#SaveWeavingSaveLife

Yayasan TORAJAMELO aims to cut poverty issue on the rural women by focusing on back-strap weavers who live across Indonesia. So that they can make money by staying home and keep the family together.

There has never been a research on the number of back-strap loom weavers in Indonesia. However, most of more than 300 ethnic groups who live in Indonesia can weave, especially in the poorest and most remote areas, where there are few alternative income opportunities. As mentioned in Toraja Melo’s book “Untannun Kameloan-Textiles of Toraja, Mamasa, Mamuju, Rongkong-Sulawesi, Indonesia”, hand-woven textile is part of the ceremonies and life rituals of the Indonesian ethnic groups. However, with the pressure of the modern world, this high art heritage is dying off.

To address these poverty and gender issues, Toraja Melo’s vision is a better life for the weavers and the preservation and rejuvenation of Indonesian hand-woven textile art and culture.

Toraja Melo started working in 2008 in Toraja. Toraja Melo was legalized as both a Foundation and a Limited Liability in 2010. Since then, we have been focusing our activities more on developing the weavers communities. Currently we work in Toraja & Mamasa in Sulawesi island and in Adonara & Lembata in Nusa Tenggara Timur with a community of around 1,000 women weavers. However, starting 2018, as the communities are already more stable as suppliers, Toraja Melo is now ready to focus to scale up the business side.