creatures appear in a slightly different sequence to the original design. A figure originally on the far left of the cloth has been moved to the opposite end where it is now the final motif. Anthropomorphic figures are mounted on the animals, which bear a striking resemblance to those creatures found on other textiles of different decorative techniques also made in this region of Sumatra. Unfortunately, little reliable ethnographic information is available for these objects, although they clearly date from the nineteenth century or earlier. Mattiebelle Gittinger (personal communication, 1984) has suggested that the term selesil was used for certain beaded cloths in Lampung although we are uncertain whether this term was ever applied to these particular large beaded hangings.
désé hunting jacket Nagé Kéo people, Ndora, Flores, Indonesia vegetable fibre, pigments twining, painting Tropenmuseum, Amsterdam 2104-3
According to Nagé Kéo informants, twined and painted fibre hunting jackets (désé) from central Flores, were only made in the Ndora and Rawa districts, though in the past these skills may have also been evident in other parts of the domain (van Suchtelen, 1921: Fig.116). The patterns on this early twentieth-century example are painted in dark and ochre-browns and black.
warrior's jacket Ifugao people, Luzon, Philippines bangi (Caryota cuminggi) and other fibre twining, knotting 85.0 x 72.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.1234
bango back-pack Ifugao people, Luzon, Philippines bangi (Caryota cuminggi), rattan, wood interlacing, knotting Australian National Gallery 1988.522 Gift of Jonathan Thwaites, 1988
This bango back-pack, a basket with shoulder straps, is constructed of interlaced split rattan attached to a wooden base. It has the same tufted black hairy surface as the jacket in Plate 59, an item of apparel that provided protection from the torrential tropical rains. The base fabric of the jacket, however, is not plaited matting but a strong, pliable, twined and knotted fibre mesh. Among the Ifugao the bango is still associated with hunting and ceremonial activities believed to expiate disasters such as bad deaths or illness. Both objects probably date from the early twentieth century.
A photograph taken in the mid-1930s in Laos of a woman, possibly from the Kassang community, who is using a foot-braced loom similar to those depicted on Bronze Age metal sculptures found in Southeast Asia. Such looms have also been used by certain minority peoples in Cambodia and Vietnam (Boulbet, 1964).
A Lamaholot woman weaving a met, a supplementary warp weave belt, on a backstrap tension loom in the IIi Mandiri region of east Flores. A recently recorded bronze maternity figure located in a nearby district of east Flores (Adams, 1977) displays a foot-braced loom being used to weave a band with a pattern similar to those found on these met belts.
A Lamaholot elder wearing a wide ceremonial sash (met) in east Flores, Indonesia. The textile, in handspun cotton and natural dyes, is woven in a supplementary warp weave, reserved for belts and sashes in the Lamaholot region, but used as a major decorative device in other parts of the region, including east Alor and some Atoni domains in Timor.
It is difficult to know what raw materials were used in the earliest weaving processes. Clay whorls for drop-weighted spindles have been found in many mainland archaeological sites and this suggests that cotton was already in use in prehistoric times (Bellwood, 1980: 63). The absence of similar finds of prehistoric spindle whorls in insular Southeast Asia has been used to support the argument that weaving arrived late to the island world of the region.22 However, this may also be explained by the use of wooden spindle-weights which are still widely used throughout eastern Indonesia today and by the fact that spindles are not required at all in the preparation of most bast and leaf fibres suitable for weaving.
Many varieties of wild fibres suitable for weaving thread can be found throughout the region. Their use, without spindles, but knotted or rolled on the leg, still continues today, although this has been greatly diminished by the availability and attractiveness of cotton.
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Hemp, taken from under the bark of certain cannabis plants, is preferred by the Hmong of northern Thailand for making their pleated batik skirts, although cotton thread is also used.23 Another popular bast fibre is abaca. Best known in its commercial form as Manila hemp and exported from Luzon in colonial times,24 it is taken from the inner section of the wild banana plant (Musa textilis), dried and separated into strands and then joined into the long threads needed for weaving. On Mindanao, this fibre is used as both thread and binding material for ikat, the decorative technique whereby threads are resist-tied and dyed into patterns before weaving.
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Throughout the island of Borneo, the leaf of a wild swamp grass (Curculigo latifolia) widely known as Zemba, and to the Benuaq people as daun doyo, is woven into fabric with warp ikat patterns to make women's skirtcloths and, in the past, ceremonial hangings.25 On Tanimbar it is the threads of the lontar palm (Borassus flabelliformis) that are tied and dyed into warp ikat patterns before weaving. Other threads for weaving are obtained in eastern Indonesia from the pineapple, from varieties of palmyra plants including the pandanas and sago palms, and from a number of lesser known plants native to the region. Throughout Southeast Asia, the processing of thread, like the weaving of traditional cloth, is the work of women.
tol belts Kusae, Micronesia vegetable fibre, natural dyes linked warp weave, supplementary weft weave 18.4 x 149.0 em 11.0 x 168.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.772; 1984.771
The linked warp fibres of these nineteenth-century Micronesian girdles are an unusual decorative feature, difficult to execute on the standard Southeast Asian body-tension loom with a continuous circulating warp. Patterns of similar visual effect are worked in warp ikat in most parts of Southeast Asia. However, the floating supplementary weft bands and their geometric designs are a familiar feature on the cloths of many islands of eastern Indonesia. The finely woven Kusae ceremonial girdles were highly prized possessions throughout the former Caroline Islands where they were acquired through trade. The longer tol is red-brown with white supplementary wefts, and the shorter, wider belt has a plain black centre, with yellow, red and white end-patterns.
(detail) hoté; tepiké room-divider; hanging Sangihe-Talaud Islands, Indonesia abaca fibre, natural dyes, brass rings supplementary weft weave 775.0 x 160.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.1239
Until the twentieth century the textiles of the Sangihe-Talaud Islands continued to be woven of Musa textilis fibre, locally known as hoté. This huge nineteenth-century cloth is composed of five joined panels, patterned in banded, supplementary weft weave and containing the ancient spirals and hooked lozenges that occur on many of the oldest textiles in the Southeast Asian region. Textiles of these dimensions were used as hangings and room-dividers and this particular example still has brass rings attached to its
