In a world and time when so much is changing, there is still so much of our culture that has to be documented and kept alive. Who are the bearers of these precious living cultures? How do they pass on a knowledge transmitted through the ages?
What they represent has survived colonization, conflict, marginalization, and yet they persist. Sila ang sisidlan. The living vessels that store dayaw, our knowledge, our pride.
Welcome to the fourth season of Dayau. In the past three seasons, we have explored the fast-vanishing natural world of our indigenous people. We've seen how these environments have helped shape not just their survival, but the very cultures which allow them to declare and be proud of their identities. We've discovered how they use the materials and resources which may help build and unify a nation. In the season of Dayal, we meet the culture bearers, men and women who have devoted their entire lives to preserving what is vital and important to their cultures, our culture.
Their life work may seem so far removed from some of our concerns, yet they push on in the face of so much indifference. That is why they remain relevant to this day, and that is why their achievements must be recognized. The Gawad sa Manlilikanang Bayan or the National Living Treasures Award is a distinction accorded by the Philippine government to the finest traditional artists of the land.
The search is conducted by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and an ad hoc panel of experts. The distinction was institutionalized through Republic Act 7355 in April of 1992. Since its inception, the award has been bestowed on 13 traditional artists. We have a very rich tradition of people's art.
This is really a source of identity for the Filipinos. Our traditional artists, sometimes called craft people, are the keepers of our soul or the bearers of Filipino soul and it's important to preserve their work because otherwise we will have nothing to be proud of to the rest of the world. The intention of the NCCA in the initial search was to look for the most accomplished weavers.
math makers, storytellers, and other kinds of traditional artists to showcase the creative spirit of the Filipino. And that's why we really look for those people, our treasures, that have been able to preserve our tradition from the earliest times to the present. And not be unadulterated by commercial trappings or some... modernizing influence that may not blend with our traditions. That was really the intention from the very beginning until now.
Professor Elena Mirano, an educator, researcher, scholar, musicologist, was elected head of the Gamaba Committee by its members, where she served until 2015. The Gamaba has been a very sincere effort to recognize the fact that we have a living culture. That it's not just a western culture, that we have many, we have embedded in us. this cultural, well actually it's a bedrock of culture that continues to exist until the present day, many times unnoticed or unrecognized but there is a need to recognize because unless we answer that question, then we won't know who we are we'll only know some layer but the really deepest layer comes from the tradition.
And so, in that sense, Gamaba is a questioning of the self also. Who are we? Why are we here? How do we structure our space, our time, our visual images? And in choosing what we think is the best, and it has to be the best, so we honor the best.
The song of the people is playing. The song of the people is playing. has reaped a rich harvest of indigenous Filipinos who have exemplified the very highest standards of their cultures.
Unfortunately, many of the awardees from the first batch of Gamaba winners have passed on. And here, precious footage, recording of their voices, their thoughts, aspirations of past masters, musicians, weavers, chanters, all were artists whose gifts to this nation live on. even in death. All who heard him play on the two-string kudyapi knew that they were in the presence of a great artist. The instrument that he chose to express this virtuosity was the most technically difficult of the two-stringed lutes popular among both the Islamic and animist people of Mindanao.
Of its two strings, One provided the rhythmic drone, while the other has movable frets that allow melodies to be played in two sets of pentatonic scales. Scholars have described the music of the Maguindanao Kudyapi as mystical, delicate, celebrative. But all words pale when one listens to existing footage of Samaon Sulaiman.
No explanations, no academic notes can quite explain the hypnotic and sensual quality of his music. The late great Samaon Sulaiman, a fantastic performer. I was told by one Maguindanao who's from a different part of Cotabato that when Samaon plays he speaks and you can hear what he's saying and it's so beautiful he was really a wonderful wonderful artist on the Kujapi. He really imbibed the spirit of being Filipino.
Because for him, it was not just his community. Although he lived in his community, he worked there. When there were other events in other parts of the Philippines involving Gamaba, he would go.
He went as far as Kalinga. The idea of artists in our culture, in our traditional culture, is not enough. narrow specialist who does only art and does nothing else.
Samar Saliman is different because he was not just an artist. In other words, he was a complete person. His being an artist, his being a Kutyape performer, did not prevent him from cultivating his other levels of being.
In fact, he was a good father, he was a farmer, he was an imam, in other words, a Muslim priest. At the same time, he was the favorite barber in his town. In our traditional culture, we have...
a holistic notion of being, holistic notion of a person. You could invite him anywhere, he would appear and he will be honoring you with his presence in whatever occasion. Until now, I cannot understand how they tell, how they, Magin and I, especially Suman Saliman, could tell stories using this instrument.
