The situation was dire for local weavers in 2009 before Habi: the Philippine Textile Council was put up in 2009. “The weavers were in their late 50s and 60s, and the traditional craft had already skipped a generation or two,” recalled council director Rambie Lim. The prospect was so dim that elders no longer felt like handing down the dying trade to the younger generation, she added.
The sorry plight of weavers reflected that of the whole handloom industry, said Habi president Adelaida Lim who believes that weaving “is an important tradition that should be protected and shouldn’t be lost.”She added: “[It is] through textiles that we know what it is that we have, what our talents are. It also shows how we are different from other people in Southeast Asia and even in the world.”Habi’s mission is to give recognition to the craft and talent of local weavers and encourage them to become entrepreneurs. Composed of 75 volunteers, the group supports various weaving communities across the country and trains the spotlight on local textiles through a number of initiatives.
There’s the annual Likhang Habi Market Fair, where weavers are given a venue to showcase and sell their handwoven products. The group also published three books on Philippine weaving—“Rara: The Art and Tradition of Mat Weaving”; “Habi: A Journey Through Philippine Handwoven Textiles” and “Weaving Ways: Filipino Style and Techniques.”When the pandemic hit and lockdowns were imposed, Habi produced two documentaries to communicate the group’s vision and mission despite limitations on travel and mobility. “Threaded Traditions: Textiles of Panay Island” was done in 2020, with the director giving instructions from Manila and the executive producer and the videographer filming in Panay Island. “We would communicate online on Zoom calls, and somehow got the documentary done. It premiered at SOAS, the School of Oriental and African Studies, at the University of London,” Lim said.
Habi’s second documentary, “Threaded Traditions: Ikat of the Cordillera” premiered in October, a day before the Likhang Habi Market Fair held in Makati. The 30-minute documentary was shown at the Ayala Museum. Because previous lockdowns had prevented Habi from holding the fair onsite, the group strengthened its online presence, and managed to establish a virtual Habi shop. In 2021, it was able to organize two online fairs, on Mothers’ Day and Independence Day.
Touch still the best pitch
Going online presented new challenges, the most daunting being the delivery of orders given that Habi’s vendors were from all over the country, Rambie said. “But there was a lot of interaction, which is always good,” she added.While Habi has been doing well during these past two years, council secretary Mia Villanueva admitted that the onsite or physical fair brought better sales and provided a better experience. “The nature of our product is tactile so you have to touch it, you have to feel the texture of the weave to know what it is all about.”
Even with the success of Habi’s initiatives, the group is constantly looking for other ways to help the local weaving industry. Its latest advocacy is encouraging Filipino farmers to grow cotton which is not locally available and has to be imported. Habi has even pledged to buy the cotton that farmers have harvested, Lim said. “In fact we have several tons stockpiled somewhere in Antique, waiting to be spun,” she added.
Although the group has managed to create a demand for cotton by convincing weavers that it is a better, more sustainable option to polyester, Habi soon found itself in a bind. “The government has set up spinning facilities but they’re not fully functional for whatever reason,” Lim said, adding that the government had spent millions on the weaving facilities.
“So now there’s this demand for [ocally produced] cotton but there’s no [supply] because we’re unable to spin it. The cotton is in stock but cannot be spun. We need help from the government to mobilize those [spinning] machines,” she said.
Despite the hurdle, Habi continues to help weavers in other aspects of the trade—from marketing to accounting and costing. “We have this workshop on how [weavers can] post better pictures on their Instagram or Facebook pages,” Villanueva said. “It may be simple, but it means a lot as it will enable them to build their business from the ground up. It’s all about helping local weavers get to a place where they can be at par with everybody else in the industry.” INQ
