Mission

Revitalizing Indigenous Culture
- Preserving local knowledge through workshops, research, training, and documentation.
- Empowering women weavers as custodians of culture.
- Building a nationwide network of weavers to share experiences in dye-making, conservation, business, and more.

Facilitating Land Stewardship
- Developing sustainable dye and fiber plant resources.
- Using natural dyes for health, cultural integrity, and higher incomes.
- Participatory research for efficiency and conservation.
- Protecting endangered plants with community planning.

Incubating Rural Livelihoods
- Addressing needs in the poorest regions of Indonesia.
- Teaching a community-based business model.
- Proven incentives to encourage investment in new skills and restoration of natural resources.
- Cultural integrity as value adding for quality arts and crafts.
Where We Work

Working for Indigenous Culture Survival
Bebali Foundation works with over 1000 women weavers in more than 35 communities on 12 islands across central and eastern Indonesia. Since conventional commercialization erodes traditional material culture, Bebali Foundation works most effectively in remote areas with limited market access and higher levels of poverty.

Peer-to-Peer Methodology
Bebali Foundation’s staff are indigenous people from Bali, Timor, and Kalimantan who understand the struggle to maintain cultural identity and know that empowering people means treating them as experts in their own lives.
Though experts in cultural issues, natural dye work and dye plant cultivation, field staff work side-by-side with weavers, dyers and farmers to find solutions to the challenges of a rapidly changing world.
Long-Term Community Commitments
A key to Bebali Foundation’s success in the field is its long-term relationship with communities. Beyond short-term funding cycles, Bebali Foundation is committed to partnering for real change through inter-generational knowledge transfers, dye plant cultivation, and enterprise development that can take up to a decade to show sustainable impacts.
What We Do
Indigo Dye Knowledge
Historic indigo production for local cultural needs could be fulfilled by harvesting from the wild, but changing landscapes and increased demand require cultivation, for which Bebali Foundation offers the necessary support.
Community Enterprise Development
The core of Bebali Foundation’s work is the development and support of community weavers’ groups, facilitating skill development and market access that individual weavers struggle to achieve.
Workshops & Festivals
Bebali Foundation has used participatory research methods since holding two 100-weaver week-long festivals in the mid-2000s. Acknowledging weavers as experts in their traditions, field staff use their cultural, botanical and technical knowledge to facilitate transmission of skills between generations.
Morinda Red Dye Knowledge
Bebali Foundation documents traditional red dye practices, replicating and testing these in the Threads of Life dye studio, and bringing results back to weavers in the field, improving the value of their products.
Saving and Credit Associations
Bebali Foundation encourages weavers’ group members to set aside a small percentage of sales for running the group and trains them in managing these funds. This saves the group leader from having to pay for communication and hospitality costs.
Symplocos Leaf Powder
A central request from weavers at the Bebali Foundation’s 2005 weavers’ festival was for a reliable supply of Symplocos cochinchinensis bark, a plant material necessary for achieving the red dye that was rare in the markets and of obscure origin. Website: plantmordant.org
Books, Publications & Films
A core value of Bebali Foundation’s research is the return of results to community partners, which it does in the form of documentation and video.
Cold-Pressed Candlenut Oil
Implementing for AusAID, Bebali Foundation selected a partner community; constructed an oil press; supported training in the production of avocado, temanu, and candlenut oil; and found markets when the project’s marketing partnership fell through.
INDIVIDUAL DONORS
Private donations have been essential to Bebali Foundation fulfilling its mission, enabling responses to needs arising outside funded grant cycles.
Since Covid and the refocusing of many institutional donors working in Indonesia away from cultural and livelihoods issues, the support of individual donors and private foundations has been critical to the continuation of Bebali Foundation’s work.
INSTITUTIONAL FUNDERS
Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation was the Bebali Foundation’s main funder between 2005 and 2020, supporting botanical research and livelihoods work.
Australian Volunteers for International Development (AVID)
The Australian government’s AVID program has supported the development of CELLS since 2009
AusAID
AusAID funded the Saving and Credit Associations program between 2008 and 2010.
USAID
Bebali Foundation’s first grant in 2002 was from USAID to apply methods developed in eastern Indonesia to support for weavers in Bali.
Toyota Foundation
Toyota Foundation has provided important supplementary support for Bebali Foundation’s botanical and livelihoods work.
World Bank
In 2005 and 2006, the World Bank funded the two weavers’ festivals held by Bebali Foundation.
Culture Ecology Livelihoods Learning System (CELLS)
CELLS is the Bebali Foundation’s knowledge management system supporting indigenous peoples in the preservation of their traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and their continued use of textiles and crafts that embody and transmit this knowledge.