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Monday, September 05, 2005
SpeakOut: Whatever happened to Badian’s Banig Festival?
By Mario Norrito Apostol
MOST of us must be familiar with the banig, that humble mat one spreads on a wooden or bamboo floor at night when one goes to sleep and in the morning is simply rolled to be unfurled again in the evening.
In Badian where I live, 80 percent of the wives of farmers make a living from banig weaving. The process of making it is arduous beginning with the removal of thorns from the pandan plant (from which it is made), the dyeing and finally the weaving into the humble banig.
Because it is such a tedious process making it yet pitching only a very cheap price, children of weavers frown on it as a means of livelihood. They prefer instead to work in the city as domestic helpers and factory workers.
For this reason, the Banig Foundation was established in 2000. Its first project was the holding of a Banig Festival meant to draw attention to the plight of the banig weavers, and to highlight the banig’s place in Badian’s culture and tradition. The festival was a great success. No less than the Department of Tourism, several media outfits as well as local and foreign buyers and visitors trooped to the town to witness the celebration.
It baffles me why despite its success the festival was forgotten after that. Like the banig it celebrated, the festival was made to rot, and die a natural death. Whatever happened to the lofty dreams espoused in that festival years ago? This leads me to ask if that was only pursued for political ends. Was it?
(September 5, 2005 issue)
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