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Living Cloth:
Bark, Looms, and Gender in Indonesian Textile History
This talk is free.
Registration (with a $10 refundable deposit) is required.
Click here to register
Textiles have long had important artistic, ritual, and economic roles across the Indonesian archipelago. This talk traces the history of two foundational textile technologies – barkcloth and loom weaving – and the changing practices and meanings associated with them.
Although women were often the principal bearers of technical expertise and ritual knowledge, textile production was never an exclusively female domain. Men and women contributed in different ways to making, commissioning, and wearing cloth. Drawing on examples in ACM’s galleries, Barbara Watson Andaya explores these gendered relationships and the remarkable diversity of Indonesian textiles, from protective garments and ceremonial wrappings to cloths that record genealogies.
About the speaker
Barbara Watson Andaya is Emerita Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a specialist in the history of Southeast Asia, particularly the Malay–Indonesian archipelago. In 2026, she received the Association for Asian Studies Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies. Her publications include The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia and, with Leonard Andaya, A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia. She is currently preparing a regional study of gender and sexuality in Southeast Asia.
About the moderator
Leonard Y. Andaya is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a specialist in the history of Indonesia and Malaysia. His publications include Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka and, with Barbara Watson Andaya, A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia and A History of Malaysia. He is an editor of The New Cambridge History of Southeast Asia.
Image: Jacket. Borneo, Kutai, 19th century. Bark - cloth (fuya), printed European cotton , trade beads. Asian Civilisations Museum, G-0101
Ngee Ann Auditorium
Asian Civilisations Museum
Ngee Ann Auditorium
Asian Civilisations Museum
Living Cloth:
Bark, Looms, and Gender in Indonesian Textile History
This talk is free.
Registration (with a $10 refundable deposit) is required.
Click here to register
Textiles have long had important artistic, ritual, and economic roles across the Indonesian archipelago. This talk traces the history of two foundational textile technologies – barkcloth and loom weaving – and the changing practices and meanings associated with them.
Although women were often the principal bearers of technical expertise and ritual knowledge, textile production was never an exclusively female domain. Men and women contributed in different ways to making, commissioning, and wearing cloth. Drawing on examples in ACM’s galleries, Barbara Watson Andaya explores these gendered relationships and the remarkable diversity of Indonesian textiles, from protective garments and ceremonial wrappings to cloths that record genealogies.
About the speaker
Barbara Watson Andaya is Emerita Professor of Asian Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a specialist in the history of Southeast Asia, particularly the Malay–Indonesian archipelago. In 2026, she received the Association for Asian Studies Award for Distinguished Contributions to Asian Studies. Her publications include The Flaming Womb: Repositioning Women in Early Modern Southeast Asia and, with Leonard Andaya, A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia. She is currently preparing a regional study of gender and sexuality in Southeast Asia.
About the moderator
Leonard Y. Andaya is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and a specialist in the history of Indonesia and Malaysia. His publications include Leaves of the Same Tree: Trade and Ethnicity in the Straits of Melaka and, with Barbara Watson Andaya, A History of Early Modern Southeast Asia and A History of Malaysia. He is an editor of The New Cambridge History of Southeast Asia.
Image: Jacket. Borneo, Kutai, 19th century. Bark - cloth (fuya), printed European cotton , trade beads. Asian Civilisations Museum, G-0101
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