Simplicity that Shines
By wearing tope le’leng, the Kajang people stand as equals before Turie Ara’na the Creator
Written by Nursida; translated and edited by Cassandra Grant
I am an indigenous woman.
I represent the next generation of indigenous youth. I am a weaver. I am part of the Kajang Adat (Customary) Community in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Through this article, I would like to share my knowledge and views about the Kajang Adat Community, and the weaving traditions we have maintained for generations.
Weaving plays an important role in recording our philosophy. There is an inherent principle to our culture. The Kajang people say:
“Ammentengko nu kamase-mase, accidongko nu kamase-mase, a‘lingkako nu kamase-mase, a‘meako nu kamase-mase.”
That is, you sit simply, you walk simply, and you speak simply too. For us, simplicity has deep significance and underpins our lives as the Kajang Adat Community.
Kajang and its Indigenous Forests
The Ammatoa Kajang Adat Community is in the Kajang District, in the Bulukumba Regency in the province of South Sulawesi. Our lives depend on the preservation of the forest. Almost all of our daily needs come from the forests in our indigenous territories. Our wooden houses come from trees that we plant and care for ourselves. Likewise with what we eat. Everything comes from the fields and rivers that we manage, together with the forests that we continue to protect.
In managing forests, we have principles that we uphold. In the Kajang language, we say: “Jagai linoa lollon bonena nasaba injo boronga pallekona linoa.” This can be translated as a mandate for us to preserve the forests that we consider the “blanket of the world.”
For the Kajang Adat Community, the forest is divided into two kinds: Borong Karamaka (Sacred Forest) and Borong Battasaya (Boundary Forest). In the area known as the Boundary Forest, we are allowed to collect as much wood as we need or cut trees in accordance with the regulations of our customary law. Entry to the Sacred Forest is forbidden to all except the community elders, who perform the traditional Andingingi ritual. I cannot share details about it here because there are restrictions on what we can write about traditional rituals.
There have been challenges in maintaining our lifestyle. Like other indigenous communities in Indonesia, our customary territories overlap with areas that the Indonesian government have claimed for state forests, or for mining and plantation concessions. Because our rights have not been legally recognised by the Indonesian government, many Indigenous Peoples have experienced land conflicts and persecution for keeping their traditional cultural practices.
But our long struggle to defend our territories finally paid off. The Kajang Adat Community worked together with AMAN (the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago), a member-based organisation for indigenous communities in Indonesia. Together we fought for the legal recognition and protection of the Indigenous Peoples of Ammatoa Kajang. In 2016 we were one of 9 indigenous communities whose land rights were legally recognised by President Jokowi, and the Indonesian government issued a Ministerial Decree that determined the Ammatoa Kajang Adat Forest officially constitutes a 313-hectare area.
Simplicity Over Prosperity
The lifestyle of the Kajang Adat Community is synonymous with simplicity. Our life can be said to be far from modern. Our lifestyle and appearance are very different from people who live in urban areas. We ourselves, as part of the Kajang Adat Community, only wear our own handwoven clothes dyed black (tope le’leng). Visitors to our customary territories must also wear black clothes and may not wear footwear.
Black is a colour that symbolises modesty and simplicity. For us, black is no better than other colours, and no shade of black is better than any other. Everyone wears the same clothes and colours to represent similarity in everything, and equality of everyone, as we stand before Turie Ara’na (the Creator).
Our philosophy draws on the fact that all human beings are born equal: we all arrive naked in the world, without blame, possessions, or differences in social status. This belief also informs our responses to the natural environment, especially our forests. With our philosophy of simplicity and self-sufficiency, it is not possible for us to consider taking more than is needed from the forest. Forests must be preserved. Our ancestors advised us not to plant any crops in the forests. We do not want a situation where someone will claim the crops only for themselves, as this could create conflict in the community or cause harm to the forest.
For us, there is no prosperity in the Ammatoa adat area (anre kalumanynyang kalupepang, Rie ‘Kamase-masea), but only simplicity. In fact, there is a saying we usually say:
“Punna kalumanyyang kalupepang ngasei taua rilino nuribokoa kalumanyyang Ammatoa.”
It means that if there is a rule that all people in this world must be rich, then the last person to become rich would be Ammatoa (the traditional leader). This reflects Ammatoa’s belief that the ideal life is a self-sufficient life. Prosperity is not valued in our lives, because prosperity is considered excessive.
Kajang Weaving Tradition
In our language we call weaving attanung’. Weaving culture is the ancestral heritage of the Kajang Adat Community, which is still practiced by women. Kajang women are said to be adults and ready to get married once they are skilled at weaving.
The tools and materials used for weaving are taken from the Boundary Forest. Likewise with the black coloring made from the plant indigofera, which we call tarung (or indigo). We usually plant tarung on the edge of the forest or in our own garden near the house. There are special rituals that need to be performed before we can take something from the forest, including wood or other materials for the first fabric that girls weave as a rite of passage.
There are an estimated two thousand indigenous citizens in Kajang. Of that number, five hundred women still actively practice weaving with natural dyes. It has become a tradition for women to inherit this knowledge. Few girls and young women attend modern schools and go to cities, but almost every Kajang woman knows and possesses these weaving skills.
Weaving is part of my identity as a Kajang customary woman. I myself now live in Bogor and Jakarta in Java, but when I return to my village in Sulawesi, I always weave with my relatives and friends.
