The Billum Project

  A Billum is a traditional woven bag from Papua New Guinea. Billum weaving is almost exclusively done by women. Billum are hand made and each one is unique. It takes one woman around a week to make a Billum. The colour, design and material identifies the region in which the Billum was made. Certain designs are only made in one region. Billum are used by men and women for many different purposes in PNG including for shopping or in the garden or even as you can see in the photograph, as a cradle for babies.

My name is Maya. Over the last 4 years I have traveled to PNG, in part to facilitate a weekend program to empower young women lawyers as they enter the legal profession in PNG. On one of my trips I purchased a nylon string Billum and brought it back to Australia where it has become indispensible. 

The Billum Poject was inspired by my passion to help women in PNG to help themselves and their families. 

My partners in The Billum Project are the weavers who make the nylon Billum I hope will become indispensible to you too.

The Billum Project is not for profit. We partner with women in PNG to sell string Billum in Australia. This provides women in PNG with an opportunity to showcase their weaving skills in Australia. This in turn helps them to make money to help their families. The money we receive for each Billum goes directly to the woman who made it. We have identified her with a photo and a short summary of her life story on the card inside every Billum we sell.