Comments on: French Firm Poaches and Patents PNG’s “Bilum”

By: shazza

shazza — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:04:13 +0000

Hi tavurvur
would it be possible to contact you on a private email address?
Furthermore, i am not sure if you know that there is going to be two very important exhibitions of bilumwear in London and the States this september – i can try to get pictures of this as well – i think we should promote bilumwear as best we can and the more exposure the product gets the further chance of developing a cottage industry
lukim

By: Tavurvur

Tavurvur — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:47:41 +0000

Hi Shazza,

I wonder if you would have any photos of your trip to Milano? It would be interesting to write a little article about it. The concept of ‘bilumwear’ being marketed internationally is well worthwhile. The venture needs to be marketed properly and promoted wisely. There is so much potential here!

Tavurvur

By: shazza

shazza — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 07:28:58 +0000

hi all interesting article – i initiated the ‘bilumwear’ trend back in 1997 with agroup of meris from Morata settelemenet – we designed and produced and then exported our traditional twine bilum clothing to Italy – we attended two major Fashion Trade Expos in Milano and generated clients fomr the south of France and Italy – I have been in contact with Helene from the french bilum label for quite some time and even made suggestions to commence collaborative work with her firm and our PNG counterparts in exploring the potential of traditional bilum twine textile for garment and accessory production – very difficult to do though when you are on the other side of the world However, i beleive that the traditional bilum textile will beocme a possible cottage industry for PNg and its women – i am trying to get this project on the way – and yes, i patented my label “Sharon Brissoni” in Italy since 1999, it covers all my designs but does not include bilum, the use of bilum or its textile as this is, and always will be part of PNG tradition and culture- lukim

By: Tavurvur

Tavurvur — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:56:46 +0000

Rick,

Thanks for the comment. YES! I do have a response from Helene (FINALLY) and I will post it up on my Blog as soon as possible!

I’ve been traveling and working for the past month and have just managed to get myself back to normalcy. There’s a huge number of comments and emails to get through first – Helen’s response will be up by the end of this week.

Regards,

Tavurvur

By: Rick

Rick — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 02:55:13 +0000

T bloke,

I recently received an email from Helene explaining that she had now responded to the flurry of responses in here, but I can’t find it anywhere on this page.

Did you get a response from her as yet, as I (along with a few others, no doubt) are curious as to what her thoughts are on this.

Cheers,

Rick Brittain

By: Hélène de La Moureyre

Hélène de La Moureyre — Wed, 06 May 2009 07:59:31 +0000

I’m sorry to reply so late but I wanted to take the time for it, because it is very important for you, and for me.

My activity is pretty small. We are only 3 people and had a lot of work this last month.

I never wanted to steal the know-how and the word bilum to the NPG culture.

I use recycled advertising banners and car seatbelts to make my bags, which are completely different from NPG string bags.

I do not copy the NPG method of weaving.

So, there is no risk of confusion between my bags and NPG bags.

Furthermore, the word BILUM is a valid French trademark which was registered by the French Intellectual Property Registry in august 2005.

« bilum » is a brand name, an it will never be the name of any french bag.

Let me explain you our spirit :
Our signature is « unical – ethical – ecological ».
- Unical because each bag is made from a special part of recuperated huge advertising banner. So the apparence of each bag is very different.
- Ethical because they are made in special centers working with disabled people, or people with social troubles, to give them an opportunity to have a job and earn their life.
- Ecological because instead of wasting energy to produce fabric, we use banners which would be burned otherwise, and seat belt from broken cars, to carry the bag. Everything is made around Paris to avoid burning petrol for the transport. The banners are handly washed with eco friendly soap.

Here are our valours and convictions, I’m really sorry if there was any misanderstanding about that.

As you may know, I first received an email from Rick Brittain, who, first, reacted negativly to the use of the word bilum. We had a chance to meet each other. He understood my approach and integrity. We exchanged some NPG bags and my bags. I was very happy, a few weeks later, when I received some pictures of NPG’s women bags workers wearing my parisian bags. I thank them once again for the beautiful bags they offered me.

I hope, with this letter, having given you some ideas of the bilum’s brand spirit.
Hoping to hear from you soon
Sincerily yours,

Helene de La Moureyre

By: Radio Australia - ‘In the Loop’ Interview with Tubuans & Dukduks « Tubuans & Dukduks

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:31:54 +0000

[...] has been a tremendous amount of publicity and discussion online about my article French Firm Poaches & Patents PNG’s “Bilum”. That discussion climaxed last week Thursday with Radio Australia’s In the Loop hosts Clement [...]

By: Tavurvur

Tavurvur — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 01:41:19 +0000

Hi Alan,

Thanks for getting in touch with me.

The bilum has become synonymous with PNG – it’s a national cultural piece which is instantly recognised anywhere around the world. It’s a national emblem – it represents the people and the country of PNG.

There is one site I would like to reccomend to you that offers PNG bilums and other artefacts at a price which I find extremely fair to the international buyer.

The firm is called Arts of Papua New Guinea, and you can find their website here: http://www.artspng.com/

Regards,

Tavurvur

By: Alan

Alan — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 09:37:41 +0000

Hey there! I’m the person who owns the site Rick refers to above… and I get regular requests from people around the world asking where they can purchase them. (Some quirk of Google has made my blog posting the top hit for “buy bilum”, which was certainly not my intention when I wrote the piece.)

Some enterprising PNG people have left their details with me in case I get further bilum enquiries… I have no idea how often this works for them – I hope it does. Over the years I have collected a little file of email addresses that I send to prospective bilum purchasers.

While this is great (and Rick’s part in all this is frankly amazing – what a champion!) this isn’t really the most efficient way for us all to spread the word about bilums, and get them into the hands of all those people around the world (and thereby make “bilum” synonymous with the REAL thing).

And so, as well as using my file of email addresses, I’d love to be able to refer my site visitors to a PNG online shop where bilums can be purchased. Does anyone know of one?

Thanks!

By: Rick Brittain

Rick Brittain — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 02:42:12 +0000

Hello Tavurvur,
Thank you for your response/clarification, it’s much appreciated.
In addition to this, I would like to include a link to another weblog that I have contributed to, for some years with regards to PNG bilums. I have just placed another comment at the foot of the other site….

http://halfpie.net/article/474/bilum-bilong-beki

…. and I’m hoping that anyone now entering that site, will feel inclined to look at your site here, in the hope of getting some contacts/sellers of genuine PNG bilums from here.

This will, (hopefully) have a double-sided benefit, in that it will save me some money (by not having to buy several bilums each trip), and allow others on here to start selling (and promoting) bilums to people all over the world, at whatever price the market will bear.

Thanks again, and keep us posted as to what response you do receive from Helene.

Rick Brittain