Publicación seriada

THREE

TIM ES

BOILING

WAXING

WASHING IN WATER

WASHING IN WHITE S P IR IT

DRYING

DYEING

DRAWING A ROUGH

DESIGN BY PENCIL

u

D RYING

IRONING + CHECKING

PACKING + MAILING

FINAL WASH IN

WASHING MACHINE

F i g u r e 3-3: Fourteen year old apprentice lnawintji workiig on her batik, using her own canting.

3. 4 W o r k i n g e n v i r o n m e n t

The batik work is carried out in the Craft Room. The ( ’raft Room is located in a central part of t he community at the foot of a small rocky hill. The building is a dj ac ent to t he main community facilities such as the council building, post office, bank, store and pre-school. Inside, the Craft, Room is divided into several sections. Th e building itself is of concrete. During waxing, women sit on cushions on the floor, a lt hough this working position itself does not bother them. In summer, the building is air-conditioned so t h a t it is easier to use heated wax inside the building. However, in winter, since t here is no heating except the frying-pans for the wax, the women find it too cold to sit on the concrete floor to work. The dyeing and washing area does not have good drainage and women often have to stand in a pool of wat er with dye in it. Before boiling the material, collecting enough firewood to heat up a drum- full of water causes problems due to the lack of firewood near the community.

In spite of the conditions described above, the (Taft Room offers a very convenient envir onment for mothers whose babies or small children need attention dur ing the day. When they work mothers can spread blankets near them for the babies to lie on. There are always some women working in the workshop so a baby gets enough att en t ion . Since the Craft Room is located close to the pre-school, children can come in to see their mothers when they want. At the same time, when a child s ta r ts to cry in pre-school, somebody can come and ask the mother to come over. In this way, small babies and children do not seem to provide a major obstacle in retaining empl oyment in the Craft Room. This freedom does not seem to be common in other craft employment in Aboriginal communities. Stanley mentions t hat in the Tiwi Birna Wear industry, women leave the job when they have their babies (Stanley, 1983:24). Similarly, in Ernabella, employment at the school, the c ommu ni ty office or store does not provide such a convenient environment as the Cr a ft Room for child minding, because they have a fixed working time and place. Consequentl y, the proportion of women w ho have small children seems to be higher in batik work t han in ot her types of empl oyment in the community. During the first six m on th s of 1983. out of 24 women in the Craft Room, 15 of them had a child or children below school age, or were pregnant . One woman had to leave a book-keeping j ob at the c ommunit y office because her five year old daughter kept interrupting her work. Subsequently, she started to work on batik and mentioned to me t h at she w'as much happier to lx1 with her d a ughte r for a longer time.

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F i g u r e 3-4: Angkunia working in the Craft Hoorn whilst looking after her two year old d aughter Davina.

16 arc u n d e r t h i r t y years old. W o m e n wh o belong to this category have small chi l dren a n d q u i t e a lot of t ime is spent, on child b e a ri ng and rearing. On the o t h er h an d , t he w o m e n who arc older t h a n 35 have finished t hei r m a j o r chi ld-be ari ng t ask. Th ey m i g h t still have small children, but t hei r eldest child is a l re ady big enough t o look af t e r t h ei r younger siblings. W o m e n in t he l at ter g r o u p ha ve al re ady a c c u m u l a t e d a lot of experience on batik and ar e ca pabl e of produc i ng good qual i t y work a t a s t e a d y pace.

As is s hown in Figur e 3-6.a. out of 24 bat ik workers, 19 ar e m a r r i e d and t hree ar e u n m a r r i e d m o t h e r s in t hei r teens. One of t h e single wome n is Do r o t h y who is forty ye a r s old. She had been t r ai n e d in cr aft work since she was sixteen and is now' one of t h e t o p bat ik workers. Figur e 3-6.b show's t h a t except for t h e t wo single w o m en , all t h e worke rs have children at pr e s ent or ar e p r e g n a n t . T h u s , it is possible t o say t hat t h e m aj o r i t y of t he workers al re ad y have family responsibilities. Figur e 3-6.c reveals a different aspect of t he i r family responsibility. Out of 24 w'omen, 15 w o m e n do not h a ve a h u sb a n d wi th a regular i ncome living wi t h t he m . Al t h ou g h t he economi c s u p p o r t s ys t em in Abori gi nal society e x t e n d s much wi der t h a n a nucl ear family un i t , t h o s e w o m e n ' s basic economic r esponsi bi l i ty to t he family, especially t o chi l dren, is m u c h heavier t h a n t hos e whose h u s b a n d s receive regular incomes.

A n o t h e r c ha r a c te r i s t i c as pe ct of bat i k wor ke r s can be found in re c r u i t me n t . All t h e b at i k wor ke rs are long t e r m res idents of t h e c o m m u n i t y . F u r t h e r m o r e , close ki nshi p rel at i ons , especially m o t h e r - d a u g h t e r re l a t ions hi ps seem to be an effective m e a n s of r ecr ui ti ng new' w'orkers. Out of 24, t here are four uni t s of m ot he r - d a u g h t e r s ) a n d one classificatory m o t h e r - d a u g h t e r relationship. C ons equent ly, four out of six t e e n ag e girls have t hei r m o t h e r s wo r k i n g on batik. T h r e e women o u t of five in t he age g r o up 20 to 24 also belong t o thi s category. T h u s , it is likely t h a t t he y o u n g e r wor ke rs were r e crui t ed t o bat ik work p a r tl y because t hei r m ot h e r s wrere w'orking t h e r e originally. Of course, t hi s is n ot t h e only factor affecting t he t y p e of e m p l o y m e n t one gets as a m e m b e r of t he c o m m u n i t y , but m o t h e r - d a u g h t e r pai rs in t h e s a m e j o b are not seen in o t h er e mp l o y m en t in Erna bel la, except in the st ore, whi ch is basically run by m e m b e r s of one family. At t he C ra f t Hoorn, m o t h e r s and d a u g h t e r s usually sit close to each o t h e r and t hey come t o w'ork and leave for home t o g e t h e r .

T r a i n i n g of y oung wor ke r s in batik skills seems t o be done informally by t he s eni or m e m b e r of their closest kin and by o t h er workers. A case 1 observed w'as

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