Women’s Wealth is an art project that engages with the ongoing importance and richness of women’s creativity within the predominantly matrilineal societies of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville and nearby provinces of the Solomon Islands.

The project was launched on Buka Island in April 2017 and presented as part of ‘The 9th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT9) in Brisbane from 24 November 2018 to 14 July 2019. The Triennial is QAGOMA’s flagship exhibition series.

Women in North and Central Bougainville create striking textiles featuring bold embroidery. These textiles — Tuhu (capes in North Bougainville) and Biruko (fan-shaped objects in Central Bougainville) — represent important forms of art-making in these regions, and assert the ongoing vibrancy of collective identity and shared narratives. The creation, exchange and public display of these works define cultural and artistic expression, and identify a wearer’s gender, status, clan and artistic accomplishments. The sculptural forms are enhanced by embroidered line work, which captures the eye when worn in ceremony and performance. Also used extensively by women in everyday life, these textiles represent ingenious customary practices that use natural, readily available materials to create works of aesthetic, cultural and utilitarian value and purpose.
 

Tuhu (Capes)

Made by women in North Bougainville and Buka Island, Tuhu are elegant capes constructed from broad pandanus leaves. In some instances, Tuhu are marked with bold red and black embroidered designs indicating their owner’s elevated status in the community. These unique sculptural forms are given names corresponding to the status of the wearer, and when embroidered with clan designs, represent spiritually important forms of cultural expression. Tuhu are worn as ornamentation, and as protective coverings in public ceremonies for coming of age, matrimony, death and the investiture of clan chiefs.

The majority of works created for the Women’s Wealth project were made by groups of women from the Nakas clan of Buka Island, who stitched designs onto strips of pandanus that were then sewn into capes. Lead artist, Kiria Asike spent weeks sourcing and preparing materials before the group gathered in Ngakubul village.