This short oral history with Senor Felix Adriano a carpenter in East Timor Suai, subtley conveys the impact of colonialism and the international competition for rights to the oil and gas reserves  in the Timor Sea on the life and language of a Timorese who was born in to Portuguese Timor. Senor Felix lived through the Indonesian invasion and saw Independence arrive in 1999, only to suffer further through the Suai Church Massacre until there came a time when his skills came to the fore again in the re-building of Suai in 2000 as he over-saw the building of a large traditional house on the site of Our Lady of Fatima Church where the Suai Church Massacre took place. (Dur: 5 mins)

Check out the photograph of the finished building which is possibly the largest traditional structure in East Timor.

There are over thirty images in this slideshow. They begin loading randomly at low resolution. When they have finished loading there is a slideshow controller at the bottom you will see by hovering or clicking the cursor there; there is also a small square where you click to view full screen images. (Recommended)

In 2006 Artists working in Arte Moris the free art school in Dili had already begun encouraging their students to paint on the tais. For those familiar with the culture of Timor and the tais the motifs in the paintings and drawings will be easily identifiable. For those  who are unfamiliar with the tais you can see a good selection of tais in our story about the Exhibition and Forum held in St Kilda in 2008 where there are many great examples of tais several from Suai Covalima and an article.

In the paintings and drawings shown here, sometimes the tais is used as a canvas in others the strong history of patterns that appear in tais and the stripe are prominent either as background or patterned into the figures.

In one painting by Gibrael it is painted as the thorny skin of a crocodile that floats on a background pattern depicted with geometric lines similar to those found in Covalima tais. Also there are the familiar traditional grass roofed houses above a man and a woman doing a traditional dance with cloth. In another work by Natalino a collection of traditional icons such as the golden buffalo horn head-dress are layered in oil on to a reed mat, a Biti that is used for sitting on the ground for conversation, hospitality and meetings.

Interestingly the majority of portraits in this collection that include the tais in some form are of women who are the primary producers of tais. In the portraits the transformation of  Timor’s culture is undeniable if you compare the view of Senora Pires in the black western suit and white shirt  in front of a bright tais featuring the synthetic colours of Indonesian cottons frequently used today, to the portraits of women clothed in tais or cotton sarongs or surrounded by tais in the more muted and subtle natural dyes of the traditional tais. Mari has created an interesting portrait of a man titled ‘The Culture Face’ in which he has used a variety of traditional pieces including the tais as the material of the head.

In his paintings Mari has used the tais to create political narratives. In the work ‘Together’ Mari has used the stripe, the crocodile symbol and a generic traditional house  woven together. In another titled ‘Imperialism’ he has used the tais to section the canvas in to nine areas at the centre of which are houses with varying shaped roofs that signify they are from different districts in East Timor. At the centre bounded by the tais is a rectangular Portuguese style house with the buffalo horn laid on the ground before it in the foreground.

East Timor’s tragic history is poignantly represented in Natalino’s tragic and poetic painting ‘Tragedia’ in which a traditional house is patterned entirely with red tais while a shredded red tais drips like blood from fragments of structural pieces in the background.

Rius has used the tais in more abstract form in his beautiful pieces titled ‘Timor Nabilan’ (2008) and ‘Rai Hamutuk’ (2007) but the influence of the tais on Timorese life is very clear.

Included in the slideshow is the work of Mari, Gibrael and Rius also from Suai. Unfortunately since Gabi just gave me copies of her files during a very busy visit, I don’t have the surnames of Mari Gibrael or Rius, so apologies to them we will put that right as soon as we can.

You can see the work of Natalino featured in the Arte Moris Exhibition in Melbourne recently and read more about him here.  All the work of the artists is for sale by contacting Gabi through the Arte Moris website.

Isin primeiru hau hare tais maka ema Feto Timor oan sira soru ba loron ida iha fulan Marsu 2000 kuanda City of Port Phillip (Cidade Port Phillip) lancar projeto Belun Suai (Friends of Suai) iha Jardim bot ida besik Luna Park, St Kilda. Hau hare tais maka ema pamer (expor) hamutu ho sasanan ceramica, pintura, escultura hosi ai ho arte seluk sira. Hau hatene impaktu hosi hare arte sira nee ikus mai bah au nia hanoin. Hare arte sira nee hosi Timor hau hanoin katak cultura Timor la hanesan cultura Indonesia Loro Monu (Indonesia Barat) nian, por examplo, cultura Java ho cultura Bali. Isin segunda hau hare tais kuando Sara Niner organizar eksposisaun (pameran) ida kona ba Alola Foundation iha Gasworks iha Port Phillip durante Melbourne Festival of Arts (Melbourne nian Arte Festival).

