two previous journeys, viz. inspiring pride in the villagers through the sympathetic presentation of their own cultural heritage.

We will use this website and a page that we are building on Facebook as our mouthpieces for the project.  Stay tuned! 

Indigenous Prize Winners

Merdi Sihombing, a leading Batak clothing designer, has just won the 2010 first prize for KAIN TENUN NASIONAL (Indonesian woven cloth). He is a modern, urban fashion designer. His winning design, however, is a recognizable, traditional Batak textile, a so-called ulos runjat. (Merdi has altered colour and fibre.) It is exciting that a Batak designer has won this prize. For me, it is striking that an indigenous design, developed by centuries of Batak weavers in the villages, has been the foundation for this illustrious modern cloth. This insertion of the ancient and indigenous into the modern and urban says alot.

My journey Back to the Villages in June was good and successful in many respects, but upon my return, I appear unable to find any capacity within myself to accept the total decline of Batak weaving. My mind dwells on my journey; constantly I find myself examining avenues for the future survival of this precious art form.

Recently, the Tribal Textiles forum sent out a reminder about the Tinkuy, a gathering of weavers, that will take place in Sacred Valley, Peru in November 2010. I find this inspiring. It is being organized by the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco (CTTC) . They write, on their website, precisely what I could write about Batak textiles (and what countless others could write about indigenous textiles elsewhere).

It is becoming clear that the survival of diversity contributes to the valuable storehouse of world resources.

Textile systems developed in Peru over the millennia represent a treasury of techniques rare in the world. Most remain unknown outside of Peru. They are passed on, not by writing, but by the Andean process of person-to-person communication, by watching and practicing.

Peruvian weaving is a ritual activity with many layers of meaning.

The so-called “Tinkuy” that they are organizing is bringing people from everywhere together to learn about Andean weaving and to practise it -- together! Everybody – from every culture and every age – is invited. The community that must learn about and support this ”world resource” is, indeed, the whole world. The Centre has reconized the importance of creating fora in which information can be shared and transmitted between generations and between peoples. The key is communication.

What an innovative and inspiring initiative! I can immediately think of powerful and useful variations on the theme:

It would be so useful to have a Centre for Traditional Batak Textiles, or a Centre for Traditional Textiles of Sumatra, or a Centre for Tribal Textiles of Indonesia - or ASEAN. A World Centre for Tribal Textiles! What would it be like (especially for the weavers themselves) to bring Toraja, Dayak and Batak weavers together? To have representatives of closely-related cultures who otherwise never meet up, come together to share their closely-related weaving knowledge while working at their looms! What would it be like to bring Toba Batak from different regions together with Simalungun and Karo Batak weavers together? What about Acehnese and Minangkabau and Batak weavers, as they have so profoundly influenced each other in the past? And, speaking of profound influence in the past, what about bringing weavers from India together with weavers from Indonesia? The opportunities are legion, the possible spin-offs exciting to contemplate. It is about cross-fertilization, learning, the preservation and growth of knowledge and traditions, mutual appreciation, stimulation and encouragement. The survival of diversity. The survival of the creative history of man – and woman – kind.

In May, under the auspices of Voyage & Culture  in Amsterdam, I hope to lead a tour to the Batak area, specifically to kindle/nurture/satisfy external interest in the Batak weaving arts. There will be hands-on opportunities for the participants. On the flip side, this is a way to celebrate the weavers, give them an additional source of income and encourage pride in their skills. It is another way to give a boost to the Batak weaving arts using international support, and to get knowledge about their techniques out there in the world. A little drop in an exciting bucket – that could expand to have the dimensions of Lake Toba.

I think of my friends, Nia and Ismoyo of Brahma Tirta Sari  in Yogyakarta. These batik artists have long recognized the importance of indigenous traditions to their own modern art forms.