Samawan Sulaiman was not just a musician or soloist. He was a virtuoso, a man whose gift of interpretation elevated his musicianship to a realm where both tradition and self-expression meet to create art. I think the same can be said of the other deceased Gamaba awardees, whatever their fields.
storyteller from the Makagua Valley in Palawan, Masino Interay, was also a poet and musician. In 1993, just as he was about to be declared among the first recipients of the Gamaba Distinction, he was recognized as a poet. recorded in the forests of Brooks Point, where he chanted a portion of a Palawanon epic. He also demonstrated his skill at reciting the lyrical poem, Kulilan, as well as a bagit, verse inspired by the images and animals of his forest home. Then together with his friends, he played on the besal and sam, a mix of large and small agung, accompanied by the gimbal or tubular drum, to the joy of the villagers.
Complimenting the music, was the dancing of the women, their feet beating out complimentary rhythms on the bamboo floor of the community house. Massino Interay of Brooks Point, who was a storyteller and a musician. He was able to preserve the very important traditions, the tul-tul, the storytelling, the sanang, musical ensemble.
And unfortunately he passed away around five years ago, but his children are continuing this tradition in Books Point. In our search for the exotic and colorful other, we often overlook the true gifts of a people. In the case of Masino Intaray, his gift mirrors the traditional Palawanon knowledge of the forests, the stars, and the cosmos, a universe he was at home with, a cosmos that was home to his people. Creative memory, endurance, clarity of intellect. and spiritual purpose.
For these most valuable of possessions, Masino in Taray was found worthy. Prioritize those traditions that are very important in establishing that we have a very high degree of culture from the very beginning, even before the Spaniards came. That's why we prioritize those craftspeople, artists like Ginaw Bilog, who was a mangan, that really...
Devoted his own life to preserve as much as possible the Ambahan tradition in Oriental Mindoro using the Surat Mangyan or what we call Baybayin. And so this is really a tradition worth preserving simply because in many other parts of the country, this Surat Mangyan or Baybayin is no longer used. Ginaw Bilog, a Hanunoomangyan from Mansalay Oriental, Mindoro, grew up still hearing the Ambahan poetry used by his community to express love, traditional wisdom, sage advice, common courtesies, and humor.
The seven-syllable lines conveyed messages through the use of metaphor and creative images. He also grew up using the Surat Mangyan, the pre-colonial syllabary that links the Mangyan to other Southeast Asian cultures. His mastery of this difficult form and his desire to revive and popularize it among the young Mangyan made him worthy of the Gamapa distinction.
Today, the heritage that Ginaw bilog. Help to Revive is carried on by his family, his children, who are his most ardent students. It doesn't seem surprising that the first batch of female Gamaba awardees were weavers.
Weaving is, after all, an art associated with women. The skill of these Gamaba winners covered difficult techniques such as weaving in abaca ikat, silk, or even natural fibers. Hey Even today, among the Tiboli of Lake Cebu, the name of Langdulay is spoken of in awe and admiration.
Her legacy as the first-ever Tiboli weaver to be awarded the Gawad sa Manlilikanang Bayan extends far beyond her skill at weaving abaca fibers into tinalak cloth. Her mastery of the process of dyeing the threads and producing both traditional as well as contemporary adaptations of these designs gained her many students and followers. Without any paper, without anything to copy, Langdule just dyes, designs, makes designs. And when this is dyed and woven, the designs come. out.
The Telenalak is a marvel of design, intuitively done by the designer Lang Dulai, and the Tlebolis are very, very proud of having hair. But they were so surprised during her funeral, well, some kind of celebrity, more than what the Tivolis have witnessed when it comes to burying their high political officials. In other words, even the high political officials were not buried in the same grand manner as Langdulai, especially during the necrology services. They are sad, no?
But her legacy will always remain, simply because she made the Tivolis much prouder because of her. creations. What I do remember about Langdulay, the legendary Langdulay, is the fact that she had not only weaving virtuosity but she was also a leader.
She was a leader. Her school was a big school and she had many followers and she was able to train many of them and I heard her once talking about what she had learned from the Gamaba and about the other the other international events that she had been brought to and she she said something like you know I learned the value of education education is so important and so she was talking to the younger people in her village she was saying so if I were you that's what I would invest in that's why her school was one of the most successful of all the Gamaba schools I am very happy to be able to go back to my mother's house. Selin Tamanon is a Bazaar Bagobo from the Abu Dulsur.
It's like Lang Dulai. She was able to preserve the identity of the bagobo of the WLZUR to her very intricate and very colorful weaves. She left a very, very good legacy to her children.
