The Outset Partners Grants Programme 2021 awarded an Impact Award to Green Papaya Art Projects. Their Shri Vishayas Project -Intersections of Indigenous, Rural and Contemporary Cultures- sought to create an educational platform for intersections of indigenous, rural and contemporary cultures. The project involved artists, creative professionals, and cultural workers immersing in the Panay Bukidnon communities to exchange knowledge through dialogues and workshops for the purpose of creating better understanding and cooperation between these societal groups. The project culminated with a series of events, an exhibition and a conference in 2022.
Exhibition:Moving the Mountains Closer to the SeasAng Panublion Museum, Roxas City26th October - 30th December, 2022
The exhibition featured the works of Panay Bukidnon artists Lucia Caballero, Regina Caballero-Villanueva, Regine Ann Villanueva, and Rolinda Gilbaliga, joined by Margaux Blas, Peter James Fantinalgo, Olive Gloria, Liby Limoso, Mark Omega, Norberto Roldan, and field researchers Theodore Ricardo Bautista, Jan Hara Siwagan, Christian Jeo Talaguit, Joeylyn Terania and Jarl Matthew Tuazon.
Moving the Mountains Closer to the Seas
The Suludnon, also referred to as Panay Bukidnon, descended from a wave of Malay migrants of Indonesian/Bornean origins. While the Suludnon are today known as mountain dwellers, the Malays were lowland agricultural people –– thus, the Suludnons were once coastal and lowland dwellers. This is affirmed by their social organization and epic stories, like the Sugidanon, which speak primarily about the seas rather than the mountains.
Filipino anthropologist F. Landa Jocano wrote that some of his older informants “still remember their childhood days in the lower section of the Panay River valley and how they had moved upstream because their parents sold their land to the lowland settlers.”[1] In the 1960s, during the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., they were pushed deeper into the mountains. Their houses were scattered apart, far from those of other families, making them almost invisible to outsiders. They were displaced people. This displacement taught them to fight not only for their survival but to keep their culture alive for they understand that once their culture is lost, they will cease to exist. Far from the seas, the existence of the Suludnon has remained largely invisible to the lowland dwellers. However, their cultures and traditions have somehow become sources of inspiration for the creative industries in urban centres.
Conference:Panay Bukidnûn: Keeping the Sugidanûn AliveGerry Roxas Convention Center8.30am - 4.00pm 27th October 2022
Resource persons:Felipe P. Jocano, Jr., Keynote speakerDr. Alicia P. MagosJose R. Taton, Jr. Anna Razel L. RamirezRuzel B. Espino-PallerRica Estrada, moderator
Video screening/talk:Kalibutan: Kanade YagiPapaya xLAB28th October 2022
Solidarity night:Condansoy, inum tuba, laloy!Tabaí, Baybay28th October 2022
Crafting Tikumbo and Subing from bamboo - A Shri Vishayas workshop:
Panay Bukidnon culture bearers and bamboo craftsmenROGER GILBALIGA and RENNEL LAVILLA with MARK OMEGA (facilitator)
10.00am - 5.00pm 26th November 2022Ang Panublion Museum
The tikumbo is a percussive chordophone made using a heavy bamboo tube. From this tube, two narrow strips are scraped off, raised from the instrument’s body using wooden pegs, and used as strings. Both ends of the tube are closed with nodes. The instrument is played using one or two fingers, or by tapping the strings using two wooden sticks.
A subing is an aerophone, chordophone, and idiophone at the same time because to play it entails “inhaling and exhaling air” (aerophone). By repeatedly moving the bamboo’s pointed edge, the instrument’s tongue or bamboo string is vibrated (chordophone) and a percussive effect (idiophone) is produced from the rhythm. (Muyco 2008)
This initiative of Green Papaya Art Projects came about in cooperation with Ang Panublion Museum, The City of Roxas, Gerry Roxas Training and Convention Center, The Province of Capiz and Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office.
Click here to read more about the project.