Cross-cultural collaboration is another critical and enriching aspect of the Brahma Tirta Sari creative process. Their commitment to cross-cultural exchange is rooted in the ideal of human unity and recognises the creative life force not only inherent in ancient Javanese traditions, but also in the traditions and knowledge of indigenous cultures. As Ismoyo describes

“Tradition is the DNA strands of our world culture. We are truly indebted to these threads that continuously flow to make the present the past and form the basis for creativity in each subsequent era.”

(Joanna Barrkman, Curator, Southeast Asian Art and Material Culture, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Darwin, Australia)

Currently, they are developing plans to bring modern textile artists in touch with village producers. Their argument, that I whole-heartedly endorse, is that they both need each other to grow and develop. Mutualism. Nia and Ismoyo, themselves, grab every opportunity that they can find, or create, to work with indigenous practitioners, and have done so in Africa (Nigeria), Australia (Utopia and Ernabella), and especially in the batik villages of Java (e.g. Giriloyo).

They are working on a variant of the same theme as the organizers of the Tinkuy in Peru: communication across artificial boundaries that have emerged socially, geographically and historically that can get in the way of the growth of the art form.

I am going to closely follow The Gathering of the Tribes, a comparable initiative in Malaysia that is heating up. It is scheduled to take place January 14 - 16 2011. It will do just as its name says: bring the different tribal peoples together where they will focus on  specific cultural heritage issues.

These initiatives are emanating inspiring rays of hope.

Back to the Villages - the map!

See a map below for the routes in North Sumatra taken for the Back to the Villages project.  Click on the image to see a larger one. 

 

Schedule in North Sumatra, June 2010
 5 - arrive in Medan from Jakarta
 6 - Gunung Leuser (Orang Utan rehabilitation centre)
 7 - Medan to Berastagi
  8 - Kaban Jahe
  9 - Tongging, Paropo, Silalahi
10 - Berastagi to Tuktuk via Simalungun and Parapat
11 - Lumban Suhisuhi
12 - Simanindo, Ambarita, Tomok
13 - Silindung Valley
14 - Silindung Valley
15 - Tuktuk to Medan
16-18 - Medan
19 - Medan to Parapat and Tuktuk
20 - Tuktuk to Simanindo, Lumban Suhisuhi, Pusuk Buhit, Harian Boho and Sihotang. Overnight at the foot of Pusuk Buhit on the shore of Lake Toba
21 - Back to Samosir, and from Pangururan to Simbolon to Nainggolan, back to Tuktuk, Parapat and all the way south to Muara
22 - Muara
23 - Silindung - to Parapat at the end of the day
24 - from Parapat to Balige
25 - Balige to Kaban Jahe and Berastagi
26 - Berastagi to Medan - then an afternoon flight to Aceh
27 - Banda, Aceh
28 - Banda to Medan
29 - Medan - to Amsterdam over KL

Gratifying look

My friend and webmaster, Pamela Cross, asked me upon my return whether I look differently at Legacy in cloth now that I have taken it to Indonesia. The answer is an unequivocal “yes”.

I remember how anxiously I lived towards the first presentation of the book to a Batak weaver. I had talked up my Back to the Villages project for so long and had received so many donations. I felt that alot was at stake. To many people the project seemed a bit strange given that the book is in English and not yet translated (I brazenly write “yet” because I am immodestly convinced that it will only be a matter of time). I believed that the book would be of use to weavers because they can read the photos better than anybody else, and because they need and deserve a pictorial record of their repertory. Anything I could write or say would, relatively speaking, be of less importance. How relieved and gratified I was when the book was received by the weavers with such intense interest and appreciation.

One of my favourite illustrations of this happened in the Silindung Valley, in the twining village of Sait ni Huta. When we pulled up, there were several women of all ages twisting fringes and twining edges in front of their homes. I selected one person to sit with and gradually more and more villagers clustered around us. Because of their weaving speciality, I opened the book to the pages of twined patterning (pp. 526 - 528) and watched them react. They immediately pointed out the patterns that they were familiar with, fetched textiles out of their homes to show me modern edges that are not represented in the book, enquired whether I had illustrations of beadwork as well (luckily, I did - p. 530 – taken in their village!) and discussed the differences between their work and that of their colleagues in Laguboti (near Lake Toba) and Kaban Jahe (Karo Batak area). The discussion was animated and enthusiastic.

