IT was payday for Kukot Karom. The Mah Meri weaver had just received RM187.20 from the sale of her bujum (betel) pouches, bookmarks and other handwoven crafts.

With her earnings, it was time to buy food for the family. As she headed out of a wooden pavilion at Kampung Sungai Bumbon on Pulau Carey, Selangor, where other Orang Asli weavers like her had spent the day peddling their wares, an itinerant grocery van arrived. Kukot spent RM6 on some vegetables.

On her old bicycle, she cycled some 2km to the grocery store. There she bought a 10kg bag of rice, a pair of slippers, coffee powder, soap and other miscellaneous items. 

“Soap is expensive,” said the 55-year-old as she surveyed the different brands on the shelf. A bar of Dettol soap is RM3.80 and will be shared among her family of six. It will only last a week.

Kukot is one of many indigenous artisans with the Tompoq Topoh Mah Meri Women’s “First Weave” Project, established in 2005 to preserve traditional weaving.

“Tompoq” in the Mah Meri language means “the start of a weave”, while “topoh” refers to an interlocking mat pattern. Together, the name Tompoq Topoh translates as “the start of a collaborative effort”.

The collective was started with the help of civil society group  Centre for Orang Asli Concerns and non-profit Gerai OA. It began with 17 members and the number of artisans has swelled to at least 50 now.

Between the third and last week of each month, these Mah Meri weavers from the five Orang Asli villages in Pulau Carey – Kampung Sungai Bumbon, Kampung Sungai Judah, Kampung Sungai Kurau, Kampung Kepau Laut and Kampung Rambai – gather at the wooden pavilion in Kampung Sungai Bumbon to trade their products with Gerai OA.

Gerai OA is the first social enterprise to work with Mah Meri artisans and other Orang Asli and Orang Asal communities from all over Malaysia. They buy crafts made by Malaysia’s indigenous communities and sell them at pop-up stalls.

Founded by researcher Reita Rahim in 2004, Gerai OA pays artisans 100% of the money collected from sales. 

Between 50% and 60% is paid upfront to the artisans for their products and the balance is paid upon sale.

Most Mah Meri women weave to supplement the household income. Their men work in the surrounding area doing odd jobs in the oil palm plantations on Pulau Carey or in low-wage jobs in factories nearby. 

What little Kukot earns from her weaving is crucial to the family. Her husband does not work as he is mentally ill.

Her son Kamarul Ramat, 23, works as a cleaner at the Melawati Palace in Putrajaya and brings home about RM900 a month. Her daughter, Pija, also makes some money from weaving and making stick brooms from oil palm leaves. Pija’s husband does odd jobs around the area. Another daughter, who is hearing impaired, also helps in the weaving.

The amount Pija earns every month from making stick brooms is a paltry RM10 to RM20, as she sells brooms to middlemen for 50 sen each. Kukot’s skill at weaving is thus crucial to the family.

It is a hand-to-mouth existence. Kamarul who travels daily to Putrajaya by company transport said their collective earnings could sustain them for a month and most of it was spent on groceries.

The family also has a small vegetable patch and forages around the area for wild vegetables.

Weaving by kerosene lamp

Weaving is a lifeline and the only source of income for another Mah Meri woman, single mother Rita anak Uju.

The 44-year-old mother of four has just borrowed RM1,300 to pay for an electricity pole and meter for her house, which was donated last year and is powered by solar panels that lasts only an hour each night.

For the rest of the night, she relies on a kerosene lamp while she weaves. Weaving is done only in the early morning or night when the air is damp so that the pandanus strips stay soft. The midday heat makes the strips brittle.

“I have to borrow money for the pole. (According to Tenaga Nasional) if there are more than two poles needed to reach my house, I have to pay for each subsequent one,” said Rita who earned RM176.50 from her crafts this month.

“I was only asked to get an acknowledgement letter (surat pengesahan) from the Department of Orang Asli Development for my application to have electricity,” said Rita, who is still waiting for power supply to her house.

Like Kukot, Rita goes shopping for groceries and supplies on payday. She brings along a plastic bottle to buy kerosene. A litre costs RM3.80 and it will last her a week. 

Rita hesitated at a tin of sardines because it was a bigger tin and costs more. She caved in when the shopkeeper told her that he had run out of the smaller tins.

Asked how she managed with so little money, she said: “I get vegetables from the surrounding bushes and my brother will give me some fish or shellfish when he goes fishing. Sometimes, my mother will have some food for me.”

Pulau Carey is in Selangor, Malaysia’s richest state, and while basic infrastructure like electricity and piped water is available to most Orang Asli there, there are still a few who do not have these utilities.

Like Rita, Suhaini Asol, 44, borrowed RM1,700 to pay for a pole and meter three years ago. She is still paying for the loan which she took from a friend.

“I pay whenever I have extra money and it has been three years. There is still quite a bit left to pay,” said the mother of three.

Her husband earns about RM600 to RM700 a month working at an oil palm plantation, while she brings in about RM150 from her crafts. She also rears some chickens, from which she earns a few hundred ringgit every six months.

The Malaysian Insight has sent queries to Tenaga Nasional about its corporate social responsibility policies on waiving electricity pole charges and is waiting for a response.

Suhaini’s sister, Juliana, is also in the same situation. Having just built her own house with leftover building materials, Juliana borrowed RM3,000 from her brother-in-law to pay for water and electricity connections.

“RM2,000 went to the electric pole, meter, four light bulbs and two power points. We paid RM800 for the water connection but there is no meter,” said Juliana who earns about RM70 to RM80 from her crafts. Her husband makes about RM600 to RM700 monthly doing odd jobs.

Because there is no water meter, the house is not hooked up to the main water supply. Juliana takes water from the main pipe only at night so that the wet marks are not visible.

“We have been chasing the contractor for the water meter but he kept saying he will come soon.

“We don’t want to be accused of stealing water,” she said. – October 1, 2017.