Get to know: Novieta Tourisia, botanical textile artist

For our first The Creative Refresh, Novi was one of our creative mentors. She creates textile art by fusing indigenous wisdom, artisanal craftsmanship, and sustainable innovation under the name of Cinta Bumi Artisans. Novi works with eco printing, bark cloth and plant dyes to create her wearable art. We sat down with Novi to ask her a few questions about how she got to Ubud and her creative process.

What inspired you to build Cinta Bumi Artisans and how did it start?

Tourism is my background. I was born, grew up, and worked in Jakarta as a tour program manager until 2009. Then I decided to move Bali since I really need something new in my life. At that time, I had an opportunity to work at Green School for a year and then the Odyssey Institute. My husband had a project to build a school for women in Poso, The Mosintuwu Institute, and we were both invited to Poso. The Mosintuwu Institute is a grassroots community organization whose members consist of Poso conflict survivors. At first, I thought I would come to a scary conflict area but it all changed when I arrived. Who knew that that would be the beginning of Cinta Bumi Artisans.

I was introduced to the Founder of the Mosintuwu Institute and asked to make a tourism program. So I stayed there 3 months to collect information with people there. One day, a man, who is now our artisans coordinator, took me to the rice fields where I could hear sound of hammering. It was in Lembah Bada, part of the National Park of Lore Lindu. I was so surprised seeing the women making ranta (barkcloth). The man said that I was so lucky because there were less than 10 people who could still do that.

They told me that they were making cloth for a ceremony and sometimes they make it for government tourism exhibitions too. But I’d never seen anything like this before, so I asked if I could buy a meter of textile to make something.

At that time, I travelled to Poso and Bali every 2 months. I usually stayed longer in Poso. So I made a bag fro ranta and even colored a part of it using natural dyes. When they saw the bag, they didn’t believe it was made from their ranta. So I proposed to work together with them - it was totally their decision to form the partnership. It’s their tradition, they do it from generation to generation, and I am just a women from a different background who fell in love with indigenous craftsmanship.

I encouraged myself to join the Pasar-Pasaran event in Ubud in 2016, officially launching the brand. For a year, we were focuses only on barkcloth until we faced a challenge. We had been working with 4 villages in Lembah Bada who always planted and harvested sustainably. Cinta Bumi Artisans always takes it in turn to source the barkcloth from different villages so that the trees have time to grow the bark back. It takes months to grow 40-50 meter per village per season. For a piece of 1x1 meter, the women work for 2 weeks.

However, the problem is most of the people don’t want to replant the trees. Especially the young generations. They tend to choose to work for the palm oil and mining companies because of the fast money they can get. I think that it would be really good for them replant, to take care of the trees, and maybe someday they can revive the barkcloth tradition and manage it for their economic and cultural sustainability. The paper mulberry tree (the barkcloth tree) was used to be endemic, even in Bali, but because of the clove plantations that massively established in Bali, they become rare. So the replanting is still the issue.

Cinta Bumi Artisans’ framework is based on everything made from the natural resources of Indonesia, on artisanal craftsmanship. For me, craft is everything you make with hands. I adore indigenous craftsmanship.

There are 4 types of plant sources that I use in the process: my dyeing garden, kitchen waste, roadside windfall, and waste from weddings. All are tropical leaves easily found here in Bali and Indonesia. Sometimes, the leaves surprise me with the medicinal benefits they have. It’s like making a healing cloth. So I wanted to develop and apply this to the eco-printing project. Now I am still exploring the possibility of using peace silk, which I found being produced in Jogja. The pea silk is made sustainably from the silk worm but no harm is inflicted in the process. Instead of boiling the cocoon right away, they wait for the silkworms to turn into butterflies first. Although I am not vegan, I always choose to be responsible with what I do and what I consume.

What is your next project?

Cinta Bumi Artisans will soon launch Naluri Botanica, a collection using peace silk and barkcloth. Sometimes people call it cassava silk as the silkworms eat the cassava leaves. Naluri Botanica integrates the indigenous craftsmanship (barkcloth) with the contemporary art and natural dyeing (eco print). The products will vary, including bags, accessories, jewelry, etc. The difference with Cinta Bumi Artisans will be the medium. I am still exploring using the remnants of barkcloth and making it into jewelry.

Through the materials that I use for Naluri Botanica, I would like to encourage artists, designers, basically everyone, to know that Indonesia’s textile traditions include more than batik and ikat weaving.

What 3 events do you really like and why?

One is the event that I really want to attend one day, the Folk Art Market in Santa Fe. It is a festival especially for indigenous cultural art around the world. I wish I could bring all the women from Poso there to exhibit their work with barkcloth.

The second one is TEDx. I used to attend the one in Jakarta and I really hope I can attend the one in Ubud. I love that the event gathers a lot of speakers from different background which I think is what we need as a person to grow- to listen and see other perspectives and experiences. From me personally, to not just meet with other textile artists, but also people from other fields to broaden my views.

The third one is the biennial Festival Panen Raya Nusantara (PARARA) in Jakarta. They present entrepreneurial products from various communities and indigenous peoples around Indonesia. These products are the result of long collaboration between entrepreneurs, communities and creative workers. The event aims to provide basic information about the importance of local products made by local communities to its visitors. It puts the spotlight on the value of a community’s struggle in producing products and safeguarding the natural environment where the products are produced.