16 Sumba Weaving Motives Threatened With Extinction
WAINGAPU - The Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) said there are 16 weaving motifs from the Sumba area in NTT Province that are potentially endangered.
"From the data collection in 2022, there are 85 motifs in Sumba as a whole, but 16 of them are threatened with extinction," said Director of Cultural Utilization Development at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Irini Dewi Wanti when met by ANTARA in East Sumba, NTT, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, May 25.
Irini said 16 motives in endangered conditions based on the recapitulation of the results of the collection of traditional weaving databases, spread across East Sumba, Central Sumba, Southwest Sumba and West Sumba Regencies.
The cause of these motives is threatened with extinction, is the habit of craftsmen who do not use a lot of patterns when resolving a weaving. Usually this situation occurs because some motives cannot be used by just anyone, for example, the motif of the queen and the king's patola which can only be used by kings or queens in a traditional area.
Even if it is produced again, the number will not be large, so the number will be limited. Then even though it is sold and many people do not understand the meaning behind a story in weaving, the weaving still doesn't want to make it. So the market is limited," he said.
The threat is also caused by the number of weavers who control these motifs that tend to tend to decrease, because the younger generation thinks weaving is a boring and non-creative job.
Irini said that in order for the 16 motives to survive the threat of extinction, the community needs to learn more deeply weaving. Especially for the younger generation in Sumba, so that weaving is not only used as an object but a part of life that should be maintained.
"If we don't know the production of weaving will be increasingly limited, assuming weaving is not for use in general. That's why it's one of the reasons that the motive is threatened with extinction," he said.
In order to preserve it, Irini said that the Ministry of Education and Culture is ready to facilitate by holding exhibitions to socialize weaving on a wider scale. Deep research on weaving in areas such as Sumba also continues to be encouraged so that they can continue to know the situation of the latest weaving ecosystem.
Another way that the Ministry of Education and Culture wants to realize is by digitizing through photos and videos as a learning medium for introducing weaving in the next generation, which is considered more attractive and effective.
"We haven't digitalized it in its entirety, it's still in the context of shooting, taking partial videos. If we want it, digitization is not just using photos, films become a system, starting with doing research. So that this is not limited to years, anyone who will use it will no longer be partial," he said.