On a whim, I showed them the twined bag on page 406. I was so curious how they would react to this rare and old bag. None of them had ever seen one and at first they doubted that it could have been twined. Then they started offering suggestions as to how it had been made. If the conversation had been lively, it was now almost a brawl with alternate, competing suggestions but nobody had the courage to take me up on my offer to pay for a replica of the bag. When I left, they still had not yet come to a conclusion about how it had been made. I realized that they needed more detailed photographs of the bottom of the bag and visual proof that it had not been made flat and then stitched up the side. But I didn’t leave discouraged. I thought, “They invented this bag once in the past and they are clever and skilled, so they can re-invent it or devise something entirely new.” I left them with the book and in the knowledge that they had enjoyed the puzzle.

What I don’t know, however, is whether their pride was bolstered by the book. For the most part, they don’t know much about books and what a major undertaking Legacy represents. It could be the implications of this book won’t sink in until later when they have had the time to ponder the celebration of their art that the book represents.

My next step that day was the village of Parbubu where Ompu SiTohap used to live (p. 61). She was no longer alive and so her son and daughter-in-law received the book. I witnessed their happiness at seeing her in the book showing off her favourite textile (now in Jakarta, inherited by her daughter). Whether there was pride in her weaving skills and her being a representative of Batak weavers, I don’t know.

Time may provide the answer to this question: will weavers show off the book to prove their technical excellence? Will it inspire young women to take up the art and older women to once again try their hand at it? Will it spark the development of an exhibition or two? Will local politicians heed a new urge to acknowledge and display the works of weavers within their jurisdictions? Before I left The Netherlands to return to the Batak villages, an employee at the Indonesian Embassy paused for a moment while looking through the book, “I have grown up seeing weavers and textiles for sale at the markets; I just always took it for granted, but now I see that it has potential for tourism...”

I do not think that I made a wrong decision to give copies of Legacy to weavers and villagers who could never afford to buy it (even imaging they were ever able to find it on the publisher’s (KITLV) website!). The hunger for information in the villages alone means that the gift was useful. Will there be concrete outcomes to the Back to the Villages project? (No funding agency would support me in my project because I couldn’t demonstrate this.) I have to sit back and be patient, allow the books to develop their own life in the villages....Maybe the effects will never be measurable.

..............

In Medan, when the project was completed, I received a text message on my mobile phone from Ompu Okta (see blog “Dilepaskan”). She wanted to know what the title of the book was in Indonesian....Obviously, she was still preoccupied with her gift....

See Back to the Villages - the map!

Intermezzo

We are back in the third largest city in Indonesia: Medan and back in Hotel Tiara. If it’s not Viennese waltzes, it is the schmaltzie Bee Gees playing in the Lobby….Gotta get a message to you….! One more hour and… I have to be ready to visit the Sultan’s Palace to see if it is an appropriate activity for our weaver tour next year. Tomorrow, my traveling companion for the tour preparations, Jantine Koobs, will be on a plane heading home to The Netherlands. I will be turning around and heading back to the Batak villages.

My thoughts are not entirely with the end of our pre-tour journey, but with the preparations to leave again for the Batak Villages and the completion of my Back to the Villages project.

Laundry is already done. Possibly I should buy some peanut butter and crackers. It hasn’t been easy being vegetarian here. I have eaten altogether too much capcay and gadogado and ignored the occasional shrimp and chicken bouillon that has found its way into it all.

Negotiations are underway to see if Mas Nashir will join me to photograph the events. He is a Javanese photographer, a friend of my friends Nia and Ismoyo, batik artists in Yogyakarta, and of my new, very interesting and dynamic acquaintances, Irwansyah and his wife, Ritha. The latter professors at the University of North Sumatra are doing what they can to record and revive the tail end of the music traditions of Sumatra.

