Humans Of The Islands - Jaukae Kamel

Florence Jaukae Kamel

Bilum Fibre Artist

Goroka, Papua New Guinea

I am Florence Jaukae Kamel, I was born and raised in Goroka. I am a single mum with five children and I have 3 grandchildren.

My mother taught me how to weave and I started weaving when I was a small girl, like 6 or 7 years old. But I didn't take it very seriously. Then one day I was looking through an encyclopedia and I saw the carpet snake and I thought 'I really like those colours'. The carpet snake had a zigzag pattern which is more like the K K design we have here in some of the bilums in PNG. I thought, 'that will look nice for a small dress'. My ancestors have been using the bilum as a baby carrier and food carrier and also as a container craft.

I wanted to be different and I started making bilum dress/outfits. I come from a small town and whenever somebody is getting a haircut everyone will want to do the same. I did a couple of dresses and then everybody started doing it so then I wanted to be unique. So I went on ahead and created bilum ware which is for houseware and all the other bilum accessories and then I had the idea of working with it as a fine artist. Now I have many of my works around Australia, especially Australian Museum. And two of my pieces are out in Gallery of Modern Art. And I'm glad I've got a couple that have already been acquired by the Auckland Museum.

Photo credit: Ruth Choulai

Was it easy to reinvent this custom tradition into fashion wear?

Most of my country men and women, they think I was insane or something. They were like 'What's happened to Florence? What is she trying to do? Get in something that will carry a food and baby?' It is kastom (custom), It's hard, you can't do it (change custom). But I just did it. Everybody started thinking that I had gone insane but I wanted to prove them wrong and I had a dream that one day I will see my outfit go on the runway or the catwalk in a western country like maybe New York or England so that people will know that I am not insane.

Did that dream come true for you?

Yes, I did a Women Empowerment programme - which allowed me to work with design students from Parsons school of design in New York and the London Fashion University and we collaborated with students there. It was all ethnical women and ethnic designers in fashion. So we had women from several countries - like Ethiopia, Mongolia and Peru, Papua New Guinea, India and Palestine. We all were there. And the Bilum did went out there and when they asked me "Ah, Florence, you got something to say?" I thought, you know, I never went to a fashion university and I was never a fashion designer. I was just somebody who rowed here from the village. So I just stood up and I said "I really don't know what to say but bilum is from the rainforests of papua new guinea now out in to the runway of new york and I'm so proud of it."

How did you juggle solo parenting with your work?

I had to do it. I had to put food on the table. That's basically what pushed me out into doing this because I just needed to weave. I have no other professional experience to help me find a job. I left my husband and that's when I started weaving and taking it very seriously. I had to put food on the table and I had to pay for the kids school fees. It was very challenging. How else am I going to feed them? I have to be strong and all of my work grows from the love for my children and the love for bilums. That is what made me come this far.

And now you help out other single mothers?

Yeah, because I was going through this situation being a single mum and I have children to look after. At the time in 2012 I was elected to be a rural coucillor and I really wanted to work with women. When I left my husband, the women that I focussed most with was the women that were having the same problem as me because I understood what they was going through and the pain and seeing other children wanting food to eat and crying to their mothers and all of this. I had to make sure that they too had food to eat and they can send their children to school. It was a priority to me. I had two things in my hand - one was to look after my own home and my children and the other was to help the other women come up like this.

I have women who work with me - the Goroka bilum weavers and then I have a company which is Jaukae bilum products and I have women that I collaborate and work with from Madang, Lei and some in Chimbu and Mount Hagen. So yeah, basically I work with single mothers and women with health problems, women living in settlements in rural areas I try to find markets for them and while they are doing the bilum bags I do my bilum fashion at the same time.

You must find a lot of fulfilment working with something from your culture and working alongside women like yourself?
Yes, I love my PNG culture, Papua New Guinea is very diverse. I love everything that talks about culture, me, my people, my bilum work especially because I find it so interesting. My passion is bilum and finding out the history of it and the use of it in my culture. - the bilum tells a long story and a good story about women. Bilum is a big part of the women in my culture.

By Indira Moala

Please Note: All other images above remain the property of Florence Jaukae Kamel.

Artist page: https://www.facebook.com/Florence-Jaukae-Kamel-Bilum-Fibre-Artist-564621856934658/?fref=ts