Celebrated for their striking designs and bold colours, bilums (string bags) are considered one of Papua New Guinea’s most significant forms of cultural expression. Florence Jaukae-Kamel is a distinguished bilum-maker and one of the first women to actively promote bilum-wear as a unique expression of her country’s contemporary culture. Working with a co-operative of local women, she designs new garments for catwalks in Port Moresby, New York and London, and creates unique pieces for international museums and exhibitions.  

Worked in the luminous gold and brown hues of the stems of the miso tree, Mountain design and Katim pig 2011 is a loose, open-weave camisole. Created to be worn like a second skin, this garment is a self-portrait, with the triangular mountain design referring to the artist being a proud Eastern Highlands woman. The kutim pik (cutting pig) pattern speaks to the discrimination and hardship experienced by single mothers.

Jaukae-Kamel’s more recent works, such as the superb figure-hugging dress Skin pik 2019, continue to draw on traditional designs in bold colours, while others are inspired by broader concerns. Pur pur meri 2019, for example, draws connections between the hooped dresses worn by colonial women in Papua New Guinea in the mid 1800s, and the unique flounced grass skirts worn by women in the Trobriand Islands. Combining the sculptural form of historical garments with patterning found on aprons traditionally worn by Western Highlands men, Jaukae-Kamel subverts an icon of masculinity by adorning her garment with shells and feathers. She transforms the wearer into an individual capable of transcending culturally imposed codes of dress and gender.