During a meeting, all may speak their minds openly and nothing said may be repeated outside. Decisions regarding property require the consensus of all the women present. The women have a de facto veto on all business, even though, politically, a community is run by its men. The Textiles Traditional dress in Bajawa is indigo-black. The predominant motif is of small white ikat-dyed horses arranged in rows across the center of the textile.
Men wear a sarong and a scarf or shoulder drape.
Women use a long sarong that is worn high under the arm-pits with the front and back fastened over the shoulders, like a dress. Colorful yellow sashes complete the women's costume and both sexes wear beaded betel bags that drape to knee length. A sarong with appliqu d beads is called a lawo butu . The traditional lawo butu are sacred to the people of Bajawa. Rarely seen, they are only worn by female clan elders during dances to bless a new clan house or ngadhu ancestral shrine.