Weaving for Life

Collaboration between Ng Swan Ti (Year 2021) & Adinindyah (Year 2022)

PannaFoto Institute and Lawe Indonesia launch a collaboration initiative “Tenun untuk Kehidupan” meaning "Weaving for Life" aiming to achieve the following goal: the awakening of cultural awareness of conserving traditional handwoven legacy among young people in Indonesia, particularly in Eastern Nusa Tenggara through education in photography and visual storytelling, plus creative campaign.

5 children stand in a line, each wrapped in a cloth of intricate design. An elderly woman also stands in the middle.

Regeneration of handwoven weavers is a big challenge. Based on that, both see the urgency to raise this issue at both local and national level. Using photography as the most popular medium today, they expected the selected young people’s photographs will spark discussion on the importance and challenges of conversing handwoven legacy as well as to raise the local young people’s interest and involvement in the movement and feel moved to take a role as Changemakers in their communities.

They partnered with Skolmus, Komunitas Film Kupang/KFK (Kupang), Komunitas Kahe (Maumere, Flores Island), SimpaSio Institute (Larantuka, Flores), Network from Koalisi Kopi that works in collaboration with young people in East Nusa Tenggara, Vocational schools, universities and civic society organizations.

As an impact, ten selected young people living in Eastern part of Indonesia participated in the workshop and learned visual storytelling through photography in context of preserving and conserving traditional weaving practices, documenting local stories of the practice. No one dropped out from the sessions. This project has also brought both organizations to leverage the network and communities. Now 10 photo stories about traditional hand-weaving practices in Eastern Nusa Tenggara are available to share with the public. The photo stories had been shared with the public through photo exhibitions

After the workshop ended, LAWE Indonesia continued the initiative by holding three photo exhibitions displaying the beneficiaries' photo works from the workshop. The first exhibition was held in Kupang, August, 5th 2023. The second one at IFI Wijaya, Jakarta was held on September, 7-10th 2023 and the third one was in Goethe Institute, Jakarta on October, 11-13th 2023. The photo exhibitions were created with the help of other organizations outside of the main collaborators. There is also a plan to replicate the program and workshop at other places, beside Eastern Nusa Tenggara.

The initiative has been covered in this article.