“KUNG sulongan kami, mulaban kami, alang-alang di ka mamatu sulong kaw man (If [a group] will try to enter and ruin our home, we will fight. Of course, we will fight for our land if someone will try to steal it from us),” 60-year-old Mandaya Maria Bundan-Bayon responded when asked if how she and her tribe respond to threats of land grabbing.
This strong statement from a Mandaya elder reflects how firm and unrivalled the tribe value their land and culture. Mandaya’s love for their culture and tradition is best showcased every Kalindugan Festival.
Celebrated in an upland community in Sitio Sangab, Barangay Pichon, Caraga, Davao Oriental, the festival celebrates the unity, strength, and pride of the Mandaya community in rising above adversities.
This year marks the 21st celebration of the festival and this outstanding culturally rich Indigenous People’s community that is part of the 13-sitio Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title-01 (CADT-01) has come a long way in protecting their ancestral domain, in promoting their culture, and exercising their leadership and self-determination.
“Kalindugan is one way of preserving the Mandaya culture, but above that it is our way of showing how strong we are as one community,” Tribal chief Christine Banugan said on Friday, October 25, 2019.
Banugan is the daughter of the tribe’s late former chief Likid Cupertino Banugan or Likid Cuper who was executed along with his brother and nephew by the New People’s Army (NPA) outside their house in poblacion Caraga town in what has been described as an overkill.
Kalindugan celebration
The merrymaking traditionally starts with “Panawagtawag sang Bakal’lag” or Prayer to the Spirits led by the community “balyan” (priestess).
In a short conversation with a day care center teacher Marivel Manlangit-Pawin, she shared that according to the elders, Bakal’lag is the highest form of worship of the Mandaya people with the intent of asking for blessing and guidance.
“Our elders will dance as if they were possessed by the spirits. We do this prayer before we start the festival ceremonies,” she said.
For this year, six entries from different CADT-01 schools gave presentations depicting their way of life, history, and traditions in the form of dances and songs. Most of their performances narrate about their tribe’s tales of struggle to have their ancestral domain.
Another common denominator of the performances was the young Mandaya’s portrayal of how Likid Cuper Banugan awaken the tribe’s spirit in preserving their culture and environment.
After the performances and speeches from invited guests namely Davao Oriental first district representative Corazon Nunez-Malanyaon, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples 11 director Geroncio Aguio, and Caraga mayor Alicia B. Mori, visitors were treated to a feast of traditional cuisines. Mandaya games such as “katut-katutan”, “bagudan”, “agut-agutan”, “gutgutan”, “busog-busugan”, “sumpitan”, “ligidan” and “padamaan” were also highlighted and played by the children.
A better Kalindugan
Unlike the previous years when performers had to brave the heat and downpour just to deliver their songs and dances, this year the performers were sheltered by the newly-constructed covered court.
“Karon first time naka experience mi na wala mi naulanan, nainitan tungod sa gibuhat na tabang sa gobyerno- ang covered court (For the first time, we need not to perform directly under the sun and rain because we have now a covered court/gym),” Jenefer Masangay-Agbot, a teacher of Panlaisan Elementary School.
Better road access to Sitio Sangab was also made possible by finally building a bridge. The roads were also better paved as compared the previous years, though it has yet to be fully concretized. The sitio is 21 kilometers away from Caraga’s highway.
“It is still under construction but it is definitely better than before. I believe with our community’s one voice and collected effort, progress and development will continue in our community. We have come a long way since the first Kalindugan and we thank our Likid for planting the seeds of progress, we are slowly harvesting it,” Banugan said.
Growing, preserving the Mandaya culture
The current chieftain emphasized that they’ll continue to preserve their culture as that is what their community is known for.
“We don’t encourage adopting neo-ethnic practices, we wanted to be authentic in our ways.
We view that the best way to preserve our culture is through IP Education curriculum and School of Living Traditions. We should not limit it in dances and songs, we should also push for our customary laws like rituals so we can effectively pass on the traditions to the generations to come,” Banugan said.
Sangab National High School teacher Redores Ansuban also shared that in their classes, they invite elders to teach the young Mandayas on different aspects of their culture including arts and literature.
Dagmay making is one of the highlights of their lectures.
“So far, the students are very active. They know and understand that when the time comes that the elders will be gone, no one will replace our elders but them,” Ansuban said.
Teacher Pawin, for her part, said that IP education in their community usually start early.
“In our day care center, we make sure that the language that we use is Minandaya. In this way, we teach them at a very young age the importance of speaking our dialect,” she said.
This Mandaya community in this part of Davao Oriental portrays the image of what an IP community should be vis a vis to their ancestral domain, culture and self-governance – united, culture-driven, and resilient.