Presenters & Participants
Background on Presenters and Participants
(updated 13 May 2009)
BRUNEI
Dr. Siti Norkhalbi Haji Wahsalfelah (PhD, University of Western Australia) is Deputy Director and Lecturer at the Academy of Brunei Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam. One of her research interests focuses on traditional woven textiles in Brunei Darussalam. She published Textiles and Identity in Brunei Darussalam with White Lotus Press in Bangkok (2007). She has presented papers in conferences and written articles for local and international release. snhw@apb.ubd.edu.bn
CAMBODIA
Ms. Gillian Green (MA, Australian National University) is an Honorary Associate in the Department of Art History and Film Studies, University of Sydney. In the past fifteen years, she has studied Cambodian textile and weaving traditions and has lectured and published widely on the subject. She is the author of Traditional Cambodian Textiles (2003) and Pictorial Cambodian Textiles (2008), both published by River Books, Bangkok. gillians@ozemail.com.au
Mr. Deth Sovattha is Deputy Director of Plastic Art and Cultural Handicrafts. c/o virakk2000@yahoo.com, virakk@hotmail.com
Mr. Seng Sopharith (Baccalaureate in Art, Faculty of Plastic Arts in Ceramics, University of Fine Arts) is Deputy Director of Human Resources at the Artisans d’Angkor Co., Ltd and Founding President of Khmer Arts & Crafts Association. From 1998 to 2001, he was responsible for the pilot project (Replic) that oversaw quality and quantity silk production and their construction of rural workshops. Since 1995, he has held senior government posts in silk production. Mr. Seng, whose mother tongue is Khmer, is fluent in French. hr4@artisansdangkor.com
GUAM
Dr. Donald Rubinstein is Professor of Anthropology and Micronesian Studies at the University of Guam. He has conducted long-term anthropological fieldwork in Micronesia, with a concentration in the Yap Outer Islands and Chuuk in the western Caroline Islands, on a variety of topics related to social organization, child socialization, medical anthropology, adolescent suicide, cultural change, and arts. He has particular interest in textile arts and has published articles and curated exhibitions on Micronesian textile arts. rubinste@uog9.uog.edu
INDONESIA
Mrs. Asmoro Damais (born in Amsterdam 20 May 1948) is the daughter of a French historian and a Javanese mother. She grew up in Jakarta in a household deeply involved with culture. In the early 1970s, she began collecting batiks from the north coast of Java and creating a range of garments and interior design products that used batik and other local fabrics for a shop that remains active today. Ms. Damais has delivered numerous presentations in different cities on the importance of textiles and its place in Indonesian culture. asmorodamais@hotmail.com
Mr. Don Hasman is a journalist by training and a cultural anthropologist by avocation. He has researched and written about a number of little known indigenous groups in the vast archipelago of Indonesia with the intent to making their heritage known to the outside world. One of his strong interests is the Baduy community in Banten province, West Java. He has spent a better part of eight years visiting, researching and documenting Baduy life and their customs, and in the process earning their trust and confidence. Contact through Mrs. Mariah Waworuntu mariahw@cbn.net.id
Dr. Ananda Moersid (PhD, Anthropology, University of Indonesia, 2007) is a professor and an interior and furniture design consultant. She is the head of the Research and Development Center at Faculty of Visual Arts and Design, Jakarta Institute of the Arts (Institut Kesenian Jakarta – IKJ) and a lecturer on the History of Visual Arts at the Jakarta Institute of the Arts (Institut Kesenian Jakarta – IKJ) and at the Department of Architecture at the University of Indonesia. Contact through Mrs. Mariah Waworuntu mariahw@cbn.net.id
