Leica and Belinda have been friends for a decade after meeting when their children started school together. In that time they have worked together in various capacities – both having an interest in and passion for their local community.
Sometimes life is neat, easy, and predictable, but sometimes it can be chaotic, messy, and unplanned and one of those crazy moments saw Belinda relocating with her family to Indonesia.
Leica continued working in the Central Coast community while raising her sports-enthusiast kids, and Belinda enjoyed a break from the workforce and became a stay-at-home Mum. The friends stayed in touch, both were happy, but both were always looking for something more.
A fortuitous but unexpected encounter with a Balinese man towards the end of 2017 was the turning point for both women, although they didn’t realise it at the time…
Pak (the respectful Indonesian word for “Mr”) Kadek had grown up in the East Bali region of Candidasa, in the Karangasem Regency, and left home as a teenager to work on international cruise ships. It was a difficult adjustment for a boy from a small village, but Kadek was a hard worker and made best use of his time by practicing his English, learning all about the service industry, and learning what is expected by ‘international standards’.
Kadek saved his money for five years, then returned to his village with a dream of helping his family and villagers to start a home industry that doesn’t rely solely on tourists. He encouraged the villagers to put their artisan skills to commercial use, and started a ‘production line’ of sorts so that villagers combined their efforts in order to produce at a bags at an international quality.
When Belinda met Kadek and heard his story, she knew that this was the ‘something more’ that she and Leica had been searching for. The pair founded Bali Coast and – starting small – they sent just 20 ata bags from Kadek’s village to Leica’s house on the Central Coast. Leica, who runs the Central Coast side of the operation, posted ads on Facebook and lo and behold – all the bags sold out within a week! A second order followed, and before they knew it, not only was Bali Coast on a roll, but – more importantly – Kadek’s dream of a village-based home industry was being realised.
Essential to Leica and Belinda (and Kadek, of course!) is that the workers in Kadek’s village are paid a decent, liveable wage, and that the villagers’ working conditions are good. Belinda toured the village and the workshop in Candidasa, chatted to a number of the ata reed workers, and watched how they made the pieces and assembled the ata bags and baskets. The workers are very happy to employed, and are enjoying a better quality of life than they have in the past. They were very excited to know that their handiwork was being sent to Australia and admired greatly!
Spurred on by the success of the relationship between Bali Coast and Pak Kadek, Belinda found a group of silversmiths from a small town north of Denpasar who were interested in Kadek’s story, and hoped to follow his lead, and so a jewellery line was added to the Bali Coast inventory, then some beautiful sarongs…