Weaving Ancestral Wisdom: Communicating the Power of Sumbanese Women’s Resistance to the Next Generation through Arts-Based Liberative Pedagogy

Abstract

Abstract As an artistic activity, weaving traditions have been passed down by women weavers from generation to generation in Sumba, Indonesia. Women can express their resistance to an oppressive situation through aesthetic engagement using handwoven textile motifs. There are also motifs related to woman’s resistance to Dutch colonialization in the past. This paper argues that the motifs of resistance in Sumba handwoven textiles are an important element that can support an arts-based liberative pedagogy in Christian religious education as part of the struggle against grand narratives of colonial legacy, especially in the context of colonial heritage churches in Indonesia.