A Return to an Old Tradition

The Dayak Iban Tribe has been weaving for centuries, but many weavers have abandoned the practice of using natural dyes. The Women in Small Businesses Assistance Association is helping Dayak Iban’s weavers return to their ancestor’s tradition.

August 15, 2017

Elisabeth Insen goes out to the field every morning to tend crops in her small farm in the Labian village, West Kalimantan. When she arrives home in the afternoon, she takes out a wooden backstrap loom, lays out strands of different color threads, and begins to weave.

The threads are colored using natural dyes from plants that she grows in her own backyard. Insen also makes coloring pastes that can be stored for up to one month. "I don’t always

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