Weaving Subversion

Source: Kita Kain

For many, the word kain might conjure up deep connections with Indonesia, and images of specific kinds of fabric. However, kain is much more than fabric alone: It is a living, evolving, archival resource that not only preserves a traditional weaving practice, but also embodies the social, cultural, political, and physical environment in which it is made.

Women weaving kain have been particularly engaged at the forefront, using their art of weaving to address environmental issues, advocating for the recognition of indigenous people’s rights, resisting state violence and land grabbing, and fighting for access to clean water. Their narratives are often rendered invisible and their work and efforts are often dismissed altogether or presented as artistry rather than active protest and resistance. However, these women keep up their fight – while dealing with multiple, intersecting challenges owing to their identities and contexts.

Weavers of Resistance

Women who weave kain have been actively involved in resistance movements, questioning everything from colonization to extraction and exploitation. For instance, in the Mollo community in East Nusa Tenggara, women are considered land owners. Facing displacement and dispossession by mining companies, many women came together to peacefully occupy marble mining sites for over a year, where they sat down and wove their traditional cloth in protest. This act of weaving in protest also simultaneously strengthened the bonds among women across the community and supported their management of natural resources while preserving their artform and traditional practice of weaving. The women recognized that men were vulnerable to violence at the hands of the mining companies and police, and took to the frontlines themselves. In 2010, the mining companies were pressured to close down their operations in Mollo territories.

Similarly, women in Ngata Toro village in Central Sulawesi, took to reviving the kulit kayu, a traditional fabric crafted from tree bark, as a means of protesting the Ministry of Environment’s plans to build national parks over Indigenous lands in 1994. Through this practice, the women were able to access their customary forests, source necessary materials, and entrench their relationship with the land as central to their resistance. The women’s protest culminated in the National Parks Authorities recognizing the land as Indigenous territories in 2000. 

Persistence is another, but equally vital, form of resistance. Many Indigenous women have also turned their focus to sustaining themselves and their communities by reviving and continuing traditional practices of weaving. This has enabled access to greater economic capital for many communities, such as Songket weavers in Jambi, Sumatra. This effort has also found a way for many Indigenous communities to sustain themselves in the face of institutionally imposed poverty and dispossession, without letting go of their cultural identity in the process.

The weaving artforms of some Indigenous communities have come under active threat: With changing times, their lands are either occupied or their water resources have been appropriated, and some of the key materials that are integral to their weaving practice remain out of access. For instance Indigenous women in Rendu, Ndora, and Lambo have turned to weaving as a form of resistance at construction project sites to reclaim their lands. In the process, many have been beaten and trampled over, and even forcibly removed.  The women continue their fight, protesting as Indigenous women and reminding the security sector that each of them too, came from a woman.  

Resisting Systemic Injustice and Historical Oppression

Indigenous communities in Indonesia have for long faced multiple levels of oppression and discrimination. As active forces of change, Indigenous women have played a significant role – in that they have led protests, sought to reclaim their lands, and preserve their ancient and traditional practices and resources. In doing so, subversion is built into their activism – be that in the form of protests or in the form of weaving. The act of subversion achieves two significant things – one, advocacy for their rights, and two, preservation of their ways of life.  

References:  

Firdaus, F. (2020). Inside the weaving protests of West Timor. https://news.mongabay.com/2020/11/inside-the-weaving-protests-of-west-timor/

Journey to Batik (2020). Power Dressing - introducing Diyan of Kain Kita. https://www.journeytobatik.org/2020/02/power-dressing-introducing-diyan-of.html

Kain Kita (2019). Women Are Heroes. https://medium.com/kain-kita/women-are-heroes-7e3ead436825   

Ramadhita, S. & Siregar, A. (2024). Wastra and Kain: Indonesian Creative Journeys Through Textiles. https://sites.gold.ac.uk/anthways/reworlding-anthropology-in-times-of-change/wastra-and-kain-indonesian-creative-journeys-through-textiles/