February started quietly, with the family temple ceremony at Rumah Roda, the Homestay behind the Threads of Life gallery, and all the offerings for Saraswati Day, which marks the beginning of a new 210-day ceremonial cycle of the Balinese calendar. Saraswati Day also offered an opportunity for the Balinese staff of both Threads of Life and the Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali to pray at the important Pura Semuan Tiga temple in nearby Pejeng. Offerings were made prior to an intense schedule of field visits over the next few months in preparation for the second Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival in July.

For the last ten days of February almost everyone was in the field. Six of us split into three teams with overlapping missions, which were: to conduct an assessment process for the two villages in Timor and Flores that had applied to host the second Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival in July; to visit the weaving communities we work with in Timor; and to visit the weaving communities in eastern Flores and Lembata. Despite torrential rains causing the re-routing of flights and the cutting off of some villages beyond swollen rivers, the field visits across Timor and Flores were a success.

News from February's field trips is included in this newsletter, as is a report on the completion of Threads of Life's Fairtrade certification, which means we are now licensed to use the Fair Trade Organization mark

Love and blessings,
Jean & William

Field Report from Sulawesi

by Daud Manggalantung

"I was five days in the Mamasa area [to the west of Tana Toraja in South Sulawesi] visiting the villages of Bala, Ballakarua and Pabasiang. Out of 170 families I found fifteen weavers. These women do tablet weaving, using twenty, forty or sixty tablets to make cloth one, two or three fingers wide and five meters long. They call the technique Galassiri and make cloth called Pallawa. It is used in aristocratic funerary rites to tie around the heads of buffalo to be sacrificed, to tie the wrappings on a corpse, and as a head tie for those at the funeral. The traditional colors for a Pallawa are white, red and black, like the carvings on a traditional Tongkonan house. Natural dyes are no longer used in the cloth, but are still used in basketry." During Daud's next visit, he will take some thread to the weavers so they can make samples for us, from which we can place commissions.

Field Report from Timor

Ibu Rebeka (Left) and her sotis work

Textile of the Month

This month we feature a piece from the Sanggar Bliran Sina cooperative in Watublapi, Flores, made noteworthy by the marked improvement in the quality of the group's dye work over the last year. During February's visit to Watublapi, the weavers set up an exhibition for us with one area explained as "Pre-Festival" work and the other as "Post-Festival." The difference in the colors of the two groups of textiles was clear: the red dye in the new work had a far deeper saturation and richer hue. Motivation, information and inspiration gained at the 2005 Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival were given as explanations for the difference. Featuring one of the Sanggar's pieces as the Textile of the Month honors the weavers' achievements and their desire for even better color.

Selendang, Watublapi, Flores

Fair Trade Organization Certification

Threads of Life Certified by IFAT

Threads of Life has been working towards Fair Trade certification over the past two years, first by applying for and being accepted as members of the International Fair Trade Association (IFAT), and recently by completing IFAT's monitoring process.

Monitoring is performed every two years and is measured against international Fair Trade standards, though these standards are seen as ideals that may not always be immediately attainable given the state of the global market in which fair-traders seek to do business. Minimum standards must be reached, however, and continued improvement towards the standards is required to maintain certification. Monitoring involves a self-assessment, a stakeholder review, and possibly an external audit. (Audit's are performed randomly because of IFAT budget limitations.)

In February Threads of Life completed its first self-assessment and an initial stakeholder review that was written up from a workshop at the office in Bali attended by staff and those suppliers who could get to the office. After review of the self-assessment and stakeholder review by the IFAT monitoring committee Threads of Life has been granted the right to use the Fair Trade Organization mark at the gallery and on its publicity materials.

The Fair Trade Organization mark credibly certifies an organization that fulfills fair trade standards throughout its entire structure. The mark enables consumers to differentiate between Fair Trade Organizations and other traders that carry Fairtrade labeled products. Fairtrade labeling applies to a relatively narrow range of food products, such as coffee, tea and chocolate, and is an important source of livelihood support for marginalized commodity farmers around the world. The Fair Trade Organization mark allows the consumer to recognize genuine fair trade activity in organizations trading goods, such as handicrafts, that are not covered by the Fair trade label.

Threads of Life's participation in the fair trade movement aims to increase awareness of and support for trade justice everywhere, and to improve the credibility of our own work. By supporting organizations that carry the Fair Trade Organization mark and looking for products bearing the Fairtrade label, you too can be part of a growing movement supporting socially-responsible, environmentally-sound trade.

The Silversmiths of Ndao

An Exhibition at the Regional Museum in Kupang

While in Timor we went to the Regional Museum of East Nusa Tenggara in Kupang to see the Ford Foundation-sponsored exhibition on Ndao, a tiny island with 3,000 inhabitants off the tip of Rote whose male inhabitants work as itinerant silver- and goldsmiths across the islands of Nusa Tenggara Timur. Several cabinets contained examples of ethnic earrings, headdresses, breastplates, and bracelets made by Ndaonese smiths for traditional communities in Timor, Sumba, Flores and Alor. Alongside the work, informative written materials explained (in Indonesian) the smiths' way of life. Returning to farm only during the wet season, the men carry their tools with them when they travel, and set up shop wherever there is work. Customers supply their own silver and gold, which often means the smiths must work in their customer's homes.