We have to find the right vehicle and driver to take us to the villages. I am terribly appreciative of our excellent Javanese driver of the past two weeks, Pak Saito (of Narasindo Tours), but I am concerned about bringing him too deeply into the villages where pigs and dogs are eaten; it will make him feel uncomfortable even though he will hide his feelings. Reluctantly, therefore, I am looking for a Batak driver who will enter differently into the spirit of it all. He will undoubtedly bring a new and interesting dynamic to it all. In addition, it will be good for him to learn what we will be learning about the Batak weaving arts.

I am behind on my blogs. I still want to share the happenings in the Silindung Valley where I was reunited, at long last, with my closest Batak families. First, however, the Sultan’s Palace is on the agenda.

See Back to the Villages - the map!

To Do List

Jantine and I have arrived in Medan. I prepare now for going Back to the Villages. It feels like a race against the clock. While still in Holland, I cut pages out of a volume of a desk copy of Legacy bearing pictures of weavers. In Jakarta, I began the task of laminating those pages. Upon arriving in Medan, I completed the task. I could have done that in Europe, too, but it would have been at more than 6 times the price.

An efficient little shop in Kampung Kling in Medan is making the four stamps that I need to prepare the books. A young Chinese woman used the computer software CoralDraw and laser technology. It was my luck to stumble upon her and we took turns at the computer so that I could edit the English but I confess to a touch of guilt in going with this option. Most stamp-makers are installed in little stalls on the side of the road and they make the stamps by hand. Aren’t I celebrating handicraft with this project? And can’t we attribute the decline of craft to the crush of time, among other things? 

So far, my search for a good plastic envelope for the books has yielded only Tupperware-type cake-boxes. They might do the trick! These, too, are relatively inexpensive here and provide good protection for the books. I will keep looking for viable options.

Yesterday, we took a quick trip to Gunung Leuser at the Orangutang Rehabilitation project. During our guided walk through the jungle, we saw a rehabilitated old Person of the Forest (translation of the Indonesian “Orang Utan”) named Ucok. A huge fellow, we were frightened as he brachiated very close to us and watched us from close by. I used up my camera battery taking endless photographs of him. A gibbon swung in the trees further away. Later, a mother Forest Person, carrying her child, stole my water bottle and fed the water to her baby! She loved theatre and did it more to ape me than out of thirst! More than 15 years after being freed in the jungle, she still loved to visit human areas to swipe bananas.

The peace and beauty of the jungle were good for the soul. I was glad that I did not let my 'To Do' list dissuade me from taking this trip to the jungle. But it is now 6 in the morning and my 'To Do' list before departure to Berastagi is still very long. Till the next report!

See Back to the Villages - the map!

Engaged

Yesterday, Juara Ginting interviewed me for the on-line newspaper Sora Sirulo to which he is an important contributor. My Back to the Villages project is news, apparently.

When I reflect on the project I oscillate between perceiving it as extraordinary and chastising myself for the same. After all, isn’t it the most normal thing in the world to give a copy of the research product to those who made it all possible? That is what museums and archives expect if they loan a photograph for use. Funding agencies also have that expectation.

So why shouldn’t anthropological informants receive a copy? Moreover, why would this not be a funding stipulation? I received the most prestigious grants from Canada (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Killam Foundation) and from The Netherlands (Netherlands Research Organization and Prince Bernhard Fund) who all demanded dissemination of the research findings. “Dissemination” among the peoples who supplied the information was not a requirement.  Back to the Villages was considered a separate project. Knowledge production is what matters.

Juara has begun to work on a project to save and preserve important Karo Batak buildings from extinction. He found parallels with my project. We both are asking he general public for contributions: he collects coins and I have book donors. He asked me to reflect on his strategy. I pointed out that his coin collecting would raise awareness of the project and also spread ownership of the building over the general public. It encourages engagement.

