Small Business Development Corporation supports Goroka Bilum Festival

The Goroka Bilum Festival is on again next month and who better to provide financial support then the Small Business Development Corporation. The SBDC manager Mr Nathan Timo presented K10,000.00 to the Festival organisers last week.

 Mr Timo said;"We are happy to support the Festival through our newly created women-in-business desk at the SBDC."

He said SBDC had supported the Goroka Bilum Festival since its inception in 2006 and would continue to provide support to take the promotion of bilum to the next level.

Ms Florence Jaukae (famous for her bilum dresses & product - Jaukae Bilum Wear) received the cheque on behalf of the Festival organisers and thanked the SBDC for its continued support. She said the SBDC was the only government agency helping the bilum weavers to promote their products.

The Festival was initiated to assist the local women to showcase their bilum wear and to generate income. The organisers are expecting a bigger turnout this year at the Festival. 

Festival dates are the same as the Goroka Show - Sept 17, 18 & 19.

BILUM WEAR – WEAVING THE FABRIC OF PNG SOCIETY

This article was published in Paradise - Air Niugini's  In-flight Magazine & in Fiji's Air Pacific In-flight Magazine

There is nothing more Papua New Guinean than a bilum. When I am overseas and I see someone carrying a bilum, something uncharacteristic happens. I stop in my tracks and check the person up and down. It is the association with all things Papua New Guinean that stirs the familiar wistful feeling at the sight of a bilum on a stranger.

The ethnic origin of the word bilum is unclear even though it is thought to be a Melanesian word. It is defined in ‘The Jacaranda Dictionary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin’ by Fr Frank Mihalic s.v.d as a carry-all by women throughout Papua New Guinea. In some areas, the net or woven string, is used as clothing thus the expression Meri i pasim bilum. Bilum is also defined as the womb, the placenta, or the pouch of a marsupial such as a wallaby.