WORLD IKAT CONVENTION IN BAGUIO

THE World Ikat Convention this week in Baguio attracted 100 delegates from 20 countries. The Baguio Convention Center was festooned with stunning and colorful ikat textiles on four sides plus the stage. Most were from Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, though ikat is universal.

Opened on Dec. 3 with Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Trade and Industry Secretary Maria Cristina Roque, and the Baguio and Cordillera community of sponsors, textile weavers, promoters, cognoscenti and an international assembly led by World Crafts Council-Asia Pacific President Aziz Murtazaev of Uzbekistan, it went into a series of lectures on ikat, led by Philippine textile experts like Cherubim Quizon, Cristina Juan, Analyn Amores Salvador and Marlon Martin on our own ikat textiles. They talked about history, techniques, existing vintage textiles (many in foreign institutions), possible repatriation, digitalizing, etc.

Simply put, ikat is a kind of weaving that uses resist dyes in order to make a pattern on the cloth surface. There are two main methods of resist dyeing. The first requires physical manipulation of cloth or yarns that will make the cloth. These are binding, folding, pleating, stitching, wrapping and clamping. This is known as tie dyeing when the textile or thread is tied, sewn or gathered to create designs when dyed. The second method is using resist agents like wax applied with hand tools or blocks (batik is done this way). What happens is that some parts of the cloth or thread are not dyed, and these non-dyed parts contribute to the pattern created on a dyed cloth.

The term ikat is used to describe both the process and the resulting textile. The term's source is the Malay word which means "to bind." The Malay world had extensive maritime trade with peoples from many directions — India, China and the Middle East. This was long before colonization by the Western world. There are several kinds of ikat according to the world of its weavers. This would mean according to the physical environment within which they were nurtured and had to adjust to its demands. This is how culture is created. And it includes the spiritual side of humanity that defines its soul through its beliefs and philosophy from experience.

The origin of ikat is India, somewhere in its south, where it was known as "katt." From there, it conquered the world through maritime trade, through the Silk Road and beyond to Europe and the Americas.

In the Philippines, ikat is present in the Cordillera and in Mindanao. Most ikat here and elsewhere are conceived and connected to rituals and symbols defining a spiritual world that reflects the perspectives of their weavers' worlds. Some are for joyful celebrations while others are for life cycles like birth and death, and other life milestones.

Our T'nalak from Mindanao is abaca processed to become ikat by resisting dyeing with the resulting patterns. Abaca is the Philippines' unique fiber and used for many products. The T'boli of the Lake Sebu area weave the patterns and colors for it from their dreams which makes it almost a mystical weaving experience. In the Cordillera, they create their ikat from the environment they live in using motifs from it — birds, flowers, animals, trees. In Islamic areas where ikat cannot have images, stylized lines that can stand in for the images are the fanciful result. They can be very beautiful and attractive.

In the Cordillera like other weaving communities around the world, cloth is woven for specific purposes. There are clothes for the elite, there are textiles for birth and death, for weddings and births, as well as everyday life routines.

In the same way countries like Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia, Timor-Leste and Laos spoke about their ikat practices and the beliefs behind them.

In general, most countries, including the farther ones like India and Uzbekistan, also mentioned the ebb and flow of their weaving occupations. Some because of war or being conquered had their lifestyles changed or rather, oppressed, that weaving became less important than food and shelter, and other emergencies. But when these bad times passed, normalcy always brought back weaving. Modernization also affected it with the fast and cheap clothes but being aware of their lesser value compared to weaving in the criteria of a culture, governments and other institutions that were aware of its place in their history and lifestyles always reacted by supporting, encouraging and giving it a place of value.

Many interesting ikat practices by other countries and cultures were spoken about by their practitioners. And there are differences in the similarities as each weaving community has its own.

We were talking about ikat, but we were also judging the place of weaving in our cultures. Weaving even in this modern world is not a sign of backwardness or underdevelopment despite the fact that we are in the 21st century of automation. As a human activity, weaving is a human accomplishment, a union with one's environment using its materials and adjusting to its demands. A weaver weaves not only for himself or herself but also for others — family, neighbors, countrymen, humanity. Weaving is a contribution to the world, and it is done with that in mind, be it for family, for a market or for a ceremony or ritual. It brings a weaver to the core of his beliefs and ambitions.

Indeed, the World Ikat Convention in Baguio as we write has brought a large part of the world to address the state of weaving in their countries by analyzing, explaining and seeking to promote its merits. Ikat is a major weaving method that has a rich history that enhances all who are a part of it.

2024-12-05T16:23:20Z