Day 14 - Waingapu, East Sumba

This morning we moored at Waingapu and were met again by local guide and textile workshop owner, Freddy. We were driven in several cars to his workshop where they produce beautiful ikat for hinggi and lawu. All the designs and ikat tying are done in-house, as is the morinda dyeing and weaving. The indigo is outsourced to specialised artisans.

This is Freddy and his wife at the entrance to his workshop with Davidin the background.

Freddy explained how designs are laid out, then drawn up using  blue and red pencils. The master ikat artist then starts to tie each section using a long knot and thread for the morinda ties, and a shorter thread for the indigo. It is painstaking and exacting work which can take months to complete a single piece.

Many of the staff have been with Freddy since he started his workshop about 15 years ago, and there is careful attention to detail so that each ikat is as sharp and precise as possible because they use only 6 threads per bundle instead of the usual 12 threads per bundle.

A section of tied ikat before dyeing.

I thought they might need a hand pounding the morinda roots before dyeing.....

Once the first layer of indigo has been dyed, the tied warp is soaked in water to get rid of the ash and then it is soaked in a candlenut mordant for 2 days to ensure the cotton soaks up as much as possible. The warp is then left out to hang for 3 months so that the fatty acids stick to the indigo and mordant the fabric for the morinda dyeing. Freddy's workshop dyes the warp in the morinda twice to ensure full colour penetration.

Once the warp has been fully dyed, the threads are focussed by an expert ikat maker, to ensure they have retained tension to provide the sharpest detail possible. They can then be woven by the two weavers there.

Another detailing on these fabrics is the kabokil. This border is woven once the fabric has been cut from the loom. The excess warp threads are turned to the side and are rewoven as the weft to make a decorative striped border at the top and bottom of the fabric.

We can now start to realise why these textiles take such a long time to produce and how complex the whole process is. It is only once you understand how many skills are involved in making one piece of cloth that you realise why prices deserve to be high for such quality.

Some of the many beautiful cloths for sale in Freddy's gallery.

From Freddy's workshop we took a short stroll to the neighbouring royal village of Prailiu, where many textiles, jewellery and carved goods were offered for sale. It was amusing to see the same people we saw yesterday at another harbour, and they continued to follow our every move at each stop we made, even trying to bargain with us as we pulled anchor and sailed away!

After lunch we went to  a rarely visited village where we were welcomed by ikat clad warriors on horseback. It was pretty wild and raw, and we were warned not get close to the horses as they were not well behaved. The whole village turned out for a welcome ceremony, and it was really quite different from what we had experienced before - the crowd was very vocal and boisterous and I was dreading the final dance where, as usual, we were invited to join in. It was all OK however, no complicated steps and perhaps by then the effects of chewing betel had sunk in.

We were also invited into a house which contained the bodies of two deceased family members - one was recent, and the other had been there for 15 years, just in the family living room. Because it was so dark I had to use my camera so will pist photos of this at a later date.

On our way back to the ship we stopped by a cathedral to see the statue of Christ dressed in Sumbanese ikat.

In the afternoon we set sail for the island of Rinca and in the evening it was a final night party with everyone dressing in the textiles they had bought along the way. Most of these textiles were woven to be worn, not as heirlooms, so it was not disrespectful for us to use them, in fact it was a celebration of the skills and talents of all the weavers and dyers we had seen over the past 13 days.

We all enjoyed drinks on the upper deck before gowing downstairs for a wonderful meal followed by traditional music from the crew. Still.......I was in bed by 9pm, getting some sleep before our last day on the boat and thinking about the Komodo Dragons to come....

Day 9 - Labala Bay - Lamalera

This morning we cruised into Lambala Bay on the southern side of Lambata Island to visit the Lamalera whaling village. In fact, when we came ashore there was a huge skull of a whale that had been caught three weeks earlier. It had been picked clean and throughout the village there were various assortments of unidentifiable meat drying in the sun.....

We were greeted ceremoniously by the fishermen in traditional garb, and then entertained with dances and songs about catching whales and barter exchange of cloth for other goods. This part of the island does not support much agriculture so the whole village of around 2000 people are reliant on the success of the fishing boats. They catch fish including large tuna, manta ray, dolphins and hopefully whales. A whale can feed the whole village whereas smaller catches only feed the families of those directly involved with the catch.

Whale meat drying in the sun was a common sight around the village.

Women were also selling shells, teeth from whales and dolphins, as wells as whale vertebrae as stools and other bones as spindles and swifts etc. 

This was also the first time I had seen naturally dyed yarns for sale in indigo, morinda and other colours.

The women weave kewatek ikat sarong dyed with multiple applications of natural dyes.

