at the merok ceremonies that maintain a family's well-being. On these occasions the kandauré are hung so that the small beaded human figures appear upright at the neck, perhaps indicating a more ancient function for these beaded objects.
A young Maloh woman in west Kalimantan beading a band for a woman's skirt (kain lekok)
sapé buri ceremonial jacket Maloh people, west Kalimantan, Indonesia cotton, split shells appliqué 46.0 x 51.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1982.1298
kain manik woman's ceremonial skirt Maloh people, west Kalimantan, Indonesia cotton, beads warp ikat, appliqué, beading 46.0 x 55.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1982.1303
Maloh women make jackets and skir ts in a number of styles using bead (manik) and shell (buri or parus) appliqué. This fully beaded skirt has yellow human figures (kakalétau) between black water serpents (naga), appearing in stylized form in the upper and lower bands. Within Maloh iconography, the kakaletau represent guardian and ancestor spirits. On occasions, the slaves who were owned by the Maloh ruling class (samagat) were sacrificial victims and, significantly, the figures on this skirt are placed near the mouth of the water serpent. The motifs on the shell appliqué jacket are also arranged in bands with the kakalétau motif flanked by creatures that seem to be a playful rendition of the dog motif (asu). The base fabric for both the skirt and the jacket is black with a red trim, although the fabric used as a lining for the skirt is a faded Iban warp ikat skirt (kain kebat). Both objects date from the twentieth century.
In Mindanao, a Bilaan man drills holes in small shell discs which are to be sewn in decorative patterns on clothing: an early twentieth-century photograph.
umpak (?) woman's shirt Bilaan people, Mindanao, Philippines cotton, dyes, shell pieces embroidery, appliqué 112.0 x 33.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.2119
Drilled shell discs (kalatz) are a subsidiary decorative device on this heavily embroidered blouse. On other Bilaan garments, they are the sole decorative material. Commercial cotton fabric, black for the body and red for the sleeves, has been used as the basis for the elaborate yellow, red, black and white cross-stitch work and has replaced the earlier gauze-like abaca fibre cloth called sinamay. Early twentieth century
dàgom shirt Kulaman people, Mindanao, Philippines cotton, beads appliqué 121.0 x 40.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1984.1226
The white seed-bead decoration on this mid-twentieth-century blue cotton blouse with red trim follows older patterns that were executed with small, split-shell discs. Other examples of this type of garment may have a base-cloth of imported handspun cotton or of dark locally woven abaca.
Bagobo women decorating bags and bands with fine beads, and wearing warp ikat, abaca-fibre skirts. The photograph was taken at a turn-of-the-century trade exposition at St Louis, USA.
80,81
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Beads embellish and enrich many objects: jackets and skirts, mats and hangings, and accessories such as belts, bags, boxes and bands. On Borneo ingenious beaded items abound amongst the various Dayak peoples and beads decorate Dayak head-pieces, seat-mats and baby-carriers. Ornamental appliqué of various other materials including animal teeth, coins and bronze bells are also added to these objects. While the baby-carriers are among the most complex beaded items of the Kayan (Sheppard, 1978: 91), probably the most spectacular Borneo headwork of all is made by the Maloh women of the upper Kapuas River in west Kalimantan where it covers the surface of the base garment or is applied in narrow decorative bands Q.R. Maxwell, 1980).
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Maloh skirts and sleeveless jackets are decorated with realistic and formalized images, and contain important messages about Maloh social structure, legends and trade. These appliqué garments combine many precious foreign and heirloom items, including beads, shells, Dutch coins and brass bells (made either by Chinese or Maloh craftsmen). The base fabric of these garments often consists of warp ikat cloth made by the neighbouring Iban and obtained through trade by the non-weaving Maloh. The beaded motifs encompass dangerous designs from Maloh cosmology, including the mythical serpent and the ancestor or guardian spirits. Other motifs symbolize the solid prosperity of Maloh society: the hearthstone and certain animals that are an important source of food. The success and status of a family and its social position is indicated by the wearing of such finery on ritual occasions.
women's dance aprons Doreri district, Kepala Burung (Bird's Head) and Cenderawasih Bay region, Irian Jaya, Indonesia beads, fibre thread, commercial cotton cloth beading 52.0 x 52.0 em 71.5 x 57.5 cm Australian National Gallery 1986.1251; 1986.2456
Although little is known about these beaded objects from Irian Jaya, they are used worn tied around a dancer's waist by women of the Bird's Head and Cenderawasih (formerly Geelvink) Bay areas (D. Fassey, personal communication, 1985). The use of green beads is a striking feature of the design of one of these aprons which is divided into a grid of asymmetrically matched triangles and squares, suggestive of the patterns used for body painting and carving across a wider area of New Guinea, and in many Austronesian cultures.
A stylized anthropomorphic or reptile figure in bold black and white dominates the design of another apron. The figure itself is filled with intricate lozenge shapes, repeated in larger versions on either side of the central motif in blue, green, yellow, and orange beads. These diamonds are worked in key and S spiral details. A fine fringe with tassels made from strips of imported cloth falls from the lower edge.
hanggi ngoko; hanggi wolo remba nobleman's cloth; shroud Kodi district, west Sumba, Indonesia handspun cotton, natural dyes warp ikat, weft twining 149.0 x 274.0 cm Australian National Gallery 1987.1817
The men's cloths (hanggz) of west Sumba show a small range of largely schematic designs (wolo, wola, to ikat; remba, net, net-like, plaited) and on this example only the gold ceremonial ear pendant (mamulz) is realistically depicted. In the Kodi district, textiles contain icons representing the male gifts exchanged for cloth at marriage. In particular, the men's cloth displays the mamuli, the omega-shaped emblem of female sexuality, while women's skirts depict the diamond-shaped buffalo eye or horse tail (Hoskins, 1988).
Though the design structure is that of a man's cloth, these are rarely worn and then only by the rich and noble. It is largely intended as a shroud for mature men of high rank, and as such it is appropriate that it exhibits the dappled pattern of the python skin (ngoko). Snakes and other reptiles are associated in Kodi legend with ancestral deities and the afterlife, and the python's ability to change its skin is a powerful analogy for rebirth. The hanggi shrouds serve the deceased in his travels to the next realm like the thick skin of the great python. In contrast to other Southeast Asian textile traditions, which have increasingly
