LOREN LEGARDA: Dayaw Season 4 Episode 1 - “The Past Masters”

0:00 [Music] 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

0:46 [Music] persist the living vessels that store da or knowledge our pride welcome to the fourth season of Dao 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

1:32 in the season of Dao 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 they a achievements must be [Music] recognized the gaad bay or the national Living Treasures award is a distinction accorded by the Philippine government to the finest traditional artists of the

2:19 [Music] land the search is conducted by the national commission for culture and the Arts in 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 [Music] artists we have a very rich uh tradition of uh people's art and um this is really a source of of identity for the Filipinos our traditional artists sometimes called craft people are the

3:07 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 um most accomplished Weavers uh art makers um storytellers and other kinds of traditional artist to Showcase uh the creative Spirit of the Filipino and that's why we really look for those uh people uh our Treasures that have been able to preserve our tradition from the earliest time to the present

3:52 unadulterated by commercial um well trappings or some um 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 it's not just a western culture that we have uh many uh we have embedded in us this

4:38 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

5:27 best the 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 Gaba 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 gift to this nation live on even in [Music]

6:19 death all who heard him play on the two string kyya 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 string loots popular among both the Islamic and animous people of mindo of its two strings one provided the rhythmic drone while the other has movable threets that allow Melodies to be played in two sets of pentatonic scales Scholars have described the music of the magao kapi as mystical delicate celebrative but all

7:05 words pale when one listens to existing footage of samon [Music] suan no explanations no academic notes can quite explain the hypnotic and sensual quality of his music the late great s suan a fantastic performer I was told by uh one Magano uh who's from a different part of uh of cotabato that when San plays he speaks and you can hear what he's saying and it's so beautiful he was really a wonderful artist on the kapi he really emed you Spirit of being Filipino cuz

7:52 for him it was not just his community although he lived in his community he worked there when when there were other EV in other parts of the Philippines invol involving Gaba he would go he went as far as Kalinga the idea of artist in our in our culture in our traditional culture is not a narrow specialist who does only art and does nothing else saman San is different because he was not just an artist in now he was a complete person he being an artist he being a c 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 now a Muslim

8:37 priest at the same time he was the favorite barber in his town in our traditional culture we have 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 canot understand how they tell how they how they especially could tell stories using this instrument [Music]

9:32 San suan 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 [Music] a chanter of epics and Storyteller from The maaga Valley in Palawan masino Inay

10:19 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 recorded in the forest of Brooks point where he chanted a portion of a Palawan epic he also demonstrated his skill at reciting the lyrical poem Kul 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 basil and Su a mix of large and small aong accompanied by the gimbal or tubar drum to the joy of the

11:06 villagers complimenting the music was a dancing of the women their feet beating out complimentary Rhythms on the bamboo floor of The Community House maso inaray of Brooks Point who was a Storyteller and musician he was able to uh Preserve the very important additions the T to a storytelling the um sanang and some musical em and uh unfortunately he passed away uh around 5 years ago but uh his children are continuing the tradition in books point in our search for the Exotic and

11:51 colorful other we often Overlook the true Gifts of a people in the case of maso inaray his gift mirrors the traditional Palawan 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 Inay was found worthy [Music]

13:00 we prioritize those uh 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 uh Crafts People artists like G belog who was a Manan that really devoted his own life to preserve as much as possible the ambahan tradition in Oriental M using the Surat Manan or what we call bayin no and so this is is really um a tradition worth preserving simply because in many other parts of the country this or by is no longer

13:50 used from orial 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 [Music] Images he also grew up using the Surat Manan the precolonial syllabary that links the Mangan to other Southeast Asian cultures his Mastery of this difficult form and his desire to revive and popularize it among the young Manan

14:36 made him worthy of the Gaba distinction today the Heritage that gin belog helped revive is carried on by his family his children who were his most Ardent students [Music] it doesn't seem surprising that the first batch of female gamaba aies were Weavers weaving is after all an art associated with women the skill of these gamaba winners covered difficult techniques such as weaving in abaka Ikat silk or even natural fibers

15:32 [Music] even today among the tiboli of Lake sebu the name of Lang dulai is spoken off in awe and admiration her Legacy is the first ever tiboli Weaver to be awarded the gaad bay extends far beyond her skill at weaving abaca fibers into tinala [Music]