Although inabal, the abaca ikat produced by the bagobo is not as visually stunning as a tinalak of the tiboli. The dual tinali patterns are more minute and subtle. and difficult to execute.
Salinta Monon, a Tagabawa bagobo weaver from Bansalan, Davao del Sur, specialized in the complex small-scale ikat technique. Salinta Monon became the fast friend of Langdulay. They were best friends. They had a chance to meet each other when they came to Manila for the awarding of the gamaba. So when Lang opened her school, Salinta was there.
She was a quieter person. And I think very introspective because what I remember about her is she wouldn't let people come near her house. She had a weaving house of her own.
She would be alone before she wove. And so all the time she would be weaving. Walang pwedeng manggulo sa kanya.
So talagang very introspective na... na tao si Salinta. Two other weavers were also given the Gamaba distinction. While Lang Dulay and Celine Tamonon wove in abaca fiber, the next two gawad sa Manlilikanang Bayan awardees spent their lives mastering different fibers. Haji Aminah P from Tawi Tawi is a very humble person.
This is one thing that you will see, you will realize when you look at all, all without exception, all the Manila Canobayans, they're very humble. They don't have a concept. of themselves as the source of power because their concept of the source of their creative power is from the above, from a higher source, God or the great divine.
divine spirit, and they are just a channel of this creative spirit. So this is what you notice in Amina Appi, she's a very humble person, but she's very good in using her intuition to create from just two or three strands very beautiful mats. The mat or banig produced by the weavers of Ungus Matata in Tawi Tawi are renowned for their dizzying and complex geometric designs, the high density and surface sheen of the woven surface. as well as the amazing, often surprising color combinations. Hadja Amina Api's body of work was honored by the Gamaba Committee for the finer details often overlooked.
by other weavers. They cited the straightness of her edging and the mastery of such complicated designs as the sasa and kima-kima. She was also an expert at all the stages of mat weaving, from the processing of the wild pandan leaves to the use of natural and commercial dyes.
Her exuberant sense of color was also much admired. Silk, the production of its threads and the weaving of these threads into garments and wraps both for men and women, was a highlight on the weaving tradition of Islamic Filipinos. Among the Tausug, the Pishyabit. was a square textile prized for the intricacy of its design, as well as the suppleness of the silk thread. The tradition of silk weaving has long died out and is only recently being revived.
But in the work of Darhata Sawabi, the colorful and complex design aesthetic of the Tausug Pishyabit lived on in cotton and commercial threads. Thank you. Darhata Sawabi of Barangay Parang in Holo was perhaps the last master of this jewel of Philippine textile. Never married, she managed to attain financial independence through the weaving of pis siabit.
A woven square, 39 by 40 inches, took three months to weave. For her masterworks, she charged only 2,000 pesos apiece. This is the quandary that many of our traditional artists Darhata Sawabi was a master of this piece, the Yabit. He really marveled at the intricacy of the design, very finely detailed, very colorful.
We're hoping that we will find somebody who is as good as her. Because we know that she was not the only one in her town or in her province. To really practice this tradition and I really really one of the admirers of this tradition and that Hatha Sawabi's legacy should really continue.
If not for the efforts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the late Susan Calo Medina, we would have almost no documentation of this first set of Gawad Manilikanang Bayan awardees. Sadly, All of them have passed on, but their gifts to the nation are immortal and must be acknowledged. We are gathering as one nation to give the name and recognition to our fellow Manlilika.
Sa pag-arap natin sa modernong panahon at sa samotsaring influensya ng ibang kultura, pinatitingkad ng kanilang likhang sining ang ating pagka-Filipino. It's very important that they be recognized. It's important in a society where we only look at sometimes materialistic things as indicators of success. But you can see how yung spirit ng mga artists, they come through. But they're quiet mostly.
So you have to honor that quietness. They have a sense of self. They know who they are.
And because they have mastered certain things, their vision is very clear. Why do we need to know about the deceased Gamaba winners we have featured here, and the ones still living, who will make up Season 4 of Dayal? There are many answers to that question, but the one I want to ask you now is this?
Has this brief encounter with the work of these Filipinos left you enriched, inspired, perhaps even saddened at their demise? They affect us in ways more profound than you can ever imagine. The sound of a kudjapi, a powerful chant, a poem, the gradually unfolding design of a textile.
In this fragmented world we live in, what are these but frail threads that link us to a deeper appreciation of who we are and what we may be losing in our culture? These manilikha ng bayan masters. may be gone, but it is our duty never to forget them.
The nation may have given them an outstanding honor, but in the end, it is their work that honors the idea of a diverse yet inclusive nation, a nation that hopefully will come to value Dayaw, our knowledge, our pride.