By Carolyn Jongeward from Newsletter 15, HomeNet International

“Isan hand-weavings; Reflecting local wisdom, in harmony with nature.” These words are printed on the paper shopping bag that contained the hand woven textiles I purchased at the Prae Pan shop in the city of Khon Kaen, north eastern Thailand. The statement continues: “Prae Pan is a people organisation working with weaver groups for women development and alternative marketing. Prae Pan is supported by the Handicraft Centre for Northeastern Women’s Development.” The name Prae Pan, which means ‘many kinds of fabrics’, was given to the organisation in 1997 when it began to be run by the weavers themselves. Approximately two hundred and fifty weavers living in seven villages of Khon Kaen province are now members of Prae Pan.

Prae Pan grew out of a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that started twenty years ago with a focus on women’s issues of health, education, and empowerment. Recognising the weaving skills of the local women, the Northeastern Handicraft and Women’s Development Network (NWD) encouraged the formation of Prae Pan with the objectives to: preserve and teach others the techniques and traditional patterns of hand weaving of the north east; provide a lasting career and steady income for the women; encourage women’s participation in all aspects of community affairs while they co-operate with one another in the weaving project. At the beginning, Prae Pan received strong support from several NGOs for training in design, product, and market development. Now, their products are high quality and the organisation is well known and continues to be an active member of NWD.

The Prae Pan shop is beautiful; shelves on either side of the long narrow room are filled with bolts of natural-dyed cotton and silk cloth and stacks of different products woven in the villages. A low table in the centre of the highly polished dark hardwood floor is both a display area for examining woven products and a meeting place. This is where I met six women: four weavers from different villages, who manage the shop and two consultants, who work with NGOs in different aspects of rural development. Vannee from the village of Ban Lao is book-keeper and shop manager; Khumpoon, from Ban Huafai, is accountant; Khummar, from Ban Nonethong, is salesperson; and Pun. from Ban Suksomboon, is stock keeper and salesperson. Busarin, from Bangkok, was one of the original people to work on establishing the Northeastern Handicraft Centre to help preserve the crafts of the region. During the past eight years of helping village groups to become organised, their messages to the women were: ‘don’t forget the culture’ and ‘do the weaving work’. Darunee, also from Bangkok, is a sustainable agriculture consultant and activist. She wants people in the West to know about the work and living situation of the poor in rural villages, and she calls for the principles of love, care, and learning from one another so that people do not take advantage of each other.

Rural Debt

In rural Isaan in north eastern Thailand, the majority of people are farmers who grow glutinous and white rice, cassava, sugar cane, maize, fruits, vegetables, and jute. The region is the poorest in the country because of extreme temperatures, poor soil, and alternating droughts and floods. Despite harsh conditions, in the past Isaan farmers were able to adapt to their environment and they were self-reliant as a family unit, producing all their basic needs. The industrious Isaan women did household chores, worked in fields during planting and harvesting, cultivated cotton and mulberry plants, made household wares from clay, and wove cotton and silk cloth. The women worked so their brothers could go to school, become monks, or pursue higher education in cities.

Recent globalisation has subjected many national economies of the South to world market forces. A development model that emphasises export-led growth, foreign investment and loans, trade liberalisation and privatisation has undermined the diversity and integrity of local economies, social organisations, and knowledge systems which formerly sustained the majority of people in the South. As a consequence, poverty, unemployment, ecological destruction, and social disintegration have reached crisis proportions.

As self-reliant agriculture and ways of life have disappeared, rural debt in Thailand has soared (estimated at 100 billion baht or US$4 billion). Nearly every household needs money to buy rice, other food, medicine, household goods and clothes, most of which come from outside the village. Farmers borrow from the agriculture bank for items such as fertiliser and small tractors. Each year they try to grow more to make a profit but the price of agricultural products is very low. They try to earn a living from farm labour, but they cannot cut the cycle of debt. After the four month agricultural season men go outside the village to look for jobs in construction, in factories, or as taxi drivers. Since the 1997 Asian economic crisis, however, there is no more construction of factory work. The women stay at home and do sub-contract homework such as sewing school uniforms. But the wages are very low. Up to 85 percent of Isaan villagers earn less than they need to survive.

Weaving a Way Out

Weaving is a local ‘science and technology’, developed and handed down through generations by women in Isaan. In traditional Isaan society, woven materials penetrated deep into the socio-economic fabric of people’s lives. From birth to death, from individual to family to community, from secular to religious rites, woven materials were used. For Isaan women, weaving was not only a household duty; it was a way of gaining respect in this life and spiritual merit in the next.

With the destruction of village ways of life, traditional weaving lost much of its importance and value and disappeared in some areas. This situation began to change however with the establishment of the NWD and the encouragement for villagers to value their local knowledge and cultural heritage. Women began to participate in decision-making and contribute to community development; traditional weaving was revitalised through community enterprise development.

