Bali moves to protect its traditional textiles - Jakarta Post

The Bali provincial administration will draft a bylaw on the preservation of Balinese traditional textiles, an official says.
Ni Wayan Kusumawathi, head of the Bali Industry and Trade Agency, said that the bylaw was needed to ensure the protection, preservation and development of the local textile industry.
“The bylaw is not merely for trade, but also part of our efforts to preserve local cultures. Traditional Balinese textiles like endek woven cloth, songket and sekordi are unique pieces of art,” she said in a discussion on Balinese textiles recently.
Endek is a hand-woven cloth and songket is woven with a weft of gold-wrapped cotton or silk thread. Sekordi is usually used as a hip cloth in rites of passage ceremonies.
Kusumawathi said that the bylaw would include the preservation of areas that produce traditional textiles, as well as the process, designs, motifs and craftsmen.
The bylaw would be drafted next year.
Once the bylaw is in effect, it will be easier for the Industry and Trade Agency to assist producers of traditional textiles, she said.
“Our program to support traditional textile producers is integrated with the One Village One Product [OVOP] scheme. For traditional textiles, we are focusing on the centers of production, particularly villages in Klungkung, Karangasem, Gianyar and Buleleng.”
The agency also supports traditional textile producers in facing the free trade era by improving their competitiveness.
“As Balinese traditional textiles are in the global arena, we need to ensure that our effort to improve their competitiveness does not contradict the preservation efforts,” she said.
Traditional textile products from Bali have been marketed to Europe, the US, South Africa and Southeast Asian countries.
However, exports to Europe and the US decreased due to the global financial crisis, Kusumawathi said, adding that export would focus on South Africa and Southeast Asian countries as new potential markets.
Last year, the total export value of traditional textile products from 50 Balinese enterprises reached US$108.8 million, a decline of 21.32 percent from the previous year. This year, Bali is targeting an increase in export value of 2.5 percent.
Ida Ayu Ngurah Puniari, a researcher of Balinese textiles, said that protection for traditional cloth products in this free trade era was increasingly important.
She said it was important that Balinese traditional textile products obtained patents as part of the protection efforts.
“Up to now, none of our traditional textile products have obtained copyrights,” said the author of Makna dan Pemakaian Kain Bebali dalam Upacara Hindu di Bali (Meaning and Usage of Kain Bebali in Balinese Hindu Rituals).
Anak Agung Ngurah Mahendra from the Indonesian Textile Association called for more assistance from the government to help textile producers obtain copyrights for their products.

via bali - www.thejakartapost. com/bali-daily/2013-08-24/bali-moves-protect-its-traditional-textiles.html