Engagement is what it is all about. “Objective research” may be important for “scientific purposes” but it is also a conveniently “legitimate” way of turning a blind eye to the plight of indigenous peoples struggling for survival.

I am proud and thankful to have received prestigious funding for my anthropological endeavours, but I am ashamed that these agencies have not installed a stronger ethic in the interest of indigenous peoples. What I am doing with my book should not be exceptional but rather a routine matter!

See Back to the Villages - the map!

Bees knees

An idea has something in common with the pollen sacks on a bee's knees. As she goes from flower to flower a bee picks up pollen until the sacks are full and then she carries it all back to the hive. An idea is born through a process of meetings, discussions and ponderings. The idea to write Legacy in cloth, for example, fed partly off the flower of the Ethnographic Museum in Leiden. It was my access to that collection, many years ago, that inspired the plan to write a comprehensive catalogue of Batak textiles.
 
Yesterday in Jakarta, to my great surprise, I received a telephone call at my new Indonesian number from the S.E. Asia curator of that very museum, Francine Brinkgreve. She informed me that the director of research at the museum had supported her request to participate in the Back to the Villages project. The museum is very strongly in favour of returning the products of research to the indigenous peoples where the research was conducted, and has actively worked on several collaborative projects with Indonesian museums. They feel that my Back to the Villages project dovetails well with their own values and priorities. They wish to donate 5 books!
 
I am fully convinced that partnerships between museums and indigenous peoples, originating in collections of their material culture, constitute a foundation for the future of both. My Back to the Villages project is precisely that kind of partnership because my book is filled with depictions of museum textiles, many of which are no longer woven or remembered in the Batak area. As examples of the Batak weaving heritage, they can inspire the weavings of the future. Needless to say, I am thrilled with this contribution from Museum Volkenkunde in Leiden. I feel proud of this museum that played such a strong role in my development as an anthropologist and so honoured to have them on my list of donors to the project.
 
Only minutes after being given with this news from the Dutch museum, I received a visit from the Batak designer, Merdi Sihombing. He had brought sumptuous armloads of his own textile inventions with him for me to explore and enjoy. I saw ancient designs in new colours and materials. I saw cross-fertilization between other Sumatran traditions and the ancient Batak tradition. The Batak textile heritage is Merdi's clay that he is molding into new forms. He is making his Batak weaving tradition vibrant. In his hands it is vitally alive. He brought the copy of my book that had been donated to him by the Indonesian Heritage Society and explained that it was going to be a valuable source of inspiration for him. I was gratified to hear this as I could not have received a higher compliment! Of course this is how I hope the book will be received by Batak weavers as well. This is the reason for the Back to the Villages project!
 
As I write this blog, I have received my wake-up call. Alas, it is unnecessary. I am definitely awake. It is getting to sleep amidst all of this excitement that is my problem. Today we are off to Medan where the Back to the Villages project will unfold further.

See Back to the Villages - the map!

Meeting with the Indonesian Heritage Society

It is midnight in Jakarta.  June 3 has become June 4. I have just finished a plate of spaghetti in a state of jetlag. Time now to reflect on the first event in the Back to the Villages project: a meeting with the Indonesian Heritage Society.

Judy Ryan, the Society’s president has told me that they have 700 members spread around the world. I joined a couple of dozen of the predominantly ex-pat group today in a walled village of luxurious homes in a southern district of Jakarta. Muffins, brownies, cheese-puffs (you can tell that I am still hungry) and every creature comfort. A congenial atmosphere but also a sharp and perceptive audience representing every possible walk of life and, all tallied, vast life experience.

Several members have a passion for textiles; all have an interest in indigenous culture. Enthusiastically and sincerely, they do what they can to promote it. It was a receptive audience with which to share my Back to the Villages plan. It was also an audience that had earned the courtesy of learning more details: they had helped me in crucial ways to prepare for this project, e.g. to import the book.

