Ibu Sumanti Anton - Pengrajin Anyaman (Bahasa Indonesia)

A documentary film about the Dayak craftswoman Sumanti Anton in North Kalimantan, Indonesia
by Margrit Linder, 2018.
Sumanti Anton, lives on the island of Borneo in the village Long Layu in the mountainous area of Krayan, North Kalimantan.
Sumanti Anton is married with three sons. As a farmer and housewife she has little time to plait but she plaits every spare minute. She sometimes forgets to cook! Then her husband, Pak Armi Yudan, a teacher in the village, takes over with the cooking and washing.
This film shows how Sumanti plaits the lining of a traditional sun hat from pandan leaves and the bottom from rattan of a bamboo basket. She talks about how she started plaiting with an old woman in her village. Later, she visited training workshops organized by the church and other programs. She now has lots of orders from locals in her village, from the church which is running a Dayak Handy Craft shop in Malinau and other institutions. With the money she buys household goods and supports her family.
Sumanti harvests food plants in the forest and rattan fruits to make a red dye to paint bamboo and rattan. This is shown in a training workshop by the church. Her mother-in-law makes strings out of fibres. Her sister-in-law makes a stove out of clay and ash. Her husband and her father are building the kitchen. She has become a role model and her friends in the village have started to use natural dyes and natural materials once again. Sumanti dreams of going abroad one day.