The Philosophy of Kajang Weaving
As I have mentioned, the Kajang Adat Community adheres to a simple life by wearing clothing dyed black (tope le’leng). The black colour is sourced from natural indigo dyes that we mix with fermented herbs, resulting in a deep blue colour that is so dark it is almost black.
Apart from the usual textiles, we also sew the tope le’leng into a sarong. The sarong is worn daily and is also a requirement in traditional ceremonies. There is also a headband (passapu) which is also woven. In Kajang, men and women and young people wear the same black woven fabric.
Kajang weavings are still made with a seated loom with simple weaving techniques. Even if we make contemporary weaving creations, we still use indigo dyed cotton yarn (nila). However, we often add small details such as simple stripes using manufactured yarn. These motifs are ornamental and very minimal so as not to undermine our philosophy of modesty and simplicity.
Today, tope le’leng not only have sacred functions and traditions, but are also family assets. That is, the woven fabric forms part of the future dowry offered by the family of young girls to the family of their future husbands. Kajang women must be skilled at weaving before adulthood because that is one of the requirements for having a family. Women in the village have also mastered skills in gardening, cooking, and some are good at trading.
In our opinion — the opinion of Kajang women — weaving helps us to form intimate bonds with each other, with the wider community, and with the forest from which we source our materials. So, without being asked, girls from childhood will themselves ask to learn to weave. Likewise, when a Kajang woman grows up, there is no compulsion for her to continue working as a weaver. Because weaving is only done by women, we gain dignity and respect from men and community leaders. The role of indigenous women as weavers is therefore very strategic in the village.
I myself spend a lot of time outside Kajang or in the city for study and work. But, every time I go home for a holiday, the looms (suru’) that make up my grandma’s legacy are the first thing I look for. I weave in the yard. My grandmother is old and her eyes are farsighted, so my sister and I usually continue to weave at home.
There are still many elderly women who are skillful in weaving. The hands, especially their fingernails, are generally blackened from continually preparing the naturally coloured dyes we use in weaving.
Making Kajang Kain
Dyeing is not an easy process. It takes a long time and a lot of work. It starts from harvesting tarum leaves — roughly two or three sacks weighing 10–30 kilograms. Then, the leaves are soaked in 10–20 litres of water in a container. For the first two days, the marinade needs to be squeezed and mixed with lime (aporo) and charcoal fermented water (ahu). Then the mixture is again left to sit overnight.
When the water from the bath runs clear, the mixture is strained and the thick mass that remains is transferred to a container or jug made of clay. If the entire process is carried out correctly, you will see a dark blue colour. My grandmother called it tekke, and it is then used to soak cotton threads.
The thread soaking process is repeated for two to three hours every morning and evening for 14 days. During this time the threads continue to be washed and dried then soaked, again and again and again, until the desired black colour finally appears.
After dyeing, the solid-coloured yarns will be spun (nipaturung). To make a woven sarong, it takes two days to prepare the threads. The next process is inserting or arranging yarns into the loom (ngane). These stages are mostly done by young women because their eyesight is usually the sharpest. This part of the process takes one day. However, it should not be done during mourning periods. After ngane is finished, then the weaving activity begins.
Usually, on the first day of weaving, the threads will feel rough, so we use a moisturiser made from stale rice with a texture similar to lotion cream. This starchy mixture (pati) is affixed with a comb made from coconut fibre, which helps in smoothing and gluing the threads together.
It’s at this point that weavers demonstrate the skill and intellect required in weaving. It takes two to four weeks to produce a woven fabric that can be made into a sarong. While weaving, the women carefully count the threads to keep the pattern going. After the weaving is finished, the cloth is washed clean, then dried and weighed down with heavy equipment (weighing about five kilograms) until it hangs straight.
What makes tope le’leng unique is its shiny black veneer. Usually, once we finish weaving the fabric, we polish the surface of the cloth with coral or cowrie shells. This process is called garusu and it is what makes our fabric shine.
This polishing process may be done by both women and men. Polishing usually takes one day for one piece of cloth. Those who are accustomed to the work, and have a strong physique, can polish two pieces of cloth in a day. After completing the garusu stage, the fabric is ready to be sewn, then worn or stored.
Our Weaving Cooperative
In 2015, and with assistance from AMAN, we Kajang women weavers established a cooperative that collects and distribute our woven creations. The name we chose for our cooperative is Turikale. The word “turikale” in the Kajang language means ‘close family’. Selling woven fabrics for money is permitted, depending on our needs. Usually, the proceeds go towards our children’s school fees.
Initially, the Turikale Cooperative consisted of only 20 women, but the number is increasing day by day. Weaving women also work with AMAN to develop marketing strategies that align with our customary values. The weaving process is also unchanged and we still source all the materials from our customary forests.
We also share our weaving with AMAN’s business outlet Gerai Nusantara, a handicraft centre that promotes products made by Kajang weavers and other Indigenous Peoples. Sometimes they develop our fabrics into different forms, such as bags or ready-to-wear clothes.
Kajang customary women have also received assistance from the local Tourism Office. We were given around 40 packages of looms. We really appreciate the support from the local government. Unfortunately, many women weavers in Kajang do not feel satisfied using the tools provided to us, because we find the quality of the results is not as good as our traditional weaving equipment.
By using our own weaving tools made from our customary forests, we remain connected to continuing the ancestral mandate (pasang) to protect the forest as the blanket of the world.
Nursida is an indigenous woman and weaver from the Kajang customary community in Sulawesi. She now lives and works in Jakarta as well as Bogor in West Java. Whenever she returns to her hometown, she resumes her work as a weaver, which helps to strengthen relationships in the community.
