|
My name is Balbina Pereira
and I am originally from Ermera although I now reside
in Taibessi, Dili. The East Timorese woven cloth known
as tais exisited long before I was born and I recall my
parents speaking when I was a child about the importance
of cultivation of the cotton used in tais production.
After harvesting the cotton, the flowers containing the
cotton itself are dried and the seeds removed. Then a
traditional machine is used to process the cotton according
to its eventual use. In the case of tais weaving, the
cotton is transformed into a fine thread.
 From
a young age our mothers taught us to weave because it
was an appropriate past-time for a Timorese woman and
because, through tais production and the sale of the
cloth in the local markets, we could make enough money
to eat. With the coming of modern times and the influx
of foreign influence in East Timor, we must find a way
of retaining the production and use of tais as a unique
and typical element of our culture. After all, tais
are an expression of our identity as East Timorese.
At the same time, we are keen for the government of
East Timor to explore the possibility of export markets
for our products which would enhance significantly our
income and purchasing power.
Basically we produce two kinds of tais; one is the
traditional cloth made of natural products and dyes
from the earth. Because the dyes are made of the roots,
leaves and bark of certain trees and the skin of certain
seasonal fruit, we are not guaranteed a year round supply
of these traditional colours for our weavings. It depends
on the rains, amongst other things. This fact tends
to mean that tais woven in more natural colour schemes
are more labour intensive to produce and consequently
more expensive than the second kind of tais we make
which make use of commercial, modern and generally more
brightly coloured threads.
The weaving group I am part of has five members. When
one of us manages to sell a weaving in the market, we
share the proceeds amongst ourselves to cover the costs
of everything from clothing, food, school fees for our
kids and additional supplies of thread.
February, 2002
|
