Sri Lanka's Weavers Return To Work After Tsunami

by Marwaan Macan-Markar

(IPS) -- If Sri Lanka needs a symbol of hope and courage for its battered coastal communities, Abdul Sattar Sithy Bashira would be a prime candidate.

The 30-year-old mother of two has broken the silence that swept across this village after it was ravaged by the tsunami in late December -- the silence of looms not at work, of weavers not spinning yarn.

From her house that has been partially restored, after it was destroyed by the killer waves, flows the whirr and thud of a weaver at work. Beside the entrance to her home where she works with pink, light blue and yellow yarn are reminders of what the tsunami wrought -- white tents to house the homeless survivors.

Farther down the narrow street from her home are more stark scenes of the tsunami's crushing power -- an endless stretch of flattened houses, mounds of debris, heaps of twisted tin sheets and uprooted wells. It is a scene that resembles a wasteland after a rain of bombs.

And Maruthamunai's death toll adds to this scene of devastation. It suffered the worst of all the other villages across Sri Lanka's battered coastline, losing a tenth of its population. Over 2,300 people in this tightly knit Muslim community of a little over 20,000 perished on that Dec. 26 morning.

Maruthamunai's death toll, in fact, made up over one-fifth of the estimated 11,000 people who died in the worst affected region of Sri Lanka -- the southeastern district of Ampara. In all, nearly 38,000 people were killed by the tsunami on this Indian Ocean island, while close to 800,000 people were displaced when it struck on Dec. 26.

Yet such devastation has not sapped Bashira's will to rebuild her life, to return to weaving -- a tradition that has been passed through three generations of her family. With her husband and mother, who are also weavers, she began cleaning and restoring the few wooden looms that survived the waves.

'We had to get back, because this is what we do. This is our tradition,' said Bashira, as she sorted through a yellow clump of bobbins near her feet. 'I learnt to weave from my parents. Not through books.'

Weaving, she added, has helped her cope with the terror the tsunami unleashed. She had been working on a sari when the sea surged through her home. She fled with her family, but in the rising water lost sight of her eight-year-old daughter.

'We found her three days later being cared for at a Buddhist temple about 20 kilometers from here,' she said. 'We all survived, but so many died.'

A few streets away, another weaver, Ahamed Lebbe Abdul Majid, is also breathing life into a loom he salvaged after the tsunami. 'It is the only way to start again after we lost so much to the sea,' said Majid, while weaving a white cotton sari.

In all, some 21 weavers of Maruthamunai's 200 weavers have begun to follow the lead set by Bashira after nearly seven weeks of silence. Some are doing so in the midst of yarn, clothes and looms that were destroyed by the tsunami.

'This is a small beginning but an inspiring one,' Abdul Aziz, a senior citizen of this community who is leading the relief and restoration effort, told IPS. 'Those who can are being helped. We expect 25 more to get back to weaving by next month.'

Part of such help comes from the Maruthamunai Development Company (MDC), a venture that the community's members have shares in. It has pledged to supply free yarn to the weavers who have restored their damaged looms.

'Weaving is the backbone of this village's economy. It has been handed down through the ages,' said Aziz. 'Maruthamunai is one of the few places along the east coast where such a handloom cottage industry still survives.'

Its significance over fishing, another pivotal economic pillar here, is due to the fact that both men and women are involved and that it is a trade carried all through the year, without a pause during the monsoons from November to April.

The promise held out by this village, over 300 kilometers east of Colombo, is already attracting visitors and non-governmental groups drawn by the courage of Maruthamunai's weavers to rise up from the rubble.

'We are getting orders from a few foreigners and locals for the cotton shirts and saris they make,' said Aziz. 'Even the government has said it wants to develop the village into a handloom textile weaving village.'

Weavers like Bashira welcome the hint of such demand for Maruthamunai's handmade textiles and clothes. 'It won't compensate for all we lost, but this will help us to go on as weavers.'