11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

(above) Christine Mot weaving nagares bush vines; (below) Ashantee Roy Nalo and Elizabeth Salvemal weaving coconut- leaf fans / Torba Province weaving workshop, Lembal village, Gaua Island, June 2023 / Photographs: Ruth McDougall collected ample materials for them to use. By the time of our curatorial visit in mid 2023, the women were well underway with their work, excited by the opportunity to be among other creative minds. Some were working with strong, dark vines gathered from the bush, at times standing and using their whole bodies to encourage the wily material into a circular formation that would provide the woven base for a basket or fruit bowl. Others were using coastal pandanus, running sharp combs through the strips to produce ever finer strands to weave into delicate baskets. What appeared to be a knotted tangle of white pandanus strips slowly became a small, neat, woven rectangle that the women then transformed into the curvaceous belly of a beautiful basket. It was mesmerising to watch. Despite the growing aspiration on Gaua Island to build dwellings using more robust industrial materials, such as cement and steel, Nalo and her husband, David, made a conscious decision to use traditional techniques and materials to highlight the continued significance of kastom in Vanuatu. With their woven palm leaf walls and roofs, the dwellings embody the importance of weaving in the Banks Islands. As the days passed, living in the beautifully cool huts, sleeping on pandanus mats at night and eating meals from woven trays covered in fresh banana leaves reinforced the importance of these traditions. Some women even used their weaving skills to create elegant, tall-stemmed cane goblets, lined with coconut shells, for drinking. Members of Nalo’s extended family conducted walks into the surrounding forest for the weavers to identify and select plants for their creations and dance ornamentation. On these walks, Nalo’s family members told stories of their ancestors’ time, when rivers journeyed along different paths, and villages were located further from the encroaching sea. As the women gathered leaves, there was visible evidence of plants unable to survive the creep of salt water towards the forest. A number of the weavers collected long cordyline leaves to create versions of their kastom dress — knotted leaves around the waist forming a skirt, and another vibrant green circular top covering midriff and breasts. Other kastom garments were created from strips of pandanus and wild hibiscus, with the soft cream offsetting the brilliant green. Conversations among the women — initiated by Nalo — explored the significance of dress to a Banks woman’s identity, both personally and publicly. As they wove, Nalo encouraged the artists to think about the type of creation that would best express their lives today. What would it be made of? Would it be constructed in one piece or many? Would it bring together all their different weaving skills? How would it communicate their distinct identity as Banks peoples? Some of the younger women answered Nalo’s prompts by innovating with colour and pattern. One young woman, Julian Mary Dini, created a twin natang viam (pandanus basket), much to the admiration of her fellow weavers. Nalo’s aunt Elizabeth Salvemal taught young Ashantee Roy Nalo how to weave coconut leaves into beautiful fans. Without access to a cash economy or the vast number of consumer goods that fill stores in urban centres, these garments and objects are significant creations in these women’s lives, and the process of making sustains the thread that connects them to their island homes, and to the women who came before them. For these Torba women, from a group of islands very much off the tourist trail, the Asia Pacific Triennial represents a significant moment. Their installation brings together examples of customary weaving — from large cane fruit platters and baskets to the soft natang viam (pandanus basket) — that demonstrate how these traditions continue to change through the intricate exploration of colour, pattern and form. Encouraged by Nalo, the women also explored ways to think about the future by designing and creating garments and forms using a combination of weaving techniques and materials. Elizabeth's coconut leaf fans were designed so they could be installed together to form a larger fan, suspended above the other works — a symbol of the women’s insistence on keeping a cool head and not succumbing to negativity in the face of their island’s isolation and vulnerability. Installed at GOMA, these works are accompanied by a short video by Solomon Islands filmmaker Regina Lepping, in which the women are recorded sharing stories and creating weavings in the beautiful workshop space in Lembal village. Quiet, but resolute, behind it all is Dely Roy Nalo with a heart as big as the freshwater lake that occupies the mountainous centre of Gaua. RUTHMcDOUGALL ARTISTS+PROJECTS 196 — 197