Monday, November 27, 2006 Davao's Migrant Museum By Id Acaylar
WE construct houses for residence and to build a home. Except one I visited very recently. It was not meant to be a residence, but a home.
It is called "Handumanan" by its owner, Art Aportadera, the regional director of the defunct Ministry of Human Settlements and now a sought-after development consultant.
He explained that five years ago while constructing the house in a land in Barangay Lacson that he inherited from his parents, Magdaleno and Josefa Aportadera, an old lady passed by and inquired what he was doing.
He said he was building a house to keep the relics of his parents.
The old woman retorted, "Aha! Handumanan." Indeed it is.
All over the place, from the ceiling to the floor are mementos, junks and debris from the old family residence on Suazo St., which was torn down after his mother died. Each item has a story to tell of the family's journey from Dingle, Iloilo to Davao City in the land of promise to search for a life of bliss.
Like other Davao migrants' stories, the Aportadera's is a tale of success for which Art credited his father for three important values: hard work, simplicity and efficiency.
In its simply unpretentious structures of ordinary materials, the desire not to waste resources was strongly evident.
Old doors, windows and balustrades from the old house were salvaged and imaginatively translocated. Worn tables, non-operational stove and even a ravaged toilet bowl were recycled for new and different purpose.
Idle equipment, languid furniture, quaint clothes, faded photographs and many other old items found new meaning in a new abode.
Handumanan is a heritage home, a reminder of the migrants who came to Davao and made it what it is today. It is Davao's Migrant Museum with a heart and soul that allows a rediscovery of the past and appreciation of the values of our forebears. A must-see, I should say, to Dabawenyos and visitors. Only if Art opens it to the public. Then, it can be Davao's answer to Thailand's M.R. Kukrit Pramoj Heritage Home.
