THE Kadayawan sa Dabaw Festival's Lumadnong Dula (Indigenous People's Games) that pitted the different non-Islamized tribes of Davao against each other was a peek into how games were before, how similar they are to what the Filipino games were, how they reflect the life they lived as forest dwellers and hunters, and how games are actually exercises of skills and brawn.
Skills and brawn were indeed showcased as the Bagobo Klata tribe proved they are a force to contend with, not only because it was their muse that won the hearts and votes of the judges in the Hiyas ng Kadayawan with the crowning of Inna Betil Garcia, the men and women grabbed the championship in the Lumadnong Dula as well. First runner-up was the Tagabawa tribe. Second runner-up was Obu Manuvu. Third runner-up was Matigsalug, and fourth runner-up was the Ata Manobo.
"For the last two years, the Klata and Tagabawa tribes were always behind in points, placing them either third runner-up or fourth runner-up," said Jose Tomas Iñigo of the Sports Development Division of the City Mayor's Office (SDD-CMO), who was the coordinator for the annual tribal games. "Both tribes prepared for this event."
The tribal games were:
Siklot played by the womenfolk. It is similar to pick-up sticks but the materials used are the stalks from cassava leaves.
Sisibow is similar to our childhood game of syatong where players it a shorter piece of bamboo with a longer one. But it's like a fusion of bowling as the shorter bamboo is whacked to hit three pieces of bamboo placed like a teepee on the ground a distance away. Unlike our syatong, too, this is played by adult tribes people who whack the pieces of wood in such a way as one can get injured if you're hit. But they're careful and they take hitting the target seriously.
Solopot finds the menfolk using blow darts to hit a hanging target. Blow darts are used for hunting, as well as capturing an opponent, in the days when these tribes were still forest dwellers policing themselves and keeping an army of real tribal warriors (not the corrupted paramilitary ones). The hanging target is a banana heart, which is soft enough to be pierced by a dart, but resilient enough not to be torn apart.
The pano is the indigenous people's bow and arrow, another target game that emanates from the hunting activity while they were still forest-dweller, the same with Bubontog, or spear throwing, where menfolk try to hit a moving object, like hunting a wild boar.
Sakoro/Sikaddo is a race among women in fetching water.
Totaringki is a contest of making fire with the use of pieces of bamboo and some dried moss. The bamboo are made to create friction by rubbing each other until it heats up enough to fire up the inflammable dried moss.
Husoroy is their tug of war participated in by the strongest of the tribes.
Kakasing is like our playing tops or gyros except that these are made of solid wood, made from branches and shaped into a top, the bottom part of which is sharp. The contest is who gets to keep his top spinning the longest.
Karang are bamboos stilts which men stand on and raise against each other like horses. There are no slow hesitant stilt-walking here. Rather, it's a running race, the bamboo hitting the ground sounding much like horses' hooves.
Then there is the Bibinayo, which gather a man and three women to pound rice and produce the most amount of hulled rice in the shortest time. The rhythmic pounding of four pestles into one big wooden mortar is like percussions playing, and they have to be well coordinated lest they hit each other instead.
The Islamized or Moro tribes had three different sets of games because with their different history, the forest-inspired games are not familiar to them.
The Moro tribes residing in Davao competed in three games familiar to them.
The Sipa sa Manggis is using a sipa to hit a hanging target. The Sipa sa Lama is like our takyan but with more grace and ceremony. Five team members try to keep the sepak takraw ball from hitting the ground for as long as they can.
The menfolk dress up for this, their resplendent polos and a headwear and not in their loose slacks, but in malongs. Attached to the inner ankle of their dominant foot used to hit the sipa (ball) is a dalapi, a piece of wood tied to the foot to protect it from getting bruise through constantly hitting the ball. But it's not just a piece of wood, it has the Okir carvings common among the Moro people. Held by the hand opposite the leg used to hit the ball, the player holds a Khadat, a long strap of embroidered cloth that is wacked to create a sound while at the same time, the downward movement of the hand used to make the sound from the Khadat is to counter-balance the hitting of the ball with the opposite foot.
Both games were won by the Maranao tribe.
The Kanggaro Taya, the Moro version of tug-of-war, was won by the Kagan tribe.
(Photos by Seth delos Reyes, Christian Mark Lim, and Generose Tecson)