I shared my motivation to bring Legacy in cloth to North Sumatra, emphasizing the fact that weavers need templates when they set about making a textile. If they no longer have their heritage textiles, they are severely restricted in their capacity to build creatively within their own tradition. The Indonesian Heritage Society donated 3 books to express their support for the project.

At a previous gathering like the one I attended today, the Batak designer, Merdi Sihombing, delivered the talk. He works with new fibres, colours, and techniques, building on ancient motifs and textile layouts. I was delighted that he was present at my talk today.

While I plan to give most books to weavers who assisted me during my fieldwork, there are a few non-weavers who also deserve a copy because of their role in keeping the tradition alive. After all, the ultimate goal of this exercise is to give the Batak weaving arts a boost. Merdi Sihombing was on my list of intended recipients (and his wife is a brilliant weaver). It seemed only right to make use of the opportunity today to present him with his copy. It was a festive and public setting in which to honour a person who is doing what he can to revitalize the ancient, Batak weaving tradition. 

It was also a very special moment because it will probably be the only time that one of the donors to the project will have the opportunity to present its own gift to the recipient!  Judy Ryan did the honours and also inscribed the message from the Indonesian Heritage Society to Merdi in her own hand. I found the moment terribly satisfying and a wonderfully auspicious way to kick off the project!

the glory of the weave!

My traveling companion Jantine Koobs kindly and dutifully made photographs to pin down the event for posterity. As soon as I have the computer software sorted out for my new camera, I will try to post some shots of the occasion.

Another highlight of the event was the opportunity to finally meet Ed Edwards McKinnon with whom I have corresponded, off and on, for years about Indian influence in Karo prehistory. Our mutual friend, Tim Babcock, who has done much behind the scenes to encourage the Back to the Villages project, orchestrated this meeting. At his suggestion (thank you, Tim!) Ed and his beautiful wife, Sinta, drove all the way down from Bogor to join us. There was an immediate click, the kind that happens only when kindred spirits meet. We sensed that it would be useful to meet longer and more often!

In a few hours, we will be off to visit the Textile Museum here in Jakarta. It will be a good idea to get some shut-eye before the sun comes up.

See Back to the Villages - the map!

So much goodwill!

Every one of these last days before my departure bring a new sense of blessings and the awareness that this Back to the Villages project was “meant to be”. The involvement of the donors in the project is the source of these surges of rosy feelings. Each one reminds me of why I decided to include this “extra” North-South dimension.

The North-South dimension is already hugely present: white person from North studies weaving tradition in South, based on information stored in museums and archives in the North, derived from past happenings in the South; she makes a book in the North using information collected in the South and will transport that back to the South etc. etc.etc.

Most poignant right now are the goodwill donations from the North. Just the other day, I received a letter from my dear friend, Heather Wilson. It touched me deeply and I am glad that she is willing to let me share some of it in this blog:

“I am so happy to be able to support this project. To have their “folk art” (as some might say) interpreted as an expression of their lives (and of them) to the world should be a source of enormous pride to the weavers. To have someone say, “I see what you are doing, and it is important” sometimes comes too late – or often, not at all (which is why your current success is so gratifying to all of us!!!!!) ....”

Such spontaneous, heartfelt goodwill reminds me of the first donation. It was made in Seattle last September (2009) after I delivered a talk in which I mentioned the Back to the Villages plan. A beautiful and enthusiastic lady in the audience (Nancy Evans), wearing a spectacular handmade lace collar, opened her pocketbook and asked how she could contribute to the project. I scratched my head and then suggested that she could perhaps donate a book. Thus an idea was born.

There is a ring of authenticity in all of the messages that I have received, as the donors have put their hearts into their words.
 
(This book is) proof that the maintenance of your traditions and art are of importance to the World. The members of the Soroptimist Club in Arnhem (Holland) wish you well in the future.

The Soroptimists of Arnhem have given generously to this project.

