West and east SUMBA

YOGA, SURF, WEAVING AND NATURAL DYES

10 DAYS PROGRAM

Let’s venture out to Sumba island, in Eastern Indonesia for a ten days creative retreat starting at the Sumba Hospitality Foundation, home of more than 40 students learning hospitality in the most inspiring environment, surrounded by bamboo architecture designed by the talented Ibuku team, and permaculture gardens before heading to Ngalung Kalla to weave facing at the Indian Ocean. The last part of our journey will take you to the east of Sumba, where you will meet indigenous weavers and master dyers who will teach you natural dying with local plants and trees, visiting various local villages and weaving communities, always amazed by the traditional architecture and the ancestral techniques.

THE RETREAT PROGRAM

During this 10 days retreat, experience the full potential of nature with a flower stamping natural dye class where we collect flowers from the garden and use kitchen scraps to dye a silk scarf. Every day, you will work on your tapestry weaving with Natalie Miller on a large Ashford loom and her hand dyed famous colorful wools. Ngalung Kalla is a surf retreat therefore, surfing trips are available as well as daily yoga classes and fantastic permaculture garden and animal tours!
The second part of the retreat, the eastern part of the island, will brought you closer to the local communities, their way of life and ancestral techniques. The natural dyeing workshop with Master Dyer and Weaver Kornelis will take you to the community botanical dye garden tour to harvest Indigo leaves (indigo tinctoria). You will learn the story of the motifs, design and weaving processes of Sumba while also experiencing the dying practice of indigo, red, yellow and brown colors from local plants, roots and nuts. You will bring back home you own cotton fabric and a gift basket locally made with natural dyed cotton threads, indigo paste and an English translated notebook and dye journal.

In addition to the workshops, you will be able to enjoy many different activities to discover the magic of Sumba Island fully. From morning yoga, sunrise boat rides on the Indian Ocean, to evening fire-bond and farm to table dinners in Ngalung Kalla … The eastern part of the island, where tourism has not arrived yet offered us many adventures and empty paths to explore … with morning hill hikes, chasing waterfall in the wild, kayaking on a peaceful river, visiting the local market, exploring local villages and their traditional architecture…

This program is suitable for kids, young adults, and older ones and can be customized to your group wishes.

Our international teacher

NATALIE MILLER

@natalie_miller_design, architect, textile designer, home dyer and tapestry weaver

OUR LOCAL TEACHERS AND LECTURERS

Our cultural villages itinerary is full of amazing encounters and insights on the local culture and traditional weaving techniques. We emphasize three villages in our itinerary, one the village of Umbu Ryand where they specialize in Indigo dying and Ikat weaving. The second one is the village of Ana, where they specialize in Songket weaving (another weaving technique, different from the Ikat weaving). We are also so lucky to work with and support the Ikat weavers collective from Kampung Raja Prailiu, a beautiful royal village with traditional along along roofs and megalithic tombstones, where we are always warmly welcomed by long time resident Rambu Sarah Hodgen who shares her inside knowledge of Sumbanese textiles and passionating culture and traditions.

t a k e m e b a c k t o t h e p r o g r a m l i s t