LIVING TREASURE. Blaan master weaver Estelita Bantilan, 83, in her element at the mat weaving center in Malapatan, Sarangani Province. MindaNews Photo by Rommel Rebollido
MALUNGON, Sarangani (MindaNews / 2 December) – Instead of being busy with gadgets and social media as most of the young do these days, Charice Jabe spends hours interlacing dried strands of Romblon leaves to make colorful Igem place mats in intricate designs and patterns.
The 14-year old Jabe is one of several young Blaans in sitio Upper Lasang, Sapu Masla, Malapatan, Sarangani province, who took interest in learning their living traditions as their elders race against time from losing their customary practices and traditions to modernity.
Jabe earns P120 from each placemat she makes. She can only make one mat a day during school days and more during weekends and when school is off. But she said it is not the money she earns that is important.
“We need to learn and be good Igem weavers so we can also pass this to our younger generation,” Jabe said.
The young Igem weaving learners hone their skills in making table placemats before they embark on the larger mats.
CLOTH WEAVER. A Blaan weaver works with her gumabal to produce cloth for garments and accessories. MindaNews Photo by Rommel Rebollido
Like her best friend Jabe and several other Blaan teenagers, Kylee Ybone spends her time learning the art of weaving mats from Jabe’s great grandmother, 83-year old Estelita Bantilan.
Bantilan is considered a living treasure in their community for her unique talent as a master weaver. She was conferred the coveted Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan Award (Gamaba) in 2016. Gamaba is a version of the national artist award in traditional arts.
Speaking only in Blaan, Bantilan, who learned the craft from their elders when she was still a child, said one needs plenty of patience, determination, and quick thinking to intricately weave the thin leaves to produce colorful patterns and designs.
“Pursuing a pattern and design requires a mathematical mind and quick decision on where to interlace the dried leaves of different colors,” she said. Not having those abilities will take longer to finish a mat, she added.
YOUNG WEAVERS. Best friends Charice Jabe and Kylee Ybone weave place mats at the weaving center in Upper Lasang, Sarangani province to learn and also earn for their school allowance. MindaNews Photo by Rommel Rebollido
With her designs acclaimed as one of the most beautiful in southeast Asia, Bantilan takes at least a month to weave an Igem mat.
The NCCA helped Bantilan put up a mat weaving center in their village. She said the center’s purpose is not so much about earning but to preserve and sustain their Igem weaving tradition.
Bantilan, referred to in their village as princess, said she keeps on weaving mats not only to earn from it but to encourage and teach the young on the importance of preserving their tradition.
Learning the craft involves a tedious process that starts from harvesting the leaves of the Romblon plant, a type of screw pine that grows in abundance in the mountain-side village of Upper Lasang, overlooking the picturesque Sarangani Bay.
The Romblon plant has sword shaped leaves which are carefully shredded to its desired strand size and dried, making sure that it will not be brittle but instead draw a smooth and shiny texture, said Reziel Chris Tablo, a granddaughter of Bantilan’s.
In the hinterland community of Lamlifew, considered a village museum, in Datal Tampal, Malungon town, Sarangani province, women cloth weavers bonded together to form an association that partnered with a public school where they can teach traditional cloth weaving to children.
Rebecca Ayao, 60, the head of the association, said they started the idea of imparting the weaving skills ten years ago and had taught many of the young in the village of 2,000 households about how to weave in the traditional way.
In their traditional garment weaving, abaca fibers are dyed using the sap of the Kunalom tree that grows in the village. The abaca fibers are then woven using a Gumabal to form colorful patterns and designs typical in the Blaan apparel.
In recent days, however, traditional weavers already use colored threads to weave cloth with typical traditional patterns and designs.
The lure of modernity in the lowlands continues to attract young Blaans as they attend school or find jobs in the urban centers.
“We can only hope that they will be able to impart the skills and knowledge they learned and be able to share it to the coming generations,” Ayao said. (Rommel G. Rebollido/MindaNews)
