Ivy following mum’s footstep selling bilums

By LULU MAGINDE
DEVOTED daughter Ivy Karue is following in her mother’s footsteps by continuing her bilum craft business as a side passion, while also working a regular job on week days.
The only girl in a family of five, 28-year-old Karue of Josie’s Crafts and Black Planter, from Wewak, East Sepik, was born and raised in Port Moresby and recalls having fond memories of following her mother to craft markets at Ela Beach in the early 1990s and learning from her the art of bilum making.
“My mum always said, if you’re a Sepik woman, you don’t need to buy a bilum, you can just make it yourself; something which she passed on to all of her children,” Karue said.
“She used to make beads as well as bilums and saw that the business as a supplementary income to support herself and our family on the weekends.”
Karue works as a human resource manager.
She met her best friend, business partner and owner of the Black Planter, Charlene Karemo, while a student at Gordon Secondary school and together they sold bilums from East Sepik alongside small potted plants cultivated by Karemo.
“We would hang out on the weekends so we decided to just turn our hang outs into an income generating activity,” she said.
After graduating from Gordon Secondary in 2011, Karue took part in volunteering programmes and found part-time jobs until 2018 when she decided to seriously pursue a degree in business.
She was accepted to study accounting and finance at the Institute of Business Studies (University) in Port Moresby, but could not continue after her first year, as she became her mother’s primary care giver after she developed cancer.
She has since she put her degree on hold to work and save up for tuition and alongside her two older brothers (operating from Wewak), the Karue family business was going strong.
“We started our collaboration, mid-July of last year, but the bilums and baskets have been an ongoing thing since I was little. My brothers and I started selling and receiving bulk orders after setting up our Facebook page last year,” she said.
“My big brother usually just goes to the nearest market to purchase the bilums, but when he has time, because his job does take him into rural areas, buys directly from the women, supplies it to me and I just re-sell them on Facebook.”