Carver wants govt to create hub for craftsmen

A carver in Port Moresby wants the Government to create a hub to have craftsmen in one location to give tourists and expatriates to browse, identify and buy.

A CARVER in Port Moresby has called on the government to create a hub to have craftsmen in one location to give tourists and expatriates to browse, identify and buy.
Carver Thomas Toyamina, 48, from the Trobriand Islands in Milne Bay told The National at a craft expo in Port Moresby last week that through developing a hub specifically for carvers in Port Moresby to create a market for their products.
“A hub in Port Moresby would allow customers to interact with the carvers to get quality carvings of their choice,” Toyamina said.
He was among many artists who turned up at a crafts expo at the Laguna Hotel.
When explaining his art works, all from the Trobriand Islands, said all the artefacts which he carved depicting different traditional stories and values.
“There are different carvings which come from different islands in the Trobriand Islands,” Toyamina said.
“For people from the coast, there are carvings such as fish and turtle bowls.
“If the carver is from the inland, then you would see them carve round bowls and lace bowls,”
“The carvings speak for themselves.”
When asked about stools which had different carved images, he said the stool making originated from one particular village.
“The carvings that have been depicted on it (the stool), speak of traditional values; it shows a women dressed in a dawning traditional costume which represented the fertility of the island,” he said.
“Also men in their traditional attire represents mastery and manhood.
“These are values that reflect the people from the Trobriand Islands.”
The stools are made in different sizes and vary from mini chairs the biggest which has approximately a radius of 60 square centimetres and a height of 70cm.
Such chairs are commonly be found in hotels such as the Kiriwina Lodge in Milne Bay and other lodges around the Trobriand Islands.
The large stools sell from K2,500 to K3,500 and are made from kerosene wood, kwila and ebony.
These woods are also used for other carvings as well.
When asked about his customers and how much he made on an annual basis, Toyamina said: “Annually, it’s not really much, like working and earning from a regular job.
“Sometimes the market is consistent, and sometimes it’s not.

“We don’t keep track of the exact amounts we make from selling carvings and other arts and craft pieces but when the market is good and consistent a carver can make as much as K60,000 a year.”
Toyamina said to make the most amount the market had to be good and the carvers needed to sell consistently.
He said selling to tourists and visitors in Port Moresby difficult “unlike in Alotau and in the Trobriand Islands where I come from tourism is high and tourists normally come at a certain time where you will be able to sell out products”. He said the market in Port Moresby was unpredictable.
Toyamina added that since he had been in Port Moresby he had noted that the only buyers of his carvings were expatriates who lived and worked in the city or those who were transiting through town.
“The only people that we sell our products to are expatriates who enter the country on contractual basis, or when coming as guests in Port Moresby, and reside in hotels,” he said.
“When they leave and want to get gifts or souvenirs, then the hotels make arrangements to find us wherever we are located.
“But for the tourists, they are hardly ever seen around.
“Unless if we there are international contractors coming into Papua New Guinea for their own businesses as tourists, then we can always brand them as tourists, because they can be brought or directed to buy our products.
“In terms of events, tourists that enter the country to see festivals and shows.”
Toyamina said opportunities to sell their products in Port Moresby were affected because of limited times (cultural days, Independence Day celebrations, expos) and places to sell and the lack of buyers.
He said many Papua New Guineans liked collecting arts and crafts but needed to a place to go to in order to bargain prices and interact with the artisans.
“That is why in craft markets like these (expo), we are excluded from normal markets,” he said.
“And so at the events we sometimes make money, but most cases we don’t.”
In terms of how the government could assist carvers, Toyamina said creating small and medium entrepreneurial opportunities for carvers was a way forward.
He said the government or relevant department could incentivise the players in the art and crafts industry.
Toyamina said arts and crafts were a significant part of preserving PNG tradition and culture.
“If the government is serious about developing the SMEs, they should also make it convenient for guests and tourists to buy our products by creating a hub,” he said.
“It will be a setting which can keep carvers in one place, a market for us.”
He said presently the way people purchased specific pieces was through word of mouth and through people they knew; there was no central location to visit.
Toyamina said quality and authenticity of products was important to and this was why the industry needed some regulating.
“In a hub, it would allow customers to interact with the carvers to get the quality carvings of their choices,” he said.
“So the drive is with the SMEs because it will drive these business to produce better products following a standard but also keeping true to our traditions and culture.”