Here I am with Ibu Agnes who wove this scarf which I had bought from her.

This is Ibu Marie and Ibu Elisabet from Lamalera. Ibu Elisabet was selling a Sikka cloth which could have made its way to Lamalera through exchange.

In the afternoon we took a bus up to visit a local school and church with an amazing view over the village.

Interior of the church of St Petrus-Paulus with hand-painted wall.

Day 4 - We are sailing!

I haven't quite adjusted to the Indonesian time yet, so when I woke up at 4am this morning ( Friday) I decided to stay up and finish off yesterday's post. The internet connection is bad a lot of the time, so even if I have finished writing, it won't upload until we get ashore....so if it looks like my days are out of sync, that's the reason.

Anyway we left the boat at 7.30 am to go to the busy Wairkoja market. There were a lot of fruit and vegetable vendors and some textiles, but the ones selling the pigs were a bit distressing, so I didn't like it that much.

Next stop was a drive up into the Iwang Gete highlands to visit the small village of Doka where I was selected as the group representative along with another group member, John. This task is shared amongst us for each village visit and can be quite simple as wearing a scarf presented to us and leading our procession through a group of dancers. So no big deal. However this village had John and I changing into traditional clothes  - and for me that meant top and sarong, numerous wooden and beaded bangles, which they struggled to force onto my wrists and then the head Ibu brushed my hair for ages and put it up in a bun with a fake hairpiece. Not a look I am eager to replicate in the future....

Our official duties also required us to either smoke a homegrown cigarette or chew some betel leaf, lime and pinang, or areca nut.  I went for the betel chewing and had a red mouth for the rest of the day. The arak that they gave us added to the whole experience!

Part of the cultural dance performances put on in our honour.

Natural dyestuffs for producing yellow - kunyit,or turmeric, kapur sireh or lime, mengkudu, mangga.

For the deep reddish brown they dye with Morinda citrifolia (mengkudu)

In the afternoon we went to the Museum Bikon Blewut in Ledalero  and then went a bit further south to Nita Kloang village to again watch production of cotton yarn, ikat, and dyeing.

Tarum or indigo dyeing with Indigofera which is kept in a ceramic vat and then put in a leaf container for dyeing.

For green dye the women use leaves from the Dadap tree, which has spikes and grows to about 2m along with kunyit and kapur.

Returning to the boat in the evening we had a great lecture from Sue followed by our safety briefing from Nato in preparation for our cruise. Whilst dinner was served we heard the anchors being raised and we were off, sailing through the night.

Day 1 Bali - Ende

The first day of our pre-cruise trip started at 5am this morning to get to Denpasar airport to catch the 7.20am flight to Ende, on the south coast of Flores. The plane actually has three stops - Labuan Bajo-Ende-Kupang and those travelling onwards get to sit in the plane on the tarmac until new passengers arrive. Our group consists of so far of 11 people from the US, Australia, UK and Taiwan, but we will be joined in the next few days by a couple of others to go on the cruise.

We were met at Ende airport by David and Sue Richardson who have developed this tour with Seatrek in Bali, this being their third trip. Our first stop was  to visit the nearby district of Ndona to visit some Lio weavers. In the photo above, Teresa is quickly tying her warps for ikat. The pattern is in her head and despite her age and agility issues, her fingers were very nimble, so we could see the pattern emerging as bundles of warp threads were bound with strips og Gebung palm leaves.

We were also given a demonstration by several of the women on their natural dyeing processes using Morinda citrifolia and indigo from Indigofera tinctoria which grows wild.

Weaving the ikats was done on backstrap looms and the women bought out many beautiful textiles to show and for sale, similar to the ones they are wearing in the above photos.

Our next stop was to the village of Saga, where we were greeted with drumming and dancing by local school children. 

We were welcomed by Maxi, one of the mosa laki (traditional leaders) of the area and after a delicious lunch in one of the schoolrooms he took us on a tour of the village with historical homes with wonderful architectural details and carvings.

Driving through this lush, mountainous terrain after coming from a wintery Canberra is quite surreal at the moment, as are the intermittent but heavy downpours. 

Wending our way through some fantastic scenery, we reach our final destination for the day, the Kalimutu Eco Lodge. We make this our base for two nights as we explore further the textiles of the south coast of Ende. The view from my room is amazing, looking over misty rice fields, hearing the turbulent river rushing by below, with a stormy grey sky just threatening to soak us again.

We are given a few hours to fest and relax before pre dinner lectures on Ende textiles by David and Sue followed by a delicious dinner complete with a birthday cake for Kate, one of the women on our trip. Most of us are eager to get to bed early to catch up on sleep and ready for an early start tomorrow.