TAGABUKID'S PRIDE

This is one of the reasons why I am proud to be a son of Bukidnon, that mountianous province located at the heart of Mindanao. We have a festival that celebrates our heritage and portray's authentic tribal song and dances, instead of those choregraphed moves from the other festivals in the country.

This may not be like Beth's Secret, but I have one secret to tell, I am proud a descendant of tribal cheiftain. Both my grandmothers are daughters or granddaughter of a Datu. Imagine that I have a Royal Blood! (hehehehehehe)

Bukidnon heritage kept alive
By Antonio Montalvan

IT has become a norm for many provinces and cities to
stage cultural festivals. Festivals are tourist
come-ons. They are crowd-drawers. They bring in
much-needed receipts.

In our enthusiasm to think of what festivals to stage,
we create traditions that weren't there to begin with
and pass them off as "indigenous." Many of our
festivals range from the bawdy to the bizarre. One
town in the country is even thinking of putting up a
"suman festival." At other times, we couldn't seem to
make up our minds whether this was an Ati-atihan or a
Brazil Mardi Gras. Other festivals are just plain and
simple bacchanalia.

One festival that certainly does not fall into this
category -- at least not yet -- is Bukidnon's Kaamulan
Festival, held during the month of March each year.
The Kaamulan is anything but contrived.

It all began in 1974. It was the fiesta of Malaybalay,
May 15, in honor of San Isidro Labrador. The town's
vice mayor then, Edilberto Mamawag, thought of
inviting some indigenous Bukidnon tribespeople to
town. Mamawag thought a few dance steps by the natives
at Plaza Rizal would enliven the fiesta-goers.

That simple idea caught fire. A former reporter for
the Manila Times, Mamawag had at that time a guest
Manila reporter who later wrote about it for a
national magazine. That signaled the start of
Kaamulan's fame. One year led to another. On Sept. 16,
1977, the Regional Development Council adopted
Kaamulan as the regional festival of northern
Mindanao.

By then, Mamawag was already the municipal mayor of
Malaybalay (now a city). Although born of Ilocano
parents who, like many others, settled on the cool
mountain plateaus of Bukidnon, Mamawag married a
Higaunon girl, Eden Suclatan Tan-Nery, who was a
descendant of Datu Mansiagnao. But there was also a
pure-blooded Higaunon in the municipal council, Pepita
Caterial Ongkiatco (many of the natives had adapted to
the surnames of the migrant culture since Hispanic
times). That was probably one factor that spelled the
difference for Kaamulan since the start: that it was
conceived and implemented by people with real
indigenous genealogical lines.

The name Kaamulan is Binukid for "social gathering."
There are eight indigenous groups in Bukidnon: the
Matigsalug, Umayamnon, Ilianon, Pulangihon, Talaandig,
Tigwa Manobo, Western Bukidnon Manobo and the Higaunon
who are also found in the hinterlands of Agusan del
Sur, Misamis Oriental and Lanao del Norte. Comparative
linguistic studies have shown that their languages,
along with other Manobo languages of Mindanao, are
daughter languages of an earlier parent language
called Proto Manobo, the speakers of which were
believed to have migrated to southern Mindanao many
centuries ago.

Unlike other festivals, Kaamulan is not all street
theater pageantry, although that is only one of its
many facets. If other festivals have to stage-direct
schoolchildren and make them appear as natives, in
Kaamulan it is the real indigenous peoples who attract
the crowds. And which is probably why the authentic
rituals are what spice up the Kaamulan pageantry.

There is the pangampo (general worship), the
tagulambong ho datu (a political ritual marking one's
formal ascendancy to the datuship), the panumanod
(spiriting ceremony), the panlisig (edging away of
evil spirits), another ceremony called pamalas and a
native horse fight called kagsaba ho kabayo.

Dance clinics are held in the afternoons. These are
conducted by the indigenous peoples themselves, using
real native drums and musical instruments. Young
people who otherwise go "jamming" using CD compos and
portable disc players are the ones instead who are
drawn to these clinics like an ethnic Woodstock, truly
an educational alternative.

In the evenings, there are chants of the Bukidnon epic
olaging, recitations of the lyric poetry limbay, the
singing of ballads called idangdang, and other
literary forms such as bayok-bayok (verses), antoka
(riddles), nanangon (folk tales) and the tracing of
one's genealogy in debate form, the dasang.

Because it is the product of a well thought-out
research, and includes the participation of real
natives in its conceptualization and implementation,
Kaamulan has attracted its own following of
researchers. It is a heartwarming sight to see
students painstakingly taking notes, interviewing the
native folks. Kaamulan is a virtual Filipino culture
history laboratory, and its educational benefits to
many students cannot be underestimated.

Where otherwise we find "neo-ethnic" choreographies
and "modified" costumes in some of our festivals,
Kaamulan is everything authentic. Where other
festivals parade the town's patron saint à la Santo
Niño Ati-atihan or Sinulog-style, Kaamulan is no
copycat. If other festivals sashay to the beat of the
Ati-atihan even if the place had no Ati people to
begin with, Kaamulan follows only its indigenous
cadence. Kaamulan's charm is not in the frenzy of the
Ati-atihan, nor in the pomp and glitter of Sinulog.
Its charm lies in its authenticity.

Bukidnon has always been a refreshing destination, not
just for its climate but also for its montane vistas,
its Grand Canyon of the Philippines, its fog-laden
pine-wooded hills of Malaybalay City, its mighty
Pulangi River that becomes the Rio Grande de Mindanao
as it reaches the vast Cotabato plains. Perhaps the
best wonder of Bukidnon is its unique indigenous
culture.