Desde 2000 Sara dala isin barak tiha ona visita Timor halo pesquisa (riset) kona ba tais i sosa tais bodik colesaun Alola Foundation nian. Sara aprende barak tiha ona kona ba tais Timor. Tan (porque) difisil tebes atu hetan informasaun kona ba tais, hau usu lisensa ba Sara atu usa nia lia fuan duuk bodik explicar sa ida maka tais nee, sa ida maka significado hosi tais bodik mane ho feto sira iha Timor Leste, sa ida maka tais nian funsaun iha cultura Timor. Sara hakerek nee bodik Forum maka nia organisar iha fulan Setembru 2008 iha St Kilda Town Hall, Port Philip, Melbourne: “ Exploring Meanings, Makers and Markets of Tais, the Hand-woven Textiles of East Timor” (“Explorar Significado, Produtora ou Badaen ho Mercado Hosi Tais”).

Tais ema usa bodik halo lia adat, bodik simu malu hanesan feto sau mane ho uma mane, bodik hatais ba oras fiesta, bodik bidu iha dahur, bodik faan iha mercado. Iha sociedade Timor oan rai nain iha Timor Leste halo kmaluk i belun malu tuir dalan kawen malu hanesan uma mane ho feto sau mane. Sia simu malu hanesan belun ho kmaluk hodi fo tais ba malu. Tais sai hanesan matenek i cultura ema Timor oan nian duuk. Tais hanesan personafikadu fisiku hosi feto i, hanesan buat lulik, tais ho nian beran/puder especial. Iha Timor Feto makerek badaen soru tais nian sira maka fo hatun ba sira oan si bein oan istoria kona ba cultura, crenca popular, paradigma si Timor nian historia. Hodi soru tais, truka tais ba malu dan hahulin tais lulik, feto Timor sir bele hetan beran si influencia iha sociedade Timor maka hetan nia moris hosi uma lulik. Ema hafolin no respeitu feto makerek badaen tebes ba soru tais nian. Sira nee ema hare our considerer hanesan feto makerek badaen. Dala barak sira nee mai hosi uma lulik makerek badaen ou uma liu rai nian.

“Soru tais, kabala tais, sakat tais nee essencial ba i significar sira nian identidade hanesan ema rai Timor oan duuk durante Indonesian nian occupasaun i bodik feto barak actividade kona ba tais nee hanesan forma ida hosi resistancia passive. Feto sira mos faan sira nia tais bodik hetan osan no hahaan maka sira presija durante resistancia i sira mos horan diak ba sira nian actividade kona ba tais i resistancia. Hoje isa reconhecimento nacional kona ba importancia cultural hosi soru tais. Reconhecimento nacional nee manifestar iha realidade katak lider nacional sira hatais tais, exposisaun (pameran) tais iha parlement nacional, selo (perangko) nacional usa fotografia tais, i lider sira usa tais durante campanha. Tais ho nia funsaun ida iha construsaun identidade nacional foun.

Tais ho matenek badaen soru tais iha Timor Loro Sae funcionar hanesanTimor oan sira nian cultura ida, especialmente depois conflito destrutivo iha tinan rua nulu resin hat laran. Actividade soru tais tanbem tulun feto sir abele vencer (atasi) tragedia sira hosi tempo liu ba tan actividade nee oferecer strutura ida maka familiar i significada ba communidade bodik halo foun nia aan. Communidade feto sira dala barak mai hamutu bodik atu soru tais. Actividade soru tais hamutu nee oferecer ba sira senso continuidade ida ho tempo uluk.”

