LESSON 4
THE CONTEMPORARY IN TRADITIONAL ART: GAWAD
SA MALILIKHA NG BAYAN (GAMBA)
TEOFILO GARCIA
• 2012 AWARDEE
• A FARMER FROM SAN QUINTIN (A
MUNICIPALITY IN ABRA PROVINCE)
• KNOWN FOR TENDING A PLOT OF LAND FILLED
WITH UPO (GOURD)
• HE WOULD TRANSFORM THE HARVEST INTO
DURABLE HATS
THE PROCESS
• EACH UPO OR TABUNGAW(ILOKANO) IS
HOLLOWED OUT, POLISHED, AND THEN
VARNISHED
• THIN STRIPS OF RATTAN OR UWAY ARE
WOVEN TO LINE THE HAT, WHILE ANOTHER
TYPE OF INTRICATE WEAVE, USUALLY MADE
OF FERN OR NITO, IS PLACED ON THE MOUTH
OF THE HAT AS A DECORATION
• SIMPLE HAND TOOLS ARE USED TO GOUGE THE
INSIDE OF THE TABUNGAW
HIS ARTISTIC RENDERING OF S FUCTIONAL OBJEXT,
DEDICATION TO CRAFT AND COMMITMENT TO THE
COMMUNITY MAKE HIM A BEARER OF CULTURE
PHILIPPINE TRADITIONAL ART, THOUGH BASED ON
LONG-STANDING, ESTABLISHED PRACTICES, HAS
ALWAYS BEEN CONTEMPORARY IN THE SENSE
THAT IT IS THE ART THAT S BEING MADE NOW,
AND THAT IT PERSITS AS PART OF A CONTINUING
PERFORMANCE
GAMABA
Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan
What is the GAMABA?
• National Living Treasures Award or Gawad sa
Manlilikha ng Bayan is conferred to a group of
artists recognized by the Government of the
Philippines for their contributions to the
country’s intangible cultural heritage
• A recipient of the award, is known as a National
Living Treasures or Manlilikha ng Bayan
• group of Filipino citizens engaged in any
traditional art uniquely Filipino
TEOFILO GARCIA
• Garcia has been named Manlilikhang Bayan
("one who creates for the country") or National
Living Treasure
• Republic Act No. 7355
• National Commission for Culture and the Arts
(NCCA) - bestows highest awards for culture and
the arts, including the National Artist Award
• recognize the outstanding work of artists in the
Philippines
• emphasizes on the intangible and communal
aspects of art production
Traditional Art
• based on indigenous peoples' cultures that are
largely honed by oral tradition.
• finds deep affinities with nature, place, society,
ritual and spirituality, and everyday life
• In traditional integrative art, forms and
expressions do not normally end up as objects
distanced from everyday living.
• process of creation is usually shared among
members of the community, and appeals to
broader aspects of life
• Things produced such as textiles, hats, baskets,
or utensils are commonplace, usually found and
used in people's homes.
 • Songs and dances are performed as a group as Ethnicity/ Location: Tagabawa Bagobo/Bansalan Davao
part of ritual and as a way of affirming one's del Sur, southeastern Mindanao island, southern
cultural identity or sense of belonging. Philippines

Expertise: inabal weaving

Who are the GAMABA Awardees? She was awarded for fully demonstrating the creative
and expressive aspects of the Bagobo abaca ikat
weaving called inabal at a time when such art is
• Lang Dulay threatended with extinction

• Form: Weaving

• Year of Conferment: 1998 Darhata Sawabi

• Ethnicity/ Location: T'boli/ Lake Sebu, South Form: Weaving

Cotabato, southern Philippines
• Expertise: tinalak weaving
• Tnalak- a kind of fabric made up of fine abaca
fibers weaved with different designs which
reflect the traditions of the Tboli.
Magdalena Gamayo
Year of Conferment: 2004
Ethnicity/ Location: Tausug/Parang. Sulu, southern
philippines
Expertise: pis siyabit weaving
Despite the conflict in Jolo, Sawabi's dedication to her
art enhanced the preservation of traditional Tausug
designs

Form: Weaving

Year of Conferment: 2012 Haja Amina Appi

Ethnicity/ Location: Ilocano/Pinili, Ilocos Norte, norhern

Luzon island, northern Philippines
Form: Weaving
Expertise: inabel weaving
Year of Conferment: 2004
Took up weaving when she was 16, guided by her aunt’s
Ethnicity/ Location: Sama/ Tandubas, Tawi- Tawi,
patterns. She received her first loom from her father
southern Philippines
three years later, which she would end up using for 30
years. She taught herself traditional patterns, such as Expertise: mat weaving
kusikus (whirlwind), marurup (Milky Way), and sinan
Their mat is made up of pandan leaves which undergo
paddak ti pusa (cat’s pawprint), building on the more
tedious processes from stripping, to sun drying, to
common inuritan (geometric design) and sinan-sabong
dyeing, up to weaving
(flowers).