 A message from a member of the Indonesian Heritage Society who was particularly helpful during the preparations for the journey wrote,

Dear Weaver
I hope this book will give you, and many others, the inspiration to continue the wonderful gift of weaving those magnificent Batak Ulos.
I have fallen in love with them and the culture they represent.

Warm regards from a textile lover and enjoy this gift.
Helmy de Korver
Jakarta 2010

My mother is also excited about the project! She hopes that her contribution can be given to Nai Ganda, one of my closest Batak weaver friends:
 
I think your work is very beautiful. Best wishes and congratulations from the proud mother of Sandra from Canada, a faraway country.

In my own experience, oscillating between North and South, my life in each half is but a “half life” and I need to keep combining the two to feel “whole”. This is not just a feeling; it is the result of a political, social, and economic reality. North and South continually reciprocally mold each other even if that awareness is not generalized or uppermost. I am so pleased about the donations to this project, not just because of the assistance that it represents in the Back to the Weavers project, but because of the awareness that it raises, the involvement and caring that it stimulates, the sense of “being part of it all”. In the end, the weaving tradition of the Batak can only continue if markets allow it to be viable. We create the market!

We have a daunting task ahead of us if we intend indigenous art traditions throughout the world to survive.

The Best Thing

A friend often reminds me of the words of the Dalai Lama, “Not getting what you want is sometimes the best thing that can happen to you.”

The day after announcing (in blog, email and newspaper) that my cherished dream to bring Legacy in cloth back to the villages was about to come true, the filmers who were going to join me on the journey suddenly cancelled out. This was a huge disappointment and initially I felt quite disoriented. But Legacy has taught me many lessons. One of them is faith in the turns that life brings. There have been many “ups” during the thirty odd years that I have been associated with this book, but also “downs”, some of them so deep that I will never care to relate them. Always the “downs” have led me to better solutions/options/directions. I have come to believe that even the enormous difficulties that I have encountered while trying to bring this book into the world have been gifts from a Guardian Angel. I know that the words of the Dalai Lama are true.

Fortified by this knowledge, I had confidence even in my disappointment and went about talking and emailing with many to develop a new vision and course of action. In my heart, I quickly discerned that I had but one option: to let the show go on. As soon as possible.  “My weavers” are not getting any younger (neither am I, for that matter.) And given that I will be visiting the Bataklands anyway from June 5 – 17 to lay the groundwork for a weaver tour in 2011, a wonderful opportunity to distribute the books has been presented to me practically on a silver platter.

Plan B is therefore low key. I will be retracing my footsteps to many of the places where I conducted fieldwork and inevitably I will meet many weavers (or their families) whom I met in the past. The meetings will be quiet and informal, unassuming and relaxed, just as then. This will be the ambiance in which I hand over the books with words of thanks, appreciation and encouragement.

The meetings will be recorded for posterity, not with moving film, but with still photography. My travelling companion, Jantine Koobs, is excited by the prospect of recording these moments and I am intensely grateful for her presence.

There will be significant advantages to doing it this way. One is that I will be travelling with a woman. Weaving is a woman’s world and the weavers will be more likely to be themselves and at ease under these circumstances. Furthermore, they will not experience the initial shyness that comes from having a film camera in their face. The gift-giving will demand less attention from authority figures who, intentionally or unintentionally, steal the limelight. These moments are intended to be just for the weavers (although there is always an entourage of children, curious neighbours and the like).

In September/October, I expect to be back in the region and can finish off the task if I am not able to squeeze it all into the time available in June. This planned journey is the silver lining that has come out of the cancellation of the filmers, but I will not be divulging all of that until the plans are better defined!

I leave in 4 days and am terribly excited!

(Below is the blog that I wrote announcing my trip. I removed it when I learnt that the filmers would not be joining me, but realize now that history should not be erased!)

Blog: Project Back to the Villages/Pulang Kampung is going to happen!

