But from March to June no weddings were allowed and very few people were allowed to attend funerals. A number of animals are killed for the occasion.
Usually, weddings and funerals see many people from the same maternal line gathering as it is believed that after death someone rejoins with the ancestors of his/ her mother’s line. Harvesting the sap of the lontar palm tree Such events are the only occasions to consume the meat of larger animals. After offering the meat to the ancestors it is divided among those present who also take some home. As younger generations started disregarding ancestral values, a foundation, Tewuni Rai or Placenta of the Earth, was created in 2006 for forty weavers to preserve the ancestral knowledge and traditional weaving techniques using the body tension loom and natural dyes. These traditions are challenged by modern ways of life, like education, world religions and media. The weaving tradition on Savu is not only for the sake of creating beautiful hand-woven cloths to wear at ceremonies and festivals but for women to show their maternal identity. In other societies of Indonesia, like on the neighbouring island of Sumba, textiles identify groups of people following the paternal line (male clan). In this way, with their beautiful sarongs, women are walking identity cards and history books. In a society with no written traditions, patterns displayed on textiles transmit knowledge orally and visually.
There are genealogies of textiles as there are genealogies of people both can cover tens of generations. Motifs are remembered in four ways, through the name of an ancestress and through the name of the motif, through the narrative at the origin of the new motif and through a genealogy.
The patterns displayed on the textiles help to trace someone’s genealogy or in other words to connect a person with his/her female ancestors. Motif Kebeba Raijua, Lesser Blossom, wini JewuĪccording to tradition men have to marry in the same line as their mothers, therefore women display on their sarongs large motifs identifying their maternal lines. Master weaver Tade Jungi sarong with the motifs kobe morena Master weaver Lena Jami sarong with motif kobe molaiġ primary motif of the Lesser Blossom group
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