Gamayo’s skill and instinct are none more apparent

than they are in her ability to replicate designs she’s Literature and Performing Arts
only seen once.
Ginaw Bilog

Year of Conferment: 1993

Salinta Monon
Ethnicity/ Location: Hanunoo Mangyan/ Mansalay,
Form: Weaving Oriental Mindoro, central Philippines
Year of Conferment: 1998 Expertise: surat Mangyan and ambahan poetry
Advocate of preserving the traditional form of his tribe Philippines Expertise: chanting the sugidanon epic of
called Ambahan the Panay Bukidnon

Ambahan - a kind of poem consisting of seven - syllable

lines which most of the time contains messages of love
Uwang Ahadas
and friendship.
Year of Conferment: 2000

Ethnicity/ Location: Yakan/Larnitan, Basilan island,

Masino Intaray
southern philippines Expertise: playing Yakan musical
Year of Conferment: 1993 instruments

Ethnicity/ Location: Pala’wan/ Brookes Point, Palawan

island, central philippines Expertise: lyrical poems
Eduardo Mutuc
(kulilal, basal, and bagit) and playing their accompanying
instruments: epic chanting and storytelling Year of Conferment: 2004

Ethnicity/ Location: Kapampangan/ Apalit, Pampanga,

central Luzon island, northern Philippines
Samaon Sulaiman
Expertise: silver plating of religious and secular art
Year of Conferment: 1993
This self-taught master craftsman found his calling in
Ethnicity/ Location: Maguindanao/ Mama sa Pano,
producing religious and secular art in silver, bronze and
Maguindanao, western mindanao island, southern
wood. In doing so, and in his pursuit of perfection for
Philippines Expertise: playing the kudyapi
himself and his apprentices, he assures the continuity
• He was awarded for his outstanding artistry and of this rich tradition.
dedication to his chosen instrument, the
Maguindanao kutyapi.
Teofilo Garcia
• Kutyapi is a two-stringed plucked lute, regarded
as one of the most technically demanding and
difficult to master among Filipino traditional
instruments Year of Conferment: 2012

Ethnicity/ Location: Ilocano/ San Quintin, Abra,

Alonzo Saclag
Year of Conferment: 2000
Ethnicity/ Location: Kalinga/ Lubuagan, Kalinga,
northern Luzon island, northern Philippines
Expertise: playing Kalinga musical instruments; dance
patterns and movements associated with rituals
Did not receive any formal education in performing arts
but still he mastered the choreography and musical
instruments of Kalinga just by observation and practice
northern Luzon island, northern philipppines
Expertise: gourd casque making
Tabungaw Hat Maker
The hat called a Kattukong is weatherproof
and made from Upo (tagalog) or Tabungaw (Ilocano),
also known as Bottle Gourd or White Pumpkin which
are part of the Cucurbitaceae family of plants.

Federico Cabaltero

Year of Conferment: 2000 Ethnicity/ Location: Sulod

Bukidnon/ Calinog Iloilo Panay Island, central
The Production Process and employment from these industries, to make
ends meet in a money economy
The Changing Environment
MILITARIZATION

 Insecurity and tensions brought by militarized

The traditional artist mode of production continues to
zones arrest the people’s ability to create art.
be affected with the dynamic of change.
 Prevents people from having communal
 Calamities
gatherings, where exchange and passing of
 Modernization knowledge can take place.

 Capitalistic endeavors

 Displaces the indigenous people from their CHRISTIANIZATION

ancestral land.
 Their home-based, is considered a paramount
importance because this is were the resources
are gathered and shared and where culture are
performed.
TOURISM
 Land areas converted into sites for tourist
consumption.
 Ecological domain became more susceptible to
damage,with the combined forces of natural
disaster and tourist mobility.
 DANCES and RITUALS are staged for audience,
rather than for community observance of
tradition.
 Art forms in the community tend to diminish in
quality.
 Influence of Christianity and the conversion of
the natives to a foreign religion have caused
members of the community to forsake their
indigenous rituals and traditions.
 They are led to believe that the latter are
primitive and therefore practice has no place in
contemporary culture.
 The community finds a way to syncretize their
indigenous ways with tradition of Christianity.
ex.
The Manobo Community initiated a “ culture
regeneration movement’’ as christian converts.
Sought for the revival of their traditions by holding
clan reunions, employing native wedding rites, and
recalling naratives of their culture through painting.

 Their works are transformed into mass souvenir

in order to meet the demands of tourist trade.

 Neon colors and design woven in synthetic

fibers had been made available appropriate of
traditional textile design for commercial
purposes.

MINING AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

 Constructions of dams and the establishment of

oil and mining companies evict people from
their dwellings and severely damaged
environment.

 Deprived of the bounty of land, indigenous

people are prompted to seek-short term
DIFFICULTIES IN THE SELECTION PROCESS

The archipelagic orientation of the Philippines

makes some locations challenging to reach by land,
air, or sea. Places that pose security risks,
particularly militarized zones prevent the sustained
entry of researchers and possibly diminish a
reception outside of the locality.

Effect of the GAMABA in the communities

Since the artists are very much entrenched in their

localities, the award system might create a division
within the communities when one person is
elevated to the status of the national awardee.

The attention of the and the entry of the outsiders

may create a disruption that may also change, not
just the social and economic relationships, but also
the people’s attitude, concepts and definitions of
the art forms and the processes.

The traditional arts are strongly in Culture,

spirituality, and religion ,and also the environment.

Thus, forms produced by GAMABA while having a

high aesthetic value, are also functional and
accessible in everyday settings.

The changing time continue to pose major

challenges to the environment and the traditional
artist’s production process.

The roles of GAMABA is to pass on their artistic

knowledge to the community, to inspire them, and
to ensure that aspects of their cultural identity
continue to thrive.