Tais - History and Social Role

History and Social Role

The tais has been used in East Timor as a unit of exchange, often for livestock or other valuables. In ceremonial use, the tais is usually worn along with feathers, coral, gold and/or silver. Still, the sale of tais has become common only in the last thirty years. Although small-scale commerce of tais is an important source of income for women, however, export is difficult and nearly all sales take place with foreigners. In recent years, the public textile market in the capital Dili has seen an influx of foreign-made weavings, which often look like tais and are sold (and made) more cheaply.

Weaving of tais is performed solely by women, with techniques passed down from generation to generation in an oral tradition. The activity often serves as a community gathering as much as a chore of productivity, and served as a rare form of self-expression in the restrictive environment of the 25-year Indonesian occupation.

Tia Veronica Pereira created a black tais with the names of the 271 victims woven in red into it, to commemorate the victims of the 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre. The influence of textiles on the lives of women is reflected in the East Timorese expression "bringing a thread and bobbin" in reference to a newborn child.

During the occupation, Indonesian soldiers were a considerable market for tais weavers. In the 1970s, tais for the first time began to feature inscriptions, usually written in Indonesian. In the era of independence, tais artisans have begun specializing in customized weavings, as well as tais-like products such as handbags and scarves.

Since 1999 workers in NGO's and the UN bought tais to take home as gifts and mementos and new messages found their way into the tais in English and Portuguese as well as Tetun. A quite remarkable fact, given that most of the weavers are found in rural areas where they have not had the opportunity to learn how to read or write.

Many people wishing to assist East Timorese women develop income streams have imported tais for sale and assisted weavers and sewing groups to produce items such as purses, bags, cushion covers and baskets that are saleable in Australia and elsewhere. The selling of tais is rapidly moving off-shore as many of the people taking these initiatives belong to Local Government Friendship groups in Australia.

Traditional Timorese culture is supported by growing, cutting, tying, knotting, weaving, dying and sheathing a variety of fibres, grasses and leaves for ceremonial and practical purposes. The weaving of the tais plays an integral role in Timorese life and especially women's lives: shaping identity and attitudes towards them. Before the introduction of currency and after, the tais has been used as a valued object of exchange in gifting and ceremonies. Textiles are the art-form of the South-east Asian region and often the most beautiful tais are used to wrap around the bodies of loved ones for burial. Its role in wedding arrangements and the associated family ties, is attributed by some writers with contributing to the maintenance and strength of Timorese identity despite hundreds of years of colonial occupation. A Forum was recently held in Melbourne to stimulate and expand the debate and dialogue about the impact of commodifying the tais because it is a craft grounded in culture and sacred life.