Currently, the Mondulkiri Association of Indigenous Peoples for Development (MIPAD), which has been supported by Plan International Cambodia, is carrying out its activities under the project “Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation of Communities Indians in Mondulkiri”. In this regard, MIPAD has sent a project team to study and research the history of textile weaving and the Bunong ethnic minority group weaving team to obtain more research documents. In addition, the association has formed a group of weavers, mostly women, and they have received training in weaving techniques in addition to the weaving skills they had acquired from their ancestors. And this work also adds to farm work that has been affected by climate change.
The textile fabric of the Bu nong ethnic minority can weave as scarves (The Kama, the language of Bunong), blankets, bandana (Yus), handkerchiefs, and bags. The weaving process is similar in size to size, while the style is not as easy as it is different in its production. The weaving process is long or short, depending on the production of various materials in large or small size. Usually knitting a 20×180, 20×200, 25×180, 25×200 scarf takes 4 days and is used for all events. A skirt with red and black colors, and together with some signs such as vegetables, seeds, pigeon egg, size 50×200, 60×200 takes 60 days and according to routine it takes 1 year. In addition, it was used in the wedding in which the groom’s family offers to the bride’s family, and then they use it to cover the buffalo head that they already kill and use in the ceremony as souvenirs and objects. After the ceremony, the mother of the bride can use it as a blanket or skirt. A black and white band, consisting of the signs for human, trees, mountain, buffaloes, cows, and the sign of the Pythagorean scratches; size 50×200, 60×200, 70×200, it takes around 90 days, traditionally it takes 1 year and 3 months, and it is used for the same ceremony as scarves. A small bandwidth can exchange a small buffalo, a cow or a goat. A blanket of red, black, and white color, consisting of signs such as a small stream, houses, humans, and mountains of size 250 × 300, 250 × 400, takes 180 days; traditionally it takes two years. In the past, the indigenous people, Bunong, weaved only when they did not have to engage in agriculture. As a result, Bunong weaving takes a lot of time and the weaving result is really valuable to them.
Because of its color, it was originally white, black, and red. To get a black color, Bunong collects small (non-specific) trees and grinds those trees to receive black ink. Once they received it, they mixed black ink with cotton thread to obtain black cotton. For the red, they traditionally used fruits that were shaped like rambutan, and they made it as a red liquid and then mixed it with cotton to make it red in color. The indigenous people, Bunong, popularly plant cotton for the purpose of their weaving culture.
Bunong weaving culture, all weavers must have enough equipment before they can weave, and they are all Kei (Nak Cha, the Bunong language) and Hong. And weaving and Design (Korm), there are designs that can be noticed that it is the ancient Bunong indigenous community, such as: kitchen, Kaisna, arrow, guord, human, tiger nose, python, cucumber seed, doves, snake, spider . nest, worm eyes, mountain, streams, hand person, walking trail, great silver water beetle, wasp, grasshopper, tiger jumbo, mosquitoes, trees, waterfalls, wild stream rabbit, pumpkin, rice. Each of the designs represented: Arrow and Kaisna represent the hunting of the Indigenous Peoples (Bunong). The kitchen represents the place of food. The python, the snake image, the tiger nose image, and the large silver water beetle image represent ferocious wildlife. The images of guord, cucumber, gourd, and rice represent the planting of crops. The images of a waterfall, wildlife, stream, mountain and water represent the livelihood landscape of the Bunong ethnic minority. Rabbits represent wise and intelligent people. Creating design is making fabrics look more attractive and beautiful. In this, the use of color also has its meaning, since color is the emblem of the hot element. Light colors are the cold element that refers to the beauty of nature and natural freshness. As a result, they look beautiful in the Bunong weaving culture as well as the design of each textile.
Nowadays, the weaving culture of the Bunong Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia has not aroused the interest of the people, as until now, many of them focus only on agriculture and pay very little attention and spend less time on practicing the weaving skills that their ancestors have left behind. Due to climate change, agriculture, as well as the cultivation of the plant, have been severely affected and the family situation of the Indigenous People, Bunong, has been challenged in their lives. Therefore, the Mondulkiri Association of Indigenous Peoples for Development, with the support of Plan International Cambodia, has endeavored to provide training in agriculture, seed selection, plant protection, planting techniques, as well as studying the tradition of weaving and give them extra skills to earn extra income apart from doing farming or farming.