Meet retiree
Sirongan Sulaiman, 60, who has turned her hobby of hand weaving tapestry into an income generating business.
She picked up the
skill two years ago, after retiring as a teacher at SK St Patrick in Tawau,
Sabah.
“After retirement,
I moved back to my family home in Kota Belud. To keep my mind alert, I decided
to learn the tradtional art of handwoven tapestry. It took me two months to
pick up the skill, to weave tapestry using looms,” says Sirongan during an
interview in Kota Belud recently.
On average, the
mother-of-eight earns between RM2,000 and RM4,000 each month from sales of her
handwoven tapestry pieces.
“The money helps to
pay for my children’s tuition and college fees, and household expenses. Extra
money is saved for other odds and ends to help my large family,” says Sirongan,
whose children are between 16 and 37 years old.
Sirongan wanted to
continue working although she has retired from civil service.
Like many
Malaysians, Sirongan is concerned about making sure she has enough funds for
her golden years.
With the projected
lifespan of Malaysians at 75 years old, the Employees Provident Fund’s
recommended retirement savings is RM228,000.
However, 65% of EPF
members have savings of less than RM50,000 at age 54. EPF’s 2015 annual report
states about 80% of its active members have an average savings on RM100,000 and
less.
Thus, Sirongan
encourages senior citizens to learn new skills and try to monetise them.
“Find a new skill
that piques your interest. Pick up a skill like baking, wood crafting or
sewing. Retirees can always engage in these activities on a part-time basis and
earn extra income.”
Such jobs help
senior citizens earn money and keep the mind active. It provides them with an
opportunity to interact and socialise with others too.
“Retirees should
continue to work for various reasons – to keep physically active, mentally
sharp and have a social life. It also enables them to connect to the outside
world.”
Weaving runs in their blood
Sirongan was fortunate to be able to learn a new
income-generating skill as she comes from a family of tapestry weavers.
Her elder sisters – Pandian Sulaiman, 67, and
Landongan Sulaiman, 62 – are among a handful of traditional weavers from Kota
Belud, a small town about 70km from Kota Kinabalu.
Pandian and Landongan have been weaving for close to
50 years now; they are custodians of their Iranun community’s rich weaving and
needlework heritage. The Iranuns are known for their unique tapestry weave
designs.
There are several types of Iranun fabrics woven for
traditional costumes, called dastar, sambitan, ampik or ampit, mugah, baraguru
and tapak sila.
Each of these woven fabrics is used for different
purposes.
Iranun tapestry pieces are made using the backstrap
loom technique.
The weavers construct the looms themselves, using
wooden rods. One end is tied to a post, while the other end is fastened to the
weaver’s waist with a strap. It is different from Terengganu’s songket weaving,
which uses the kei’ (pronounced as ‘kek’) weaving equipment.
“Tapestry weaving has been in our blood for seven
generations. My sisters learnt the skill from my mother and grandmother when
they were teenagers. Back then, I was not interested to learn weaving as my
focus was on my studies,” says Sirongan, who was a Bahasa Malaysia and
Mathematics teacher for 36 years.
Their handwoven tapestry are made using threads,
either cotton, gold, silver or silk, and worked over different portions of a
warp to form designs.
Sirongan admits it was initially a challenge to
learn to weave tapestry, especially at 58 years old.
Thankfully, her sisters held her hands throughout
her learning journey.
“The most difficult part is counting each coloured
thread strand and ensuring it is placed in the right warp. Once you get the
hang of things, hand weaving tapestry turns therapeutic.
“It is a good form of mental exercise too. It keeps
me focused, especially when I keep count of thread pieces and create designs
between the warp and weft,” explains the jovial woman from Kampung Rampayan
Laut in Kota Belud.
Preserving an ancient craft
Sirongan has learnt to produce many traditional
Iranun handwoven tapestry pieces, including mugah, dastar and sambitan.
Dastar pieces feature fine woven designs, with local
cultural influences. It includes flora and fauna (cotton flower, tapioca
leaves, winter melon leaves) and animal (horse and rooster) motifs.
The Iranun, Dusun and Bajau communities use this
material with elaborate motifs – interwoven with gold or silver thread – as
headgear (tubau or sigar) for special ceremonies. The material, measuring a
square metre, is woven mainly with threads of black, yellow, white, green and
red.
The handwoven cloth is also often used as wall
decorative pieces, handbags and table furnishings.
Mugah – a cloth piece with vertical motif – is often
worn by Iranun women. Measuring 33cm by 66cm, it features colourful traditional
designs called tali-tali, tuara and anunan. The base cloth is always red or
black.
Weaving sambitan is the most difficult, and thus
this is the most expensive of the Iranun’s handwoven fabrics.
It features a combination of weaving and hand
embroidery. The square cloth measures one metre square and is the preferred
choice as headgear (tubau) by Iranun men, especially for weddings.
Red is always the preferred colour for sambitan
woven material. It features designs like winter melon leaves and tapioca
leaves.
These pieces are sold between RM300 and RM2,000,
depending on the design’s intricacy.
“I can complete a dastar, measuring one square
metre, in a week. Some of the more popular designs are inspired by floral motif
like lotus flower and cotton flower. Designs featuring horses are also sought
after, as it represents Kota Belud’s Bajau community,” says Sirongan.
The grandmother-of-four has also mastered a
needlework tapestry technique called langkit or linangkit.
Langkit is a type of handstitched embroidery. It is
used as a form of decoration on traditional costumes of Sabah’s Dusun, Bajau
and Rungus communities. These embroidered pieces, measuring between 2.5cm and
5cm, are stitched on sleeves.
Designs include geometric motifs, flowers and
animals. It is used during special functions and weddings. Sirongan charges
about RM1,000 per metre for the decorative work
“Hand-stitching the langkit is a tedious process. It
requires patience and an eye for fine detailing. It takes about a month to
complete a two-metre strip,” says Sirongan, who works on langkit orders during
the day to avoid straining her eyes.
The sisters do the hand weaving projects at
Pandian’s home, a stone’s throw away from Sirongan’s house.
Sirongan looks forward to going to her eldest
sister’s home as it enables her to complete her tapestry orders while spending
quality time with her sisters.
“We chat and joke while working on our projects.
It’s really fun as we get to have our meals together, just like how we used to
as children.
“Weaving tapestry has enabled us to further
strengthen our sisterly bond,” says Sirongan, who spends about seven hours
working on her tapestry pieces on weekdays.
Sirongan is grateful her fourth son Abdul Kalam
Mukim, 25, has taken an interest in traditional Iranum handwoven tapestry. He
helps to promote his mother and aunts’ exquisite craft works across Sabah,
Sarawak, Labuan and Peninsular Malaysia.
Abdul Kalam is the only child who has followed
Sirongan’s footsteps to learn handwoven tapestry and linangkit.
“I am happy that one of my eight children has a keen
eye for tapestry. My eldest daughter works in Kota Kinabalu and has not had
time to learn the skill yet. My second girl is still studying.
“Hopefully they will eventually pick up the dying
art form when they are older. If their mother could learn it at 58 years old,
they too can learn it,” says Sirongan, with a wide grin.
Source : Star2.com
