Women as authors
Women guide the work, receive credit and compensation, and decide what can be shared.
Returning to Mother’s Womb
To return is to care.
To care is to continue.
Kabeli la Kambu Ina begins with the women who hold Sumba’s weaving knowledge: in their hands, their memories and the time they give to each cloth.
The project brings weaving, oral storytelling and shared learning together. It seeks to give women the space and compensation to teach, create and decide how their knowledge is carried forward.
Our longer-term vision is Rumah Tenun: a physical home for an archive, studio, garden and cultural exchange. The first step is a consistent circle of women, learning together.
The values that hold us together
Knowledge in practice
Teaching, experimenting and documenting keep knowledge active across generations.
Land and cloth together
Natural-dye knowledge connects the weaving process with the plants and places that sustain it.
Everything that endures requires care.
The philosophy of Kabeli la Kambu Ina
The dream for Rumah Tenun
A place to come together.
We imagine a home where weaving, learning and everyday life belong together: a studio, a living archive, a garden and spaces for exchange. This image gives form to that dream. The first work is to build the relationships that will sustain it.
Discover the longer-term planThe people behind the project
Rooted here.
Connected through care.
Community & cultural continuity
Nensi Dwi Ratna
Nensi brings local relationships and weaving knowledge to the project, guiding its connection to women, place and cultural practice.
Storytelling & partnerships
Lindsay
Lindsay supports documentation, narrative development and the relationships that can help sustain the project.
About Sumba Harmony
Sumba Harmony is the umbrella collective behind this project. Its work is rooted in reciprocity, intergenerational learning and the belief that cultural continuity needs long-term care.
A future, built together.
Discover the first steps and the longer-term vision for Rumah Tenun.
Read the plan