"While researching this exhibit I looked at school records on the island and saw that all the birthday's were in October and November!" said museum curator, Leonard Nahak. When asked about problems the Ndao smiths face he continued, "They are highly skilled and need no training, but they are running out of raw materials. In the past, the clans they work for always had old silver coins, but these are rare now. There is supply in Bali, but they can't afford to go there."

If you are in Kupang over the next few months, be sure to spend some time at the museum. Small exhibits, such as the one on Ndao, make important positive impacts on the communities they portray both by building their self-confidence and reducing their sense of isolation.

Upcoming Events

Hong Kong 16 March, 6.30 PM
Traditional Indonesian Weaving Arts:
A Sustainable Rural Livelihood
The Textile Society of Hong Kong
A talk by Jean Howe of Threads of Life at Helena May, 31 Garden Road, Central. Website: www.textilesocietyofhk.org

Australia 13 April - 28 May
Symbols & Ceremonies: Indonesian textile traditions
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
An exhibition of textiles from Java, Sumba, Bali and Sumatra, and trade cloths from India. Includes excerpts from the Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali's video documentary of the 2005
Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival.
Website: www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au

Australia 15-30 April
Impressions of Asia
The Priory at Bingie, Priory Lane, Bingie, NSW.
An exhibition including textiles from the Threads of Life gallery of Bali. Website: www.bingie.com

Bali 3-8 May
Quest for Global Healing Conference
Agung Rai Museum of Art, Ubud, Bali.
Jean Howe will be participating in a panel discussion on community service. Website: www.questforglobalhealing.org

About the Gallery

The Threads of Life Indonesian Textile Arts Center is a fairtrade business founded in 1998 that works directly with weavers to sustain the indigenous textile arts and the cultural heritage these arts express. It works to empower women, to commission natural-dyed textiles, and sell the textiles thus produced. It also holds classes in textile appreciation and natural-dye batik to raise awareness of the traditional textile arts.

Site Selection Field Visits

for Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival 2006

During the last week of February we conducted an assessment of the villages in Timor and Flores that had applied to host the second Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival in July.

A mass of information was gathered in the communities of Amarasi in Timor and Watublapi in Flores. Both places fulfilled all the basic criteria, though in different ways. A point system had been developed to quantify criteria relating to the qualities of the meeting spaces, accommodations, food, communications, sanitation, and health services.

With the participation of local people and an observer from the other community, we applied this point system to each location and found that the total scores differed by only two points out of a total of 250, a difference well within any margin of error.

At the time of writing this newsletter we are still sorting through the data, and will publicize the decision on the festival location and dates once we have informed Watublapi and Amarasi of the choice.

People & Plants International

Supporting the Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival

The 2005 Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival was greatly enhanced by the support of Professor Tony Cunningham, an ethnobotanist from South Africa now living in Australia, and Director of People and Plants International (PPI) (website: www.peopleandplants.org) an international "knowledge network". His influence upon the design and facilitation of the discussions about dye plant use, cultivation and collection led to many of the festival's most significant outcomes, including the commitment by many communities to start dye plant gardens. His pro bono work during the festival represented "in-kind" support from PPI of US$3,500, and his continued participation in the 2006 Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival and related research into sustainable use of dye plants and related natural resources are being supported by a further PPI-sponsored grant of US$11,500.

"The PPI network brings together local and international experts to combine traditional knowledge and biological sciences in the most advanced and integrated development, conservation, and education projects. By working together with local groups in collaborative partnerships, PPI develops sustainable local solutions to improve the interface between human cultures and natural environments… It combines indigenous and local knowledge with botanical science to solve problems. In contrast to more conventional forms of 'working together,' PPI does not design projects and then implement them through local
institutions-PPI helps local groups with their own initiatives. "We wish to thank Tony Cunningham and People and Plants International for their continued support.

We Need Your Support

The Indonesian Indigenous Weavers Festival Initiative will cost US$150,000 this year. The main expenses are the costs of travel to the communities to facilitate the development of local action based on decisions made at the Festival, and the costs of getting participants to and from the Festival itself. We have raised US$100,000 from a large institutional donor, and US$10,000 from a US foundation for the participation of weavers in West Kalimantan. Donations from many of you to our Threads of Life Foundation already total US$5,000, so we are seeking another US$35,000 in contributions of any size to keep this innovative project going!

Secure Online Donations

The Threads of Life Foundation is a U.S. nonprofit 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1) under the National Heritage Foundation and shares its federal tax status (Tax Identification Number 58-2085326). Secure online credit card donations to the Threads of Life Foundation may be made at:
http://threadsoflife.com/foundation/

About the Foundation

The Threads of Life Foundation supports the work of the Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali, which is the Indonesian nonprofit sister organization of the Threads of Life gallery in Ubud, Bali. The Yayasan Pecinta Budaya Bebali is dedicated to sustaining the traditional textile arts of Indonesia and the cultural heritage these arts express. It works directly with hundreds of weavers on Timor, Lembata, Flores, Sumba, Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Bali to develop natural dye skills, to empower community, to develop local and international markets for the weavers, and to facilitate an ongoing dialogue between weavers and dyers of different traditions.

Watublapi Music CD Released

Indonesian Indigenous

Weavers’ Festival DVD

"Ninety-six traditional weavers and cultural leaders from communities across Indonesia came together for the inaugural Indonesian Indigenous Weavers' Festival between the 27th of July and the 3rd of August 2005. They came to the village of Waimatan on the island of Lembata from eighteen communities on the islands of Kalimantan, Sulawesi, Bali, Flores, Sumba, Timor, Adonara and Lembata.