Iha tinan 2000 hau terik ba Louise Byrne katak hau atu ba Timor Loro Sae. Louis terik ba hau atu ba buka hetan Senora Veronica Pareira maka matenek badaen bot soru tais nian mai hosi Fohoren, Distrito Covalima. Hau ba hasoru tebes Veronica. Hau halo film ida kona ba Veronica. Film kona ba hau nia belun ho Veronica nee atu sai ikus mai. Filme nee nia jujul (titulo): “Lori Fila Hikar Tais.” Hau nia relasaun ho Veronica nee ikus mai halo moris hau nia interese iha tais ho actividade soru tais. Tan nee hau ba buka hetan feto matenek soru tais sira iha Timor. Hau filmar sira durante sira soru tais. Hau filmar feto, mane ho lawarik oan sira bidu (dansa) hodi tau tais ba aan. Nee incluir ceremonia simu beinaka, dahur, bidu, tebe, bidu kikit, bidu kuda hare no batar nian, bidu halo funu nian. Hau kalon (espera) katak matenek sai iha bidu i tebe sira nee atu continua no desenvolver. Si ita hatene liu tan teni kona ba bidu i tebe, por favour hakerek ita nia commentario ba caixa nee laran.

Si ita iha interese ba tais i actividade soru tais, ita bele usa RSS Feed bodik atu hatene halo pasti (assegurar) katak ita simu email kuando hau responde ba itu i postar ba ita artigo ou istoria kona ba tais.

I first saw a tais, the hand-woven textile of Timor, at the launch of the Friends of Suai in March 2000 in the gardens next to Luna Park in St Kilda. The tais was displayed in an exhibition with pottery, paintings, wood carvings and other craft objects. I understood the impact of seeing these objects much later when I realised how different Timorese culture is to Indonesian culture. The next time I saw tais was in an exhibition mounted by Sara Niner for the Alola Foundation, at Gasworks in Port Phillip for the Melbourne Festival of Arts in October 2000.

Since 2000 Sara has been touring Timor researching and buying tais for the Alola Foundation collection  she has learned much about it. Since information about the tais is difficult to find I will use her words to describe a little of what the tais is, its meaning to the men and women of East Timor and a little about its role in Timorese culture. Sara wrote this for the Forum she convened in September 2008 titled: ‘Exploring Meanings, Makers and Markets of Tais, the Hand-woven Textiles of East Timor‘. The Forum was accompanied by an extensive exhibition in the St Kilda Town Hall Gallery in Port Phillip and there is a comprehensive slideshow here. Don’t miss the response to this article by Cova Lima expatriate Balthasar Kehi  in the comments field

“Hand-woven textiles called tais (tie-iss) are used for cultural and ritual exchange, worn as costumes and, in recent times, have been offered for sale. Indigenous society in East Timor is ordered by kinship and alliances maintained through marriage and exchange. Textiles remain a valueable expression of local knowledge and culture. They are physical embodiment of femaleness and, as sacred Lulik objects, possess special powers. In Timor designs and techniques have been handed down matrilineal lines recording a woven narration of the culture, lore, paradigms and stories of Timor’s history. By producing, exchanging and owning sacred hand-woven cloth, women can maintain a certain strength and power within this clan-based society. Master weavers hold an esteemed social position and are often related to royal Liurai lineage”.

“The weaving, wearing and use of the textiles are essential to the Timorse sense of being and was a way of asserting their different identity during Indonesian occupation and for some women it consituted a form of passive resistance. Women also traded their products for goods the resistance needed and women are proud of their efforts. Today national recognition of the cultural importance of weaving is expressed by the wearing of tais by national leaders, their display in the national parliament, on national stamps and their use in government campaigns. Textiles play a role in construction of a new national identity.

The hand-woven textiles produced by East Timorese women are a vital part of their culture, especially after decades of destructive conflict. Weaving has also helped women overcome the tragedies of the past by providing a familiar and meaningful structure around which a community renews itself. Communities of women often come together to weave. It provides a sense of continuity with the past”.

If you have an interest in textiles, weaving or tais, you can use the RSS Feed to ensure you receive an email when ever I post and tag an article or a story that refers to the tais.

To read about Forum in Tetun click here.
Click on the thumbnails to enlarge photos in galleries. Hover your cursor on right or left edge – near the top, to find Next and Back Buttons.

