A non governmental organisation in Samoa hopes a fine mats exhibition will help raise more awareness about the need for village weavers to improve the quality of mat weaving.
The Women in Business Development group is working with government to revive the art of traditional weaving, that is much smaller and finer, using thinner strips of pandanus leaves to produce a mat with a very soft texture.
The organisation's Cultural Projects officer says a good weaver can produce two high quality mats in one year, and recently one was sold for over $3000 US.
Fuimaono Rosalia Me says their aim is to get less traditional mats phased out and recycled, so more high quality mats can be used for cultural purposes and other significant occasions.
"We look at how we process it, right from the start, how we process the raw materials, and also the consistency of the stripping and the weaving. It has to be put together so it comes out the type of high quality fine mat that we are looking at."
Fuimaono Rosalia Me says an exhibition of high quality traditional fine mats is planned on Upolu and Savaii next month.