TiC + Elevyn: Carey Island Trip
Last March, we hosted an Elevyn contest. Just to keep you up to speed, Elevyn uses its website as a platform to enable indigenous and marginalized communities to sell their handmade crafts on a global scale.
We fell in love with their cause, and worked together to raise awareness via a contest. The prize among many other things, was a trip to Carey Island to meet the Tompoq Tompoh artisans based there. It took some time for everyone to get their schedules in sync, but last Saturday, we finally made our way to Carey Island!
Here's who's who (just in case you get a little confused as a name drop): Mike and Sze Ning from Elevyn accompanied Joyce and I to take the winners, Jen and Eudora.
Jen and Eudora
They were really snap happy that day, and so was I! This was my first shot for the day: a real-life rooster! To be honest, I was pretty much fascinated about everything the whole trip. People made fun of me over my city girl ignorance. :(
Anyway, since our car was parked at the entrance of a home, we were first introduced to a few women who proudly showed us their handicrafts. The women in the Tompoq Tompoh tribe are usually dedicated to weaving, with the men working on wood carving. You can read an interview The Star did with woodcarver Gali Adam here.
The art of traditional weaving was almost lost when at one point, only one woman in the entire village was skillful in the craft. As the palm oil plantations encroached on their way of life, there became a pressing need to look toward external means of making an income to get by. And so this one woman teached the entire village to weave.
The women of Tompoq Tompoh use pandan and nipah leaves. However, palm oil plantations have been rapidly expanding right into the tribe's doorsteps, destroying much of what they usually make use of to get by. This includes the nipah plant. which takes up to 15 years to grow.
And while we could read about their issues, the truth is, it'll never really hit home because it's not our home to begin with. Visiting the village opened my eyes a lot. To experience indigenous crafted containers not as decorational pieces, but as signifiers to their culture and identity. These baskets for example, are sharp with spikes to ward evil spirits away from your contained treasures.
While this toy might seem like a mere puzzle to us, they leave it on the ground as a play thing to distract ghosts when they get lost in the forest.
The toy I played with was a puzzle that signified its user to be ready for marriage if solved. I couldn't solve it.
We were then taken to wood stations, which were little huts where the men work on their carvings. Each item, including intricate statues, are built from a single block of wood and crafted into works of art, and tribal deities. There is even a marvelous piece which is recognised by UNESCO.
When we got back to the home, we found the women cleaning the fish their husbands had caught for lunch. Because it was clear it was going to take quite a while for lunch to be ready, we adjourned to the common area, where we sat and chit chatted about the differences in our ways of life.
But that didn't stop us from snapping shots of everything we saw either.
Lunch consisted of rice, palm oil plant shoots, fried fish, masak lemak and sambal belacan. And it was yummy! I had three helpings and Joyce kept mumbling something about how they should bottle their belacan to sell because it was that good.
After lunch, we were treated to a weaving demonstration, where we saw how to make birds, butterflies, sting rays and fish out of nipah leaves. I was too busy playing with my bird to pay attention though. :)
Then we got a taste of their traditional folk songs, accompanied by a two-step dance routine! When it was time to leave, I went away with more than a bunch of mosquito bites - I went home concerned about the uncertain future of a beautiful community's beliefs, culture and way of life. So I urge you to visit Elevyn, if not Tompoq Tompoh.
Thanks to Elevyn for the wonderful outing, and I hope Jen and Eudora had fun too!
Read Elevyn's post here!
You can also read Jen's post here.