Few people have had the privilege of seeing tais, the beautiful hand-woven “hidden textiles” that are the work of the women of East Timor.   I experienced the pleasure of seeing dozens of beautiful pieces being slipped out of their bright orange acrylic bags, and rolled off a huge bolster, on to the polished cedar table, in the old St Kilda Town Hall, last week. This thick-walled room, that buffered the heavy traffic sounds of St Kilda Road, was a long way from the ground where the tais were woven – where the loudest sounds are roosters crowing and perhaps a wooden mortar and pestle pounding sago palm bark into edible form. (To see exhibition click here)

[I have included close-up photographs of the futus patterns and embroidery work. Many Timorese can recognise the district a tais is from as well as its role in ceremonial life by the patterns and shapes. However, little is still known by foreigners about the meaning of the patterns. I have included what information is available beneath the images.
Click on the photographs to enlarge them. The 'next' and 'previous' buttons can be found a few cms down from the top on the sides by hovering the cursor there.. ]

We have seen the beauty and admired the skill. Now we were gathering to see a collection from across Timor and hear some of the best and most experienced minds, apply themselves to questions about the meaning of the tais in Timorese life and what happens when you commercialise a craft grounded in culture and sacred life..

Since 1999 many people assisting East Timorese women have imported tais for sale and assisted weavers and sewing groups to produce items such as purses, bags, cushion covers and baskets that are saleable in Australia and elsewhere. Now the organisers and audience sought to understand the impact on the weavers and the tais, of colonialism and post-independence activities aimed at improving the lives of Timorese women.

The Friends of Suai partnered with a suite of Australian NGO’s and Monash University to bring about the Forum on the 6th September, the ninth Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre that led to the formation of the friendship group in Pt Phillip. Balthasar Kehi a member of the Friends of Suai Committee, solemnized the Anniversary of the massacre by presenting a poem he wrote in 2006 when he was working in the refugee camps in Dili. In the poem Balthasar recalled the unity and optimism that followed the terrible losses and grief in the early days of independence and called on the Timorese leadership to remember the voiceless people of their country.

There were two stunning tais from Kamenassa, Covalima in the exhibition. The Co-ordinator of FOS, Pat Jessen and committee member Desleigh Kent purchased these tais and a number of others in Suai in June, for the tais stall set up by Friends of Suai for the first time this year Up until now, coffee has been the only product handled for sale by the Friends of Suai. It remains to be seen if the current team can keep up with the work of purchasing tais and setting up a tais table at every opportunity that affords itself in addition to all the other work they do. However, the initiative of a tais trading table provides people in Pt Phillip wishing to support the women of Covalima with an exciting opportunity to get involved.

Together the Exhibition and Forum left me with a the profound understanding that textiles are the art form of Southeast Asia and Timor. I learned from observation and experience that traditional Timorese culture is supported by growing, cutting, tying, knotting, weaving, dying and sheathing a variety of fibres, grasses and leaves for ceremonial and practical purposes. Now I understand better how the work of making the tais and conserving the tradition is important because of its role in culture in defining womens’ identity and the way this cultural practice influences interaction and social cohesion. Yesterday’s forum reiterated the need to protect the weavers and their work. I came to appreciate the need to encourage weavers and nurture especially skilled and committed weavers, but more importantly I came to appreciate that weaving as a cultural practice is integral to the Timorese meaning of life.

Timorese and Australians attending, expressed the need to create markets for products woven and sewn by Timorese women, to create an income stream for them. Ego Lemos expressed the fears of many of us when he warned of social dangers for women and Timorese culture in commodifying the tais. Indeed, according to Sara Niner, Australian and overseas experience shows there is a great need for care and sensitivity in developing a cultural practice into an industry. The difficulty is, the Timorese women are highly skilled but very vulnerable. With no other choices for developing income for food and the education of their children it is a life and death choice for many, where some families are already resorting to selling their daughters into prostitution. This argument carries weight so long as the money the women receive for their work make it a sustainable activity. At this point it was easy to see how profoundly important it is for the intellectual work of the forum to continue and how critical it is to develop and strengthen dialogue with the weavers.

The Forum revealed a need for a strategy that takes care of business while also respecting the continuance and where necessary revival, of cultural practices, that are critical to the meaning of life for the people of East Timor. Also, in considering the future of the tais and the weaving tradition we need to be looking at the history and traditions in the context of the whole island, working to understand the tais motif and symbolism as well as the Artisan’s histories so that the role of the tais in culture is well understood. An outcome of the workshops in the afternoon was a call for a similar but bi-lingual forum to be held in East Timor that weavers could attend.

