Earning money creatively
By DAMARIS MINIKULA
THE intricate designs and patterns on the bilums and baskets reveal the creativity and originality of the enterprising woman.
Pauline Acman designs and weaves Sepik bilums and baskets to earn additional income apart from her paid job as a primary school teacher.
From Indingai village, Chambri Lakes in the East Sepik Province, Pauline wove her first basket in Grade 3.
Since then, like many other women from the same area, weaving baskets and bilums using bush twine, is second nature.
“I come from a strong cultural background where the traditions of weaving baskets and bilums are passed on from mother to daughter,” explained Pauline who now lives in Port Moresby.
“I even went through the initiation ceremony where I had to leave home for some weeks to live ‘in the bush’ where crocodile patterns were etched onto my back,” Pauline added.
This initiation custom gives her all the rights and powers to play the roles of a man which perhaps is a contributing factor that has brought her to where she is today.
“I started of by weaving and selling a couple of baskets.
Each time my baskets were sold, it motivated me to weave more and that’s the beauty of it,” Pauline said with a smile.
She turned her creativity into a larger scale income earning project in 1992 with the support of her extended family.
Her daughters Philma and Raphaela weave armbands and baskets of all designs while her nieces Doreen and Sandy weave the names onto baskets and bilums using bush twine.
Their baskets and bilums improve each time with fashion.
Prices of baskets and bilums range from K10 to K70 while armbands and anklet bracelets cost between K2 and K5 depending on size.
Apart from weaving, her nephew and son are artists who specialize in canvas painting while another son, Ian, lives in Wewak and supplies them with the materials they need from the village.
The income earned over the years has built her six-bedroom house in Wewak, paid for her family’s airfares for holidays and paid for her children’s school fees and other needs.
“My dream now is to have a one-stop shop where art and craft from all over the country can be found,” said Pauline.
“I have started networking with people from other provinces who can supply me with artefacts from each province”.
Her products have been sold overseas and in some instances, special requests were made to have Pauline weave names of special friends on the baskets and bilums.
As Pauline realized the gains from her products, she attended personal viability (PV) course and business course run by the Entrepreneurial Development Training Centre
(EDTC).
When asked why she attended the course, she said: “Personal viability and the business course (also called The Game of Money) have helped me realize that I could actually gain more from the products I sell.
“If I knew the Game of Money in 1992 when I started, I could be earning three-fold if I had turned over my earnings like what I learned in the Game of Money course.
“With the knowledge I have learnt, I can actually keep a proper record of the income earned”.
With her baskets and bilums selling like hot cakes, the sky is the limit for Pauline.
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