16:17 cloth her Mastery of the process of dying the threads and producing both traditional as well as contemporary adaptations of these designs gained her many students and followers without any paper without any thing to copy long just ties Tes design makes designs and when uh this is uh dyed and woven the designs come out uh the is a Marvel of design intuitively done by the designer uh Lang dulai Andis

17:02 are very very proud of having her uh in fact they were so surprised during her funeral well some kind of U celebrity more than what the have witnessed uh when it comes to burying their High political officials other words even the high political officials were not buried in the same Grand manner uh as lulai especially during the necrological services we not but her Legacy will always remain simply because uh she made the tiolis much prouder because of her Creations what I do remember about Lula the legendary Lula is the fact that she had not only uh weaving virtuosity but she was also a

17:49 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 uh heard her once talking about what she had learned from the Gaba and about uh 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 relation 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 Gaba [Music]

18:36 schools [Music] fore foree [Music] wel [Music]

19:30 tamon is a from Del just like langai she was able to preserve the identity of the Bobo of dour through her very intricate and very colorful weaves she left a very very good uh legacy to her children although in a BAL the abaka eat produced by the Bobo is not as visually stunning as a tinala of the tiboli the Dual tinali patterns are more minute and difficult to execute salent Monon a tabwa bobo Weaver from bansalan davo Del Sur specialized in the complex

20:16 small scale eut technique salent Monon became the fast friend of uh lulai they were best friends they had a chance to meet each other father when they came to Manila for the awarding of the Gaba so when Lang opened her school Sinta was there she was a quieter person and I think very introspective cuz what I remember about her is she wouldn't let people come near her house she had a weaving house for of her own she would be alone before she wo and so all the time she would be weaving very [Music] perspective

21:02 [Music] Sal two other Weavers were also given the Gaba distinction while Lang dulai and selin tonon wo in abaka fiber the next two gawad Sam Bayan award spent their lives mastering different [Music]

21:54 fibers ha am uh from t uh is a very humble person this is one thing that you will see with you will uh realize when you look at all all without exception all they're very humble they don't have a concept of uh themselves as the source of power because the concept of their the source of the creative power is from the above from higher source God or the the great uh Divine spirit and they are just a CH pel of this creative spirit so this is what you notice in Amina appi a very humble person but she's very good in using her

22:41 intuition to create from just two or three strand very beautiful mats the mat or banig produced by the Weavers of unus 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 haja Amina appi's body of work was honored by the Gaba 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

23:28 kimak Kaa she was also an expert at all the stages of matte 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 [Music] 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 tou the pabit was a

24:16 square textile prized for the intricacy of its design as well as the suppleness of the silk Fred the tradition of silk weaving has long died out and is only recently being revived but in the work of darata saabi the colorful and complex design aesthetic of the taug pabit lived on in cotton and Commercial threads [Music] darata saabi of bangai parang in Holo

25:03 was perhaps the last master of this Jewel of Philippine textile never married she managed to attain Financial Independence through the weaving of pabit a woven Square 39x 40 in took 3 months to weave for her Masterworks she charged only 2,000 pesos a piece this is the quander that many of our traditional artists face saabi was a master of this pie haveit he really marel the intricacy of the design very finely detailed um very colorful are hoping that we will find somebody who is as good as her we

25:48 because we know that she was not the only one uh in her town or in her Province to really practice the tradition and I really really one of the admirers of this tradition and that hatas saab's Legacy should really [Music] continue if not for the efforts of the national commission for culture and the Arts and the late Susan Koo Medina we would have almost no documentation of this first set of gaad manang Bayan awardees sadly all of them have passed

26:35 on but their gifts to the nation are Immortal and must be acknowledged it's very important that they be recognized as important in a society where we only look at sometimes materialistic things as uh par indicators of success but you can see how how Spirit artists they come through but they're quiet mostly so you have to

27:21 honor that quietness they have a sense of self they know who they are and because they have mastered certain things vision is very [Music] clear why do we need to know about the deceased Gaba winners we have featured here and the one still living who will make up season 4 of daal 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 Filipino left you enriched inspired perhaps even saddened at their demise they affect us in ways

28:07 more profound than you can ever imagine the sound of a kapi a powerful chant a poem The gradually unfolding design of a textile in this fragmented world we live in what are these but frail Freds that link us to a deeper appreciation of who we are and what we may be losing in our culture this manik 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

28:53 that hopefully will come to Value da our knowledge our pride [Applause] [Music]