Ms. Lesley Pullen (MA, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) is currently an independent researcher and lecturer. Lesley was born in Medan Indonesia and lived the majority of her life in Asia. She moved to London in 1997, completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Asian Art at SOAS and Sotheby’s in 1998, and worked as Programme Director at Asia House until 2000. She has conducted extensive fieldwork research focusing on traditional textiles, since 2005 in Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Bhutan, Nagaland and Sarawak. She was awarded her MA in Art and Archaeology by SOAS in 2008. Lesley will be lecturing on Indonesian textiles on the BA, Postgraduate Diploma and MA programmes at SOAS in 2009. Lesley has acquired a range of textiles and jewellery pieces which she employs as a teaching collection. pullen.london@btinternet.com
Mr. Midian Sefnat (Merdi) Sihombing (Bunka School of Fashion Indonesia, Esmod Indonesia and FSR, Art Faculty, at IKJ) is an entrepreneur and fashion designer who uses traditional Indonesian textiles. He worked as a design assistant to Chossy Latu and became design and fashion consultant for the children’s magazine Dream Magazine. He is largely credited for the revival of Ulos weaving in Batak area, Sumatra following a government grant. He has also encouraged other traditional weaving communities in Sumatra to use traditional practices and patterns alongside modern innovations. Contact through Mrs. Mariah Waworuntu mariahw@cbn.net.id
LAOS
Ms. Taykeo Sayavongkhamdy (Economic Sciences at the Sorbonne, Paris, 1975-77) is Director of the Taykeo Textiles Gallery. She began collecting antique textiles from Laos in 1987 and exhibited these in Nara, Nigata, and Kyoto. To fulfill Japanese orders, she learned how they were woven and dyed, developing new dyes in the process. While her weaver mother aspired that her daughters attain academic degrees, Mrs. Sayavgkhamdy started a business with five looms and today runs twenty-six. Throughout her career and in her travels to world expositions in Hannover, Nagoya, and Santa Fe, her objectives have always been to keep Lao weaving traditions alive and train younger weavers to appreciate and know how these can be reproduced. taykeo@hotmail.com
Mrs. Taykeo Sayavongkhamdy is Director of the Taykeo Textiles Gallery. taykeo@hotmail.com
MALAYSIA
Mr. Sulaiman Abdul Ghani (graduate of surface design and weaving, Rochester Institute of Technology, New York) is Associate Professor and senior lecturer at the Faculty of Arts and Design, University Technology MARA in Malaysia. He was Director of the Batik International Research and Design Access (BIRDA) from 2005 to 2007. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Terengganu International Design Excellence (TIDE) in Terengganu, Malaysia in 2008. He is an enthusiastic collector, researcher, and advisor on Asian traditional textiles and has represented Terengganu, Malaysia through lectures and presentations on Malaysian designs in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Nice, Lyon, Paris and Barcelona. amangarnee@tide.com.my
Dr. Siti Zainon Ismail (PhD, Arts Philosophy, University of Malaya, 1992) is a poet, artist, and professor of Malay culture. After obtaining a degree in fine arts (ASRI, Indonesia, 1974), she pursued an Honours Degree in the Arts (UKM, Malaysia, 1980). Dr. Siti has written several books, including Getaran Jalur dan Warna (Fajar Bakti, 1985), Rekabentuk Kraftangan Melayu Tradisi (DBP, 1986), Lambang Sari Gamelan Terengganu with Harun Mat Piah (UKM, 1986), Percikan Seni (DBP, 1989), Malay Woven Textiles (DBP, 1997) and Pakaian Cara Melayu (Penerbit UKM, 2007). szi@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my; galerimelora@yahoo.com
Ms. Rahayu Ramdzan (BA, Textile Design, majoring in Fiber, Faculty of Arts and Design, University Technology MARA, Malaysia) was selected Young Designer by the Batik International Research and Design Access (BIRDA) from 2005 to 2007, when she promoted batik design and process throughout Malaysia. She was appointed Assistant Manager of the Terengganu International Design Excellence (TIDE), which has focused on contemporary batik design and weaving since January 2008. She promoted Terengganu Batik during the Terengganu Showcase held in Lyon and Paris during March 2008.
