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CURRENT LOCATION: Sumba, Indonesia

LOCAL TIME: 8h30

LOCAL TEMPERATURE: 26 degrees

CURRENTLY READING: Consumed - Aja Barber

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Hi there!

It's been a while since I last sent out a newsletter. Instead of apologising, I just thank you for waiting (maybe it was a relief that you didn’t hear from me for a while, hehe). Anyway, I'm back and with a topic so so SO close to my heart: the oceans. For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to the sea. My parents had a small house by the sea in Belgium and I spent many weekends and summer holidays there. It wasn’t long before I realised how being near the sea gave me peace, answers and joy. Now that I live in Sumba, I realise that for the first time in my life, I live so close to the water, and that's really great.

Sumba has some of the most beautiful beaches imaginable. The fact that there is not yet so much tourism means that there has not been too much construction (which is not the case in Bali, for example). On the south coast, there are waves that are great for surfing (learning to do that is high on my bucket list!) and for which the island is very well known.

Ocean Uprise - An online programme by Parley for the Oceans

Before coming to Sumba, I had applied for the Ocean Uprise programme run by Parley for the Oceans. Parley is a non-profit organisation that focuses on ocean conservation. It was founded in New York and is best known for its collaboration with ADIDAS, where it uses recycled plastic from the oceans to make running shoes.

I was already in Bali when I was selected along with 21 others (we were all aged between 16 and 24 and spread across 18 different countries). During the last 6 weeks we had three weekly meetings with talks, seminars, activities and a lot of sharing about the ocean. During the internship, we all had to work on our own project to protect the oceans in our community and finally implement it. And what did I come up with?

Tas Jaring Sumba - Fishnet Bag

Devastated by all the plastic waste lying around on Sumba (there is no recycling plant on the island and not even a landfill, meaning all the waste is dumped in nature and/or burnt). When I thought of the 3 Rs (Reduce, Reuse, Recycle), I wanted to focus on the first one: How can we reduce the amount of plastic on Sumba? Looking around, I see that one of the most common types of waste is plastic bags when people go shopping. So designing a reusable bag seemed like a logical step. But how can I design a large bag that can be made by locals if they don’t have a sewing machine? Comes in: Tas Jaring.

Tas Jaring means fish net bag in Indonesian. I used old and stained T-shirts from the foundation and cut them into a long rope. I then used a knotting technique to make these “fishnet bags”. Besides the rope (so you can make it from discarded textiles), all you need is scissors and the step-by-step instructions (for which I made instructions in English and Indonesian). I tried it out with 12 of my students last week and it was a great experience!

The students were super enthusiastic and I only had to explain it once for them to understand what to do. When we had the next lesson, they were all proud of their own “Tas Jaring”. When I went to the market to buy fruit and showed off my Tas Jaring, I got many surprised looks from the market owners who asked me, “Miss, Miss, where did you get this bag?”. I told them that I made it myself and that it wouldn’t be long before I teach them too. The next step for Tas Jaring is to distribute DIY packs with rope and printed instructions so that everyone in Sumba can make their bag by themselves. Follow the Tas Jaring profile on Instagram and download the DIY instructions!

A brief introduction before we explore the techniques to make a “Tas Jaring”

My goal was to reemphasize that there is "no such thing as waste”. Using t-shirts that can no longer be worn to turn them into these cool (I mean, I think they're cool) bags is the perfect proof. But it's also very important (for all of us!) to understand that there is no such thing as "throwing something away”. That is, when you throw "away" something, it always ends up somewhere, and in Sumba, the consequences of this are extremely visible.

This workshop has helped me a lot to cope with the stress and sadness I feel more than once a week when I see how broken our system is. We have made a beautiful community like Sumba dependent on a material that they have done well without for centuries, and now we leave it to them to clean up our mess.The climate issue is so complex and there are so many different levels. However, I believe that respect is a fundamental and core value. If we respect each other and the environment we are lucky enough to have, we can find a way out of this mess (which we probably would never have gotten into if we had thought about respect from the beginning).

That being said, I still believe that education is the key, and what my students don’t know is that teacher Hestie is the student who has learned the most since I arrived in Sumba.

Talk soon,

Hestie -x-

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