| Sandra Niessen - "Back to the villages" - donations |
In June 2010, I returned to North Sumatra, to visit the villages, weavers and others that I met during my fieldwork for Legacy in cloth, Batak textiles of Indonesia. I had fulfilled my obligations to museums and archives who had requested a copy of Legacy for copyright purposes, but I felt this obligation even more strongly towards the weavers, even though they gave their knowledge to me freely and graciously with no counter-demands. The project, dubbed Back to the Villages, was developed to bring the book to North Sumatra and designed to be a celebration of thanks to Batak weavers, so that they may feel pride for their extraordinary talents and skills.
Some people, when they heard about the project, donated to it spontaneously. They gave me the idea of a North-South partnership, one of my favourite components of the project. Donation to the project raised awareness of the importance of supporting indigenous culture. It nurtured participation. The statistics pertaining to the loss and decline of indigenous culture are more than worrisome. Batak weaving is part of our global, universal, cultural inheritance, an amazing tradition for all of us to treasure. If Batak textiles have a future, it will be because they find their way to markets that are outside the Batak area.
In the end, all the books that I gave away in North Sumatra were donations by those who believed enough in the project to support it. Many donors gave me their photograph and a message which I was able to give to the recipient of the book when I explained the donor’s role in the project.
For feedback on book gifts as they happened see Back to the Villages blogs
For the inspiration behind the idea of returning the Batak textile legacy to Batak weavers see: Back to the Villages – Celebrating Cultural Legacy and Exploring Magic in Batak textiles
Legacy in cloth - Woven Worlds - Rita Bolland - Gardener's House - Back to the villages - Bergord Publishing - Collection