Ms. Suraya Shaari is a graduate in Textile design, majoring in Fiber from Faculty of Arts and Design, University Technology MARA, Malaysia. After graduating in 2005 from UiTM, she work with BIRDA (Batik International Research & Design Access). In 2006, she won a major award in Piala Seri Endon, a national batik competition. For the past three years, she has actively been researching on Malaysian traditional batiks. Currently she is working with Terengganu International Design Excellence (TIDE) as an Assistant Manager specializing in contemporary batik designs. She is also an assistant researcher at the Museum Textile, Malaysia. suraya_212@yahoo.com
Edric Ong (BA in Architecture from Singapore University) is President of Society Atelier Sarawak (Arts and Crafts Society of Sarawak, Malaysia), Vice President, World Crafts Council Asia Pacific, and immediate past president of the ASEAN Handicraft Promotion and Development Association (AHPADA). He has practiced as an architect for over 30 years and is a consultant to UNESCO and Jury member of UNESCO Seal of Excellence for Crafts. He has curated numerous textile and crafts exhibitions and given papers on these and on architectural conservation. He is author of two books on Iban textiles and Sarawak Style, the latter on the arts and crafts of Sarawak. He has been Convener for the biennial World Eco-Fiber and Textile (WEFT) Forum since1999 and received, among other international awards on textile, fashion, and crafts, the prestigious Aid to Artisans Advocate Award 2006 and Mercedes Benz/STYLO Heritage Award 2008.
MYANMAR
Mr. Thein Lwin (MA, Myanmar Language and Literature; Post Graduate Diploma in Archeology, P.G.D.A.) is Principal at the Field School of Archeology (Pyay), Department of Archeology, National Museum and Library, Ministry of Culture. DCICOCI@mptmail.net.mm; m.myanmarculture@gmail.com
Dr. Susan Conway is a Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. She was Adjunct Professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Parsons, New School University, New York. She has published numerous books on the Theravada Buddhist culture, arts and crafts of inland Southeast Asia, particularly north Thailand and the Shan States of Burma (Myanmar). She has contributed to books on textiles, art and archaeology for British Museum Press, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology, Denison Museum, Ohio and the James H.W. Thompson Foundation, Bangkok. She was curator of the highly acclaimed exhibition Power Dressing at the James H.W. Thompson Museum in Bangkok (2003). Her current research involves the material culture of Shan rituals. sc66@soas.ac.uk
Ms. Thint Thint (B.Sc in Physics) is Divisional Professor of Cottage Industry, Sounder Waving Industry in the Ministry of Cooperatives. She can be contacted through DCICOCI@mptmail.net.mm; m.myanmarculture@gmail.com
Ms. Shwe Shwe (M. Research, Library and Information Studies) is Assistant Director, Department of Archaeology, National Museum and Library, Ministry of Culture. DCICOCI@mptmail.net.mm ; m.myanmarculture@gmail.com
Mr. Zaw Myo Kyaw (BA in History) is Assistant Director in the Office of the Minister in the Ministry of Culture. DCICOCI@mptmail.net.mm; m.myanmarculture@gmail.com
PHILIPPINES
Dr. David B. Baradas is a social anthropologist and currently a member of the Committee on Intangible Heritage of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He completed his studies at the University of Chicago as a Fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation. He had been director of a number of museums in Manila and, for thirteen years, has been with the Executive Committee of the National Living Treasures Program. davidbaradas@yahoo.com
Ms. Yabing Dulo is a dyer of note, Ms. Helen Lacna and Ms. Maribeth Farnazo, are initiators of the Lamlifew Village Museum of Sitio Lamlifew, Malungon, Sarangani Province, Mindanao. Email through marianroces@aol.com
Atty. Cora C. Jacob (President of La Cora Creatives, Inc. and Cora Cares Foundation, Inc.) was a criminal lawyer turned internationally acclaimed handbag designer and businesswoman for three decades. She was recipient of the first Golden Shell Award from the Department of Trade and Industry. Her brand, Cora Jacobs Collection, is exported to 21 countries and has earned pride and honor for the Philippines. Her use of indigenous materials with leather and her passion for design and innovation have given her the sobriquet “Indigenous Genius”. Apart from penetrating the highly competitive world market, Cora Jacob has offered over the past 20 years, training and design consultancies to governments and private sectors. She has worked with UNESCO in promoting creativity in communities as a way of contributing to society and providing sustainable livelihood for the underserved and the artisans. cora.jacob@corajacobs.com or cora.jacob@corajacobs.com
