The presence of Multiplication of Stube HEMAT in Sumba which focuses on women, culture, and the digital economy gives a new color to the lives of women in Sumba, especially in Tanatuku village. The program provides understanding and awareness for women to continuously increase their capacity and self-confidence so that they can participate in the development and support the improvement of family economic welfare. The existence of tied weaving as a heritage from generation to generation is one of the tasks to preserve local culture.
The women's weaving group in Tanatuku village, named Kawara Panamung, is a group of young women who are dropped out of school and housewives. The awareness to take part in preserving the weaving culture is the love evidence from the women of Tanatuku village for their local culture. It has been almost two years that they have learned weaving, starting from zero until producing artworks. They are not descendants of weavers or from families of weavers, so they do not learn or practice weaving since childhood. Their daily life is farming during the rainy season and just staying at home in the dry season. There are only four months of the rainy season and the rest is the dry season during a year. At the beginning of the year, the women start to cultivate crops. The consequence is they did not practice weaving for a month because they are busy in their fields, but it did not divert their passion for working as weaving craftsmen.
The group re-gathered to start weaving activities (29/1/2022) after they had finished planting. On that occasion, Elisabeth Uru Ndaya as the program assistant gave an overview of the program what they will do in the following months, what motifs will be designed, preparation for the supply of natural dyes, and preparation of a business platform to help them promote their products immediately. The participants seemed to be more active to speak and express their opinions. Katrina Njola, one of them, motivated her friends, "I've finished planting rice, now I am focusing just on weaving while waiting for the rice grows. All of us have finished planting, so let's get work this thread to become woven cloth," she said with an accent that looked so enthusiastic. All the participants agreed to work enthusiastically for weaving, hoping that the rice they had planted will thrive and no longer be attacked by locusts.
They also hope to continue the construction of the weaving house as their dream place to be free to be creative, in addition to learning new things about the digital market. ***