-By Pratyasha sarkar
Betty Nabi is employing her 60 years of experience to weave traditional bags inside a complex in the nation’s capital of Papua New Guinea.
A group of women who specialise in deftly tying plant fibres together to create the capacious pouches known as bilums, a symbol of Indigenous pride, are housed in the upscale workshop in Port Moresby.
The word bilum, which translates to “womb” in the regional Tok Pisin language, refers to the women who are giving the useful handwoven bags new life and introducing them to a global market in exchange for a reliable pay in a nation where about 40% of the population lives below the poverty line.
“You can put everything inside,” remarked Nabi, a weaver at Bilum & Bilas, who is 70 years old and receives a monthly salary of 1,000 Kina ($285), or around 50% more than the local minimum wage.