Dr. Cherubim a. Quizon (PhD, Anthropology, State University of New York) is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Seton Hall University, New Jersey. Her dissertation on the ikat cloth of the Bagobo of Southern Mindanao was based both on multi-sited fieldwork in the Davao and Bagobo museum collections in the United States and Europe. She is best known for her work on Bagobo and B’laan textiles in From a rainbow’s varied hue: Textiles of the Southern Philippines (UCLA-Fowler Museum, 1998) and the display of Filipinos at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (Philippine Studies, 2004). Her recent publications include a chapter on the significance of abaca in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in Paths of Origins: Austronesian Heritage (Art Post Asia, 2009), Bagobo cognitive categories of costume versus dress (Ethnology, 2007) and an article on Southern Mindanao in the Encyclopedia of World Dress, Volume 4: South Asia and Southeast Asia (forthcoming from Berg). quizonch@shu.edu
Ms. Adelaida Lim cooks and writes. She raised two daughters in Baguio in Northern Luzon while creating Café By the Ruins, a landmark restaurant of that city. Also a filmmaker, she was awarded a FAMAS for her production design in a period piece movie. The eldest of nine other siblings, she grew up in a gregarious and active family that traveled to many parts of the world on airline trip passes. American missionaries are responsible for her education and formation as a rebel and advocate of the underdog. alone@mozcom.com
Marian Pastor Roces theorizes museum practice, clothing, identity politics, contemporary art institutions, and curatorship. She also works as a curator, involving conceptual and installation artists in social history museum projects. As founding partner of TAO INC, a museum development corporation established in the Philippines, Pastor Roces works the intersection between curatorship and activism. TAO has established and redeveloped 7 major museums in the Philippines and curated two Philippine Pavilions for World Expos. In 2006, she convened an international conference on “The Politics of Beauty” with funding from the Prince Claus Fund of the Netherlands. She is presently undertaking doctoral research on the accelerated urbanization of Perth, Western Australia, with the Centre for Cultural Research of the University of Western Sydney. She is the author of the 1992 book Philippine Ancestral Weave and co-author of a work in progress: a comparative study of Philippine and Indonesian textiles.
Dr. Norma A. Respicio (PhD, Philippine Studies, University of the Philippines, 1999) is a Professor of Art Studies at the College of Arts and Letters of the University of the Philippines. Her research and publications have mostly been devoted to the study of the history and aesthetics of textile art traditions in Philippine communities as well as those of Japan, with particular focus on the traditions of Kyoto and Okinawa. She studied Late Heian-Kamakura Period Emakimono at Kyoto University, and conducted research on Japanese Textile Art History and Aesthetics under the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, the National Museum of Japanese History, and the Okinawa City University of Arts. She has began to expand her studies on the textiles of Southeast Asia. narespicio@yahoo.com
SINGAPORE
Mr. Randall Ee (BA, Arts/Humanities in Chinese History and Philosophy, a trained Graduate Gemologist from the Gemological Institute of America) is Curator at the Peranakan Museum and has worked at the Asian Civilisations Museum for over six years. He has curated two Peranakan exhibitions: Tok Panjang: The Peranakan Dining Experience and The Gilded Age, photos of Peranakan from the early twentieth century, as well as the permanent galleries in the newly-opened Peranakan Museum. Randall is Peranakan Chinese by birth from both sides of his family. Randall_EE@nhb.gov.sg
THAILAND
Ms. Linda S. McIntosh (MA, Southeast Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a PhD candidate in the Simon Fraser University in Canada. he has curated exhibitions and published on Southeast Asian textiles, arts, history, and cultures, including a manual n handicraft production in Laos. She is a consultant for museum collection management and textiles and is presently on the Board of Directors of the Thai Textile Society. mainbkk@gmail.com