The Back to the Villages project is about to begin! On 18 June, the award-winning filmers, Jim de Seve and Kian Tjong will meet me in Medan and we will start to realize the plans on which we are still working feverishly.

This is a terribly important announcement for me. In the introduction to Legacy in Cloth, I wrote,

“During the course of the research for the present publication, I began to perceive a salvage function for the catalogue that could meet the needs of Batak weavers. Many weavers were excited by the photographs of old museum cloths that I had brought with me from Europe. They asked for copies so that they could have a record of the designs depicted...It had become a priority for this book to be useful in returning, in photograph form, some of the Batak textile heritage to North Sumatra...The prohibitive cost of this publication is a challenge to be faced to ensure its distribution in North Sumatra.” (p. 18)

I remember that my heart quailed as I pondered this last sentence, years ago, and I changed it from a determined promise to what is written there today. I wondered how and if I would ever successfully confront that challenge of making sure that Batak weavers got access to the book. I know, now, that it is the kind of thing that is impossible to do on one’s own. It is thanks to friends and supporters of the project that this very dear wish can become a reality. (See also separate blogs about donors, kind Indonesian diplomats, textile-lovers, friends, weaver-organizations and women’s organizations who have assisted.)

This is our plan:

We will spend two days in Medan preparing for the trip and visiting friends and supporters. I will be cutting up one volume of Legacy and scurrying around laminating pages on which weavers are depicted (these are to be given to the weavers so that they can show them handily to friends, family and fellow villagers – maybe also people who want to commission textiles from them). Jim and Kian will have just arrived from the United States and will be getting their sea legs. Kian was born in Medan but has lived for a long time in the States; Jim has never been to Indonesia. I will have been in Indonesia for almost three weeks helping to prepare a weaver tour that will take place in May 2011 (www.VoyageCulture.nl) so I should be over my jet-lag and handling the heat.

Then we will start out. A Batak car-rental in Medan has given us a good deal on a van. His brother is married to a woman of the Hutabarat clan, the clan which adopted me, so we call each other Pariban, a kinship term, and already there is a light-hearted feeling of dependability and safety. I know that he will have Batak drivers who know the region well and will be enthusiastic about our venture and anxious to facilitate it.

I expect that we will go to the Karo area first. It is close by and our destination is in the highlands so it is cool and there are many pleasant hotels for vacationers. Here, Kian and Jim will have a soft landing as they continue to adapt to their new and foreign surroundings. We will make the short drive from Berastagi to Kaban Jahe on marketday. Once there, I hope we will meet up with indigo dyers whom I once knew, and the descendants of those who may no longer be alive. We will go the market upon arrival because the stall proprietors know all the latest news on the who and what of textile production. Based on the information that they give us, we will organize our first book transfers.

These first transfers will be experimental. How formal or informal should we make it? Who should be involved? How will the people react?

We are very pleased and relieved that Juara Ginting, a Karo Batak anthropologist who divides his life between The Netherlands and Indonesia, has expressed a desire to join us on this leg of our journey. He has a deep understanding of Karo culture and speaks the language. It will be a great boon to be able to discuss all the aspects of our venture with him.

From there, we will execute something comparable in Simalungun villages and then move on to Toba. While we have a detailed schedule laid out, we also have consciously chosen to allow serendipity to play a role so that we can capture film-worthy “moments”. Jim and Kian are anxious to make film footage that will show the deep meaning of the cloth in Batak society and not just the transfer of the book.

We have 38 days planned and if we need to stay longer, we have all made provisions to make sure that this is possible.

The books are en route by mail to Medan and we hope to find them upon our arrival. This was facilitated by the Indonesian Heritage Society, a dynamic group of people (mostly ex-pats) in all walks of life who live in Indonesia and care about and promote Indonesian culture.

I have purchased a mini-laptop which should not be too onerous to drag along and I plan to write a blog now and then to share the ups and downs of our adventure. There you will see how our schedule is unfolding.