The Plan
Begin with the women.
Grow toward a home.
Our first step is to support women to gather, teach and pass on their weaving knowledge. As that work takes root, we hope to create Rumah Tenun: a permanent home for the practice and the people who sustain it.
Proposed first phase · First 12 months
First, make space for the women.
The project begins with time together. We want to create a regular circle where women can weave, share natural-dye skills and teach one another, with compensation for their time and knowledge. The first year would focus on listening, agreeing how to work together and making these gatherings possible.
From that shared practice, we would begin a living archive of selected stories, motifs and techniques, guided by what the women choose to share. A children’s colouring and learning book would bring some of those stories to a younger generation, giving the knowledge another way to travel.
Explore the first-year activities4 details · Click to expandClick to collapse
Gather & agree
Confirm the core women’s group, hold listening sessions and establish shared agreements on roles, authorship and compensation.
Share skills & support the teachers
Compensated gatherings make room for peer learning, natural-dye practice, weaving challenges and new ideas.
Build a living archive
Record selected motifs, dye plants, weaving stages and oral histories, with each contributor deciding how their work is credited and shared.
Create a children’s learning book
Bring selected motifs, colors and stories into an illustrated book that invites children to learn and imagine.
Longer-term vision · Years 1–3
Then, give that work a home.
As the circle grows, we imagine a place where its work can belong. Rumah Tenun would bring weaving, teaching and an archive together under one roof, with a garden connecting cotton and natural dyes to the cloth they become. It would be a place to practise, learn and spend time together.
This is the longer-term dream, to be shaped with the women and future partners. Spaces for visiting artists, a gallery and other welcoming activities could help support its ongoing life. The location and design are still to be agreed; the image offers a sense of the ambition.
Explore the spaces we imagine4 details · Click to expandClick to collapse
An archive & learning space
A home for motif stories, dye records, tools and recorded oral histories, with access guided by the collective.
A weaving & experimentation studio
Space for traditional weaving, plant-color experiments and collaborations across generations and disciplines.
A garden that tells the story
A proposed garden connects cotton, dye plants and other useful plants with the journey from land to cloth.
A place for exchange
The longer-term proposal includes residencies, accommodation, a café and gallery as possible ways to welcome visitors and support ongoing operations.
Help the first chapter take root.
An early partnership could help make the gatherings possible: supporting the women who teach, the materials they work with, and the first steps in documenting their knowledge. We would welcome a conversation about where your support could make a difference.