STORIES OF PERSONAL CHALLENGE AND CULTURAL SURVIVAL
Threads of Life and Asa Film's Tradition Keepers documentaries take us to the indigenous communities Threads of Life works with across Indonesia to tell stories of personal challenge and cultural survival that go beneath the surface of the archipelago's textile arts into a world of rituals and ancestors, cosmology and mythology, social and ecological wisdom. Episodes tell the life stories of those working to maintain their textile arts, showing the complexity of their work, placing their art within a living culture, and showing the challenges they face passing on their knowledge.
A woman from Sumba recites a traditional poem about the world’s creation. She tells of her weaving and childhood, and after a ceremony for the newest granddaughter, teaches her daughters the complex red dye process. At night, a ritual for the planting season is performed. She talks about reading textiles like books that record everything she needs to tell her children.
A Balinese man delivers a special textile for use during a tooth filing ceremony. At home, he teaches his village’s traditions to his son. A teenage girl is initiated into the village’s unmarried women’s society and starts to study weaving. The girl’s aunt shows how traditional textiles are made and shares her concerns that the art might not survive modernity.
An old Balinese woman tells of her lifetime of weaving. She and a young man discuss their community’s traditional textiles, visit his garden, and harvest dye roots. The man and his wife demonstrate the dyeing process to their son. The wife and the old woman talk about the charisma of a good textile. We see dancers wearing traditional cloth at temple as the old woman watches.
A Balinese man and woman revive the making and use of ritual Bebali textiles. The woman teaches weaving at a rural high school. The man meets with the offering maker for the Touching the Ground ceremony of his new grandson, and they discuss the importance of Bebali textiles. At the ceremony, the offering maker is given the Bebali textiles to use in her work around the village.
A Timorese elder tells how people climbed the liana tree holding sky and earth together to receive fire before the liana was cut. A woman says all weavers must know this myth. We see her make textiles and collect dye plants. While women drum and dance, she shows a liana motif textile used in a clan ritual. We are told each textile holds the whole culture and helps people remember.
On the island of Timor, a woman tells of being initiated as an indigo dyer. She is now the master, and her niece commits to continue the tradition. A harvest ceremony is held in the forest. Women make textiles from
plants they grow. An elder says they take care of nature, so it takes care of them. His sister says school is a waste if it does not teach care of the land.
For over four thousand years, the indigenous peoples of the Indonesian archipelago have conveyed their worldview from generation to generation through the textile arts. Today, many of these traditions are under pressure, even as communities across the islands continue working to sustain them. Through Tradition Keepers, we hope to continue the conversation and open space for dialogue that helps keep these traditions alive.