The exhibition will be open until September 30. Monday to Friday 9.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m. (Trams 3, 67 or Train to Balaclava Station turn left and walk down Carlisle street to the Town Hall).

This story about Traditional Architecture was conceived and written by Suai youth in a media workshop in June 2008.

This is the traditional sacred house of Timor, particularly in Covalima. The traditional sacred houses still exist. Our ancestors have passed on to us these traditional sacred houses from one generation to another. Traditional sacred house is very, very sacred. Therefore, whenever we are in the traditional sacred house, it is forbidden to talk, to chat and to put on hat. In addition, the elders are to be respected. People have to follow their words of wisdom. If not, then the punishment from the Above, the High in sky, would descend on you taking the forms of: death, being barren/having no children, becoming mad, or becoming confused and restless. Therefore, we Timorese really adore and respect our traditional sacred houses and our elders.

Sitting together in a sacred house

“Sitting Together”

The process of building a traditional house needs a very long time. It involves many meetings, working together and traditional ceremonies.

The community members have to sit together. All the members who belong to one sacred house or uma lulik get together to make plan for the construction of the uma lulik. This includes those who married to people of other tribes and to the non-Timorese—the white and non-white foreigners—but who have not abandoned, and should not abandon, their traditional practices. All members of the sacred house (community) get together to make preparation for the building and the completion of the sacred house which ends with a very big celebration that lasts several days, in the past, even weeks. During this celebration of uma lulik people from other communities are invited. Preparation for the celebration of the completion and the blessing (traditional blessing) of the sacred house involve the preparations of buffaloes, pigs, goats, rice, local alcohol, tais, cova (traditional male and female baskets called cova mane and cova feto) and others for the celebrations.

“Ceremony of slaughtering of pigs as an offering”

When the two main pillars for the sacred house have been found suitable, a small religious ceremony is conducted before the cutting of the trees for the pillars. A pig is slaughtered and the blood of the pig is sprinkled at the bottom of the trees and a prayer is said, led by an elder, before the trees are cut down. After that an offering of cooked heart of the pig and cooked rice, along with beetle nuts and beetle leaves are offered at the bottom of the trees. This is a sign of respect for the trees and a way of asking permission from the spiritual owners of the trees (the spirits of the land/the forest which is seen as being sacred).

“Cutting trees for the pillars”or“Putting the ‘bones’ of house.”

The two main pillars are named after the names of the Grandfather and Grandmother of the sacred house community. The Grandfather is the south pillar which becomes the place in the house for sacred adoration, prayers and offerings, for the elder of the use to bless the members of the sacred house by means of what is called kaba. The ceremony of kaba is as follows. The offering in the form of beetle nuts and beetle leaves putting in a specially made female koba/cova (small and beautifully made basket) is made to the ancestors and is put on the bottom of the Grandfather’s pillar. After a prayer was said by the elder, the beetle nuts and beetle leaves are eaten by the elders but not swallowed. The elder then makes a mark on the chests and foreheads of the members of community with the crushed beetle nuts and leaves from his mouth mixed with saliva. And this is called kaba. The female pillar with the name of the grandmother is on the north where the kitchen is. It is just referred to is grandmother or bei feto. It is here in this side of the female pillar—the grandmother—that sacred baskets, sacred pots, sacred spoons and plate, sacred inheritance and others are kept.

Collecting ropes/strings and leaves together and putting the bones of house.

Collecting together grass/palm leaves

Having putting together the bones (woods) of the house tied tightly with strings from the forest, the roof of the house is put. The roof consists of either certain type of grass called hae manu lain for the people in highland where there are no palm tress or the leaves of the palm trees for the people in the coastal area and lowland. All these are done together in the group.

Having putting together the bones (woods) of the house tied tightly with strings from the forest, the roof of the house is put. The roof consists of either certain type of grass called hae manu lain for the people in highland where there are no palm tress or the leaves of the palm trees for the people in the coastal area and lowland. All these are done together in the group.

About the Sacred House

The Result of the process of building sacred house

The result of the process of constructing a sacred house is as follows. All the members of the uma lulik (the community) are very happy, although the process of building a sacred house is very long—a one-year-long process.