Friends of Suai

When Pat Jessen of the Friends of Suai went shopping to buy tais for the market stall to be set up for the Tais Forum held in St Kilda in early September Annie Sloman introduced her to the family of Chamot who has contributed so much poetry to Suai Media Space recently.

The tais mane (male tais) woven by Orlando Martins originally bought for the market stall at the St Kilda Forum (Weaving: Meanings, Makers & Markets of East Timor), became an outstanding contribution to the Exhibition alongside another feto tais (female tais) from Kamenassa.   We are unsure who wove the female tais, but our photographs show Inveolata (Chamot’s sister ‘In’) weaving a very similar one during the time we were there.

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The tais that Pat bought have been donated to the Alola Foundation Collection and I thought it was time to publish the photographs of Orlando and Inveolata, their family and friends in situ in Kamenassa where they live and work as a way of presenting just two of the makers whose work was represented in the Forum Exhibition. Over the next few days I will also be putting up a soundscape and some video footage of weavers in situ on Suai Loro Road in 2000. There is a lot more story to tell about the role of the tais in the recovery of East Timor through our stories of Suai and video footage shot in June this year will contribute to the story next year.

The photographs in this story were taken by the Suai Media Space/Friends of Suai/YoMaTre workshop in Suai at the Youth Centre in June this year while they were preparing their story about the tais of Covalima.  Two of the workshop students ( Densi and Jem) are shown in our photographs modelling the tais.

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Densi is related to Orlando  I think but Jem ( who we nicknamed Che, because of his hat) is from a different village. Also included are photographs Densi and Che had taken of them when asked to take a photograph that used symbolism to express an aspect of their identity. I have included these because although Densi (who is a weaver herself) was enthusiastic about modelling her tais Jem was embarrassed at first, shying away from this kind of display. But when you see how they represented themselves in their own stories, it throws a different light on the who these young people are beyond their traditional background.

In her own representation of herself Densi is standing in front of the District Administration offices in her suit (which she probably had to put on especially for the photograph), while Jem is standing very stylishly next to an Indonesian monument that declares Suai is an ‘Art City’.

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I couldn’t resist publishing the photographs of the little girl I noticed playing with a little traditional shelter  she had made from sticks with her friend who escaped the photographer’s frame, and the little girl carrying rice in a woven reed basket as she walked across the green behind an older girl (who also escaped the frame). One of the student teams was doing a project on traditional housing and another on traditional food, so the photographs were taken for their benefit.  I have include them here, where they were taken, because they show so beautifully how traditional cultural practices are being passed on to the kids in the rural areas.

Two  photographs also show the traditional housing style of the area and how woven screens are used to add privacy to verandahs. If you look closely in this one you can see the Mosquito net strung up on the verandah and news items and photographs pinned up on the woven screen next to it. Other housing is a mixture of traditional and contemporary with cement floors and besser brick walls some with corrugated iron roofing others still preferring to use the traditional grass roofing. We finished our photo shoot that day enjoying the traditional hospitality of Chamot’s family on the verandah of their house with a delicious Caffe Timor.

Pat has ordered another tais from Orlando who has promised in June that it will be ready in a year or so. We look forward to showing this one on Suai Media Space in the future.

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