Sole Oha, a special exhibition demonstrating the lives of women weavers in Sulawesi and Flores, opened at Jakarta’s Textile Museum in Tanah Abang on November 18, 2017. Several exhibition rooms were turned into homes of weavers from the islands of Adonara and Lembata, as well as homes of Torajanese weavers from Sa’dan and Mamasa in Sulawesi. Museum visitors had a unique opportunity to browse through weavers’ homes, watch weavers at and learn about the lives of Indonesian weavers and the challenges they face – and of course to admire hand-loomed textiles from Sulawesi and Flores.
The exhibition was organized by Toraja Melo, a social enterprise that aims to improve the lives of rural women weaver artisans in Indonesia and to rejuvenate the art and culture of Indonesian hand-woven cloth. Toraja Melo (which means ‘beautiful Toraja’) was founded by Dinny Jusuf, a former corporate banker for Citibank and former Secretary General of Komnas Perempuan (National Commission on Anti Violence Against Women), and her sister, fashion designer Nina Jusuf, who co-founded the National Organization of Asian Pacific Islanders Ending Sexual Violence.
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| Dinny Jusuf (center back) with weavers |
surrounding villages of Sa’dan, one of Sulawesi’s weaving centers, she was struck by the fact that no one was buying the beautiful Torajan hand-loomed textiles – the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis, the Poso riots, and the 2002 Bali bombings had put an end to tourism in Sulawesi. Furthermore, the Torajanese did not wear their own weaving in daily life (unlike, for example, the people of Flores and Sumba).
