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Day 6 of our recent ten day weaving tour on Flores, Slor and Lembata island, eastern Indonesia.
We were shown around by Dr Linda McIntosh, who did her doctorate specialising in South East Asian weaving, and published several books on the subject.
Eventually, I intend to put photos of the whole ten days online, but for personal reasons start with Day 6, our visit to Solor, to the village of Kamagayo.
This part of the archipelago was colonised in the late sixteenth century by the Portugese, and a hundred years later by the Dutch. Left over main influence of those colonisation seems to be Roman Catholic religion, we had the impression this is on Solor the dominant religion.
Our visit to Kamagayo was according to the locals the first by any foreign (=Western) visitors, apart from the catholic missionaries who had an outpost there for centuries.
The occasion of our visit was a weaving exhibition which brought together women weaving collectives from 18 different communities on Solar, apparently a first for the island.
The event was going to be opened by the Vice regent for the region of East Nusa Tenggara, the southernmost province of Indonesia. It compires the eastern portion of the Lesser Sunda Islands, facing the Indian Ocean in the south and the Flores Sea in the north.
But shortly after out arrival we heard that instead the Regent of the province, who is based in Kupan on West Timor was going to be present himself with his wife and the head of tourism for the province.