Prae Pan: a Community Enterprise

NGOs want to help people take more control of the operation of their own businesses so they can be producers, participants, and decision makers in viable enterprises. “Let the people go first,” Busarin says, “so they become more self-reliant.” After ten years as a parent organisation, NWD has gradually withdrawn to an advisory role and the village groups have learned to take over Prae Pan functions. A management committee consists of two representatives from each of the seven villages and three people from NWD. The committee meets every two or three months to discuss weavers’ concerns, make decisions and deal with quality control. Representatives take information back to the villages and sometimes the women from the Prae Pan shop go to the villages to deal with problems. The village weaving groups meet once a month before representatives take woven products into the Prae Pan shop, to receive payment, and talk about new orders.

Individual weavers are members of village weaving groups which are members of and Prae Pan where they are represented. The idea is that the groups work co-operatively; weavers do not sell their work as individuals; prices are set and work is sold as a group. Prae Pan purchases from the weavers every piece that reaches the standard of quality set by the group. Prae Pan not individual weavers are responsible for selling the products.

Prae Pan woven cotton and silk products are all naturally dyed in subdued and delicate colours. There are plain fabrics, mudmee patterns, and weft designs. They become wall hangings, table runners, cotton bedspreads, and blankets. In all, there are seven kinds of woven products, each of which is made in one of the seven villages. In some cases, certain weavers are responsible for making particular products, for example, one family makes a very large bedspread; one weaver makes a particular shawl.

When Prae Pan places the monthly order, they try to maintain the production level of each weaver. There is a quota or minimum amount of work each month for each weaver; the base rate is around 2,500-3,000 baht (US$1 = 43.8 baht), depending on the season. Prae Pan is committed to paying their weavers a fair price, in comparison to the amount that other weavers get through sales to middlemen. The problem is to pay weavers a fair amount that covers both labour and material costs. For most weavers, investment in materials is always a risk and they often sell their work cheaply. At Prae Pan the ever-rising cost of raw materials is one factor in pricing woven products. Another factor is the number of days it takes the weaver to make the piece, and this depends on the degree of difficulty, size, design, and creativity involved. Other considerations for pricing include an amount that goes to management in the village groups and Prae Pan, and awareness of market value.

Prae Pan weavers are paid monthly before the products are marketed. This means that Prae Pan is committed to paying monthly salaries of about 35,000 baht per family for two hundred and fifty families. However, since the 1997 economic crisis sales have been decreasing and competition from weavers in other villages and areas has been increasing. The market for hand weaving has not expanded as much as the supply of woven products. Prae Pan tries to keep ahead of other groups by creating original products, but they find that some of these are copied and then sold more cheaply than at Prae Pan. Frequently buyers go for the less expensive products. But cheap prices do not support sustainable community wages.

As well as paying the weavers outright, Prae Pan puts 40 percent of net profit back into the organisation: 15 percent of sales goes to development work; 20 percent goes into a revolving fund for the store; and five percent goes to members’ welfare, for scholarships and medical care. Other weavers want to join Prae Pan, but the organisation cannot include more villages because it must guarantee work for existing members. The big problem is unsold stock (worth about two million baht). Unless Prae Pan can increase sales, continuing to meet the monthly quota for each weaver is an uncertainty.

NGOs have worked with weavers’ organisations to teach business skills. There has been extensive training in basic skills such as, reading, writing, maths, and accounting. But it is very hard for people to learn and apply these skills and to manage a business on their own. There are also many problems to solve in working together. Prae Pan is particularly concerned about what will happen when they no longer have outside funding. Recognising the need to create and sustain a viable enterprise, Prae Pan (as many other community artisan enterprises) is concerned about how to make new products and reach new markets.

Although there are only a few consultants in Thailand who work with NGOs and community groups on product design and marketing, weavers in Prae Pan have benefited from excellent training in natural dyeing, weaving techniques, and design. Designers from abroad have also given advice on product development, derived from authentic Isaan weaving designs and targeted for markets in Bangkok and overseas. Prae Pan’s woven products are mostly sold in Bangkok and to dealers who sell to Japan and Europe.

Weaving and Quality of Life

Weaving in the village is considered basic to human life. While weaving brings in important cash to pay for children to go to secondary school, I was also told that the work of weaving in the villages could not be compared with quality of life. Speaking about women in her village, Pun said, “They love to weave and they want to continue. It is important to weave to keep the knowledge. In former times the value was not related to sales, but to use by families, especially for marriages and ceremonies.”

Dyes and patterns are now different for commercial products, but weavers still do both kinds of weaving: commercial and traditional. Pun prepared for her own marriage for one year, weaving a sarong for her husband, a skirt for herself, a pillow, mattress cover and silk shirts for her mother and father, and a pillow, skirt and mattress for grandmother. Weaving is a preparation for marriage and family. Pun said, “When there is no weaving there is no preparation time for marriage. If a girl doesn’t weave she has to buy the cloth that must be given to her husband at marriage. Now girls often buy cheap synthetic manufactured cloth from the store. The question remains: will weaving continue to be central to the quality of life and sustainability of village economies in the future? Will the next generation weave?” According to Pun, daughters who go in for further education do not weave, but otherwise they will learn. If they love it they will weave; but they may not want to.

References

   1. Local Weaving Development Project (WAYANG), 1995, ‘Weaving for Alternatives’, Nutcha Publishing Co Ltd, Thailand.
   2. Prae Pan brochure

Source: ALU Issue No. 38, January - March 2001