Miat Jiki bilum on song

The National Weekender
COVER STORY
Weightlifter Morea Baru posing with his Commonwealth Games silver medal with Annemarie Kamba, the leader of Wosera women who had woven bilums worn by PNG athletes and officials at the recent Birmingham Games.

By PATRICIA KEAMO
WHAT started off as a paid order of 40 bilums for the Team Papua New Guinea athletes to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom has turned into a project for women in Vagiput in Wosera-Gawi, East Sepik, led by chief weaver Annemarie Kamba.
With no road connection to the village, it is quite tough for locals to generate incomes for their livelihood but now with the bilum project, over a hundred young women and mothers are weaving bilums to sell and sustain themselves.
Called ‘Miat Jiki’ in their local dialect, the bilum pattern is significant in a customary initiation process for women in the village.
“It is our custom bilum where the ‘Miat Jiki’ pattern is a customary mark for women,” said Annemarie Kamba, the chief weaver.
“We get the rope (fibers) from the bush, once its cut down, the outer layer is peeled off, then we boil it and dry it over a fire before splitting it into strands. After that we dye it and start weaving the bilums.
“It takes roughly two to three days for me to finish a bilum but for mothers in the village, it takes a bit longer than that as they have chores and responsibilities.”
After the bilums were carried by Team PNG athletes at the opening ceremony of last month’s Commonwealth Games, the ‘Miat Jiki’ has been nicknamed ‘Birmingham Bilum.’
But what most people don’t know was the hard work and sweat put into completing the bilum-making process and ensuring the finished product reaches Port Moresby prior to the team leaving for the UK.
It took a lot of work to perfect the design and the colours as it had to compliment Team PNG’s walk-out attire at the Birmingham Games.
Wewak-based Dr Preston Karue was the person behind the project who liaised with the team’s chef de mission Michael Henao to arrange for the production of the bilums.
“When Michael (Henao) reached out to me in Februarys, I was preparing the mothers to start making bilums for our cultural show in April,” said Karue.
“We had to get the bilum design in place first so I reached out to Annemarie and we worked on pairing the colors with the design.
“I had to send to Michael a couple of times to see if he’s happy with what we’ve done and once we were happy with design, I sent Annemarie to the village to get the women started weaving.
“She instructed the women on the sizes of the bilum, how to do it, she dyed the ropes for the women individually.
“I had to do four trips back and forth (to the village) just to push the women to keep them within the time frame because we were also running out of time.”
After completion, the 40 bilums were walked three hours from Vagiput to Yangimangua for a 30-minute boat ride to Pagwi before a three-hour drive to Wewak.

Chief weaver Annemarie Kamba with her ‘Miat Jiki’ bilum. Annemarie paid a visit to The National newspaper office in Port Moresby on Monday. – Nationalpics by PATRICIA KEAMO.

They were then flown from Wewak to Port Moresby and finally sent to Birmingham.
On July 30, Team PNG athletes donned the bilums complimenting their attire at the opening ceremony of the games.
Chef de mission Michael Henao said part of their decision to choose the bilums from East Sepik was to honour the late Grand Chief Sir Michael Somare given that this was the first Commonwealth Games since his passing.
“The province also did a brilliant job in hosting the Queen’s baton relay in January,” said Henao.
“So it was only fitting that we chose the bilum from Wosera-Gawi.”
For the weavers in Vagiput, it was a different feeling of euphoria for them seeing their product being displayed at the world stage.
The chief weaver flew to Port Moresby last week and had the opportunity to meet the Team PNG athletes and officials as well as other stakeholders during a welcome reception on Saturday.
“The mothers in the village were happy to see the bilums being carried by the athletes in Birmingham,” Annemarie said.
“Some of them cried tears of joy knowing that the World has seen their handiwork.
“They felt so proud to have been given that opportunity to monetise their skills from out their village, it was something they never expected.
“And they are grateful to Preston (Karue) for making this happen.”
The surplus bilums from Team PNG’s order were sold to help a few young women with their school fees.
“We put out a school fee appeal and successfully raised over K1,000 for four girls and helped them to cover their school fees,” said Karue.
“It’s really tough for the people in there (Vagiput) to make money since there is no road access and they usually make money from their sago.
“Normally they make sago and exchange it for fish so trying to make money for school fees and other needs is difficult. So doing the bilum project and getting the women paid, it’s starting to highlight and help with a lot of their needs.

Annemarie Kamba (right) with Team PNG chef de mission Michael Henao. – Pictures supplied by PRESTON KARUE.

“For the women the big thing is school fees and that’s one of the main need we’re looking at.
“The project is also helping the young girls because they need menstrual hygiene kits and other necessitates.
“We’re getting them to make the bilums earn money but at the same time we’re looking at specific needs that they build their money towards.
“Going forward the plan is also to assist with projects for the schools and local services.
“Following those initial bilums that were done for Team PNG, we decided to get everyone involved.
“We’ve now expanded to three villages, it’s not just Vagiput village we’ve included Wereman and Yangit villages.
“We have a 100 women who made their next batch of bilums they’re selling now after receiving their initial payment.”
With the support of MiBank and Digicel, the women group have opened 100 bank accounts and registered the same amount of SIM cards for mobile banking.
“Because of the risk of taking cash around, we decided to go cashless with the help from MiBank and Digicel who have made it possible for us to get phone banking and accounts registered in the village,” Karue added.
“One of the local village councilors, Gideon Marlow is now doing everything in the village. He’s been trained on how to open bank accounts and SIM registrations.
“For now, we’re looking at where the market is to sell the bilums. The larger bilums are sold for between K100 and K300 but we’re going to come up with much smaller bilums that will go for as low as K20.”
Karue and Annemarie said this project has piqued the interest of not only mothers and young women but the men in the village want to get involved now.
The ‘Birmingham Bilum’ project has now provided over 100 local women and girls a source of income with the possibility of increased production and sale at the national and international markets.