A cane weaver’s lament

By PISAI GUMAR
THE very limited market opportunities faced by people in rural areas throughout the country makes it difficult for villagers to improve their ways of life.
The only other way people can sell the cash crops, garden produce or arts and crafts they have created is to take them into the cities or towns. But transportation to and from the major urban areas is expensive and sometimes unreliable.
Villages hold people with painting, carving, singing, carpentry and other skills who want to market their skills and products in the urban settings. Even visiting the city has its own setbacks.
They have to have extra money to be able to spend weeks, or even months in town and where will this extra money come from. Living with wantoks or relatives is no better as life in town is hard for an average worker and the visitor is required to also chip in to put food on the table.
Many who do make it in to town to sell their produce or wares return home with very little money left in their pocket.
Three men from the Morobe LLG in Huon Gulf are no stranger to such dilemmas. Brothers Albert and Jim Dubery from Sapa village and their friend Utuna Sedor Poiyor from Dona once were creating household furniture out of rattan cane. The self-taught trio crafted beautiful lounge chairs, book shelves, coffee tables, stools, sleeping beds and carved wooden bowls.
But that came to a stop in 2000 due to the lack of transportation and lack of available markets. Their business died along with their dreams of ever owning and running a small locally owned enterprise.
These days, Utuna’s younger brother Gao has picked up from where his brother and friends left off. Gao, a grade six school leaver has a definitely been watching the older men at work in his early years because he is skilled in what he makes. He rekindled the business some years back and despite reading and hearing about the government’s keenness to support small local businesses, the support from that oft-repeated rhetoric has somehow not reached him.
He too is now struggling.
Despite the odds, Gao continues to pursue his little business. With no other educational qualification, he still needs to make a living for his family who live back home in the village.
He no longer has big dreams. He just hopes to at least sell a product every week so that he can afford kerosene and a packet of sugar and salt. Any extra he makes he puts away for his children’s schooling.
Gao laments that there should be a place where artisans like him can meet daily to sell their wares. He questions why public servants who are supposed to assist small people set up business or grow their business don’t make time for educational meetings.
He wonders why people like him are passed on the streets and no-one takes an interest in whether they are doing okay or not.
“There are other people like me. Carvers, jewelry makers, painters and artists, we all walk the street,” he said.
“Although I have been in the rattan furniture making and wooden bowl carving for most of my life, never once did a government officer approach me to steer me towards any help.”
Gao comes to Lae when time and money permit. His cane products sell at between K90-K150 each.
He once met Morobe Governor Kelly Naru by accident some years back. The Governor was so impressed with his work that he made some purchases. Gao has also donated some of his pieces to the Cancer Unit at Angau Memorial Hospital, through Andrea Niblett, wife of Oncologist Dr. Niblett.
“This is what I do best and this is all I want to keep on doing but I, like all other artists, need some help to be able to get off the ground,” he said.
“Government workers who are in charge of helping the little people grow should visit us in our villages to point us in the right direction and give us encouragement so that we can work harder to make a change in our communities and province, and for the country too.