download - OATG. Oxford Asian Textile Group

10
this is where one is closest to them. For the same reason maize, now the main staple of
Kedang, may not be planted there – after all it was a relative newcomer to the region, only
introduced 500 years ago from the New World!
Woman weaving a man’s sarong nofi on a backstrap loom. She is working in the shade of a boat shed at the beach,
Lamalera, Lembata, July 1979 (Photograph: R. Barnes)
Why is Kedang ceremonial cloth dark blue (called ‘black’ in Kedang), while elsewhere
on Lembata, and indeed the wider region, red is the preferred colour The meaning of colour
changes between cultures and may even switch within one society, depending on
circumstances. Red, white, and black are the three colours of symbolic importance in the
region for rituals, chants, and as ornaments – not surprisingly, as they share that role with
many cultures world-wide. White and black have a fairly stable association with the spiritual
and material world, respectively. Red is quite ambiguous: several eastern Indonesian languages
use a version of the word mean, which may mean not only “red”, but also “shining, golden,
divine”. It is the colour of blood, which can refer to fertility, but also to warfare. Witches are
supposed to be identified by their red faces. While in Kedang people have chosen the “stable”
black for their ceremonially important textiles, their neighbours prefer to emphasise the
positive aspect of red, as a sign of fertility and hence suitable for the cloth to be exchanged at
marriage.