Mr. Wattana Wattanapun (BFA, Painting, Silpakorn in Bangkok and MAE, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design). He has held visiting professorships at a number of academic institutes including Haverford College, Oberlin College, Rhode Island of Design, Simon Fraser University, and Watkins Institute. His work, held in numerous public and private collections around the world, incorporates traditional Thai motifs in a contemporary perspective and uses varied media including oil, acrylic, and gold leaf on paper. He is an academic consultant for the faculty of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University and the University of Technology Rajamangala Lanna, Chiang Mai. wwattana@loxinfo.co.th
TIMOR LESTE
Ms. Anne Finch is Chief Operating Officer of Fundasaun Alola (Alola Foundation) at P.O. Box 3 Dili, Timor Leste. ceo@alolafoundation.org; info@alolafoundation.org
Mrs. Cecilia Fonseca is Manager of the Economic Development Program of the Alola Foundation. She comes from a leading weaving family of the eastern region of Lautem and, in the past ten years, has worked in economic development projects throughout Timor Leste. She developed the business arm of the Alola Foundation, which today features a production and retail facility. Alola Foundation supports the continued production of woven cloth and the display and promotion of traditional pieces. It also aims to make a profit for weaver groups in Timor and creates employment through the sewing of other textile products. Cecilia works with weaving groups to document their spinning, dyeing, and weaving practices, explore livelihood for communities through their weaving, and ensure the preservation of Timorese culture.
VIETNAM
Dr. Michael C. Howard is Professor of International Studies at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada. He has conducted research and written extensively on the peoples of Southeast Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific. He is editor of the series Studies in the Material Cultures of Southeast Asia (White Lotus Press). His publications on Southeast Asian textiles include three volumes on the highland peoples of Vietnam co-authored with his wife, Kim Be Howard, Textiles of the Daic Peoples of Vietnam, Textiles of the Central Highlands of Vietnam and Textiles of the Highland Peoples of Northern Vietnam. He is also author of the two-volume Textiles of the Highland Peoples of Burma and editor of the book Bark-cloth in Southeast Asia. His most recent book on textiles is A World between the Warps: Southeast Asia’s Supplementary Warp Textiles. mhoward@sfu.ca
Dr. Than Phan (PhD, Ethnology, Leningrad Institute of Ethnology, former USSR) is Vice-Director of the Center for Vietnamese and Southeast Asia Studies in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University. His dissertation was on Cham dwellings in Vietnam. For over twenty-five years he was a Lecturer at the Vietnam National University and the University of Ho Chi Minh City. thanhphan54@gmail.com
Mrs. Phi Thu Mo was born and raised in My Nghiep village. At age sixteen, she had learned to weave and was using Cham textiles to support her family. She began to slowly gather information and became determined to restore the old patterns that would otherwise have disappeared. More than fifty years later, she looks back with pride at having trained over 250 workers in and outside her province. This resolve and her efforts have created many employment opportunities and preserved Cham weaving, a technology that has in part helped to foster and form their national character. Her words in translation: “I am very proud… to be here and exchange (ideas about) traditional textiles from different nations. I express my deep gratitude to the organizing committee that created (the) opportunity for Cham traditional textiles to be better (known) in the world.” lamnu_trami@yahoo.com
Ms. Luong Thanh Son (MA, Hanoi Cultural University) is Director of the Museum of Dak Lak Province. She took her undergraduate and masters studies at the Hanoi Cultural University and is an ethnologist and a socio-cultural anthropologist. She is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Culture and Arts Studies of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in Vietnam. Luongthanhson2005@yahoo.com
IRAN
Ms. Shahla Amini (MA, Art Research). Since 2001, she has lectured on elementary weaving and the history of the textile industry at the Art University’s Department of Textile Design and Print. She is a member of TWIST (an association of tablet weavers, international studies and techniques) and Brettchenwebertreffen (German tablet weavers organization). She has published in Iranian and American journals and researched on Persian decorative woven strips, tablet weaving in Iran, and Isfahan Traditional Textile Weaving. She has curated exhibitions and lectured on the techniques of Persian woven strips, traditional tablet weaving, and Persian women’s dress in Iran and Germany. mohammad1340@yahoo.com
