Throughout the whole exhibit I have learned that B’laan tribe really has this amazing culture.

Albeit, I have always heard about them, see some of their works and has a bit of knowledge that I
have acquired from books, I’m still flabbergasted on how wonderful this ethnic group is. Truly, to
see and to experience is to believe. By making the exhibit I, along with my classmates did a
thorough research about them and found out astonishing things such as we Filipino’s have more
than 40 different ethnic groups, and that B’laan is a community that reside in the southern part of
Mindanao and their culture is living for more than 7000 years already. Their name could have
derived from "bla" meaning "opponent" and the suffix "an" meaning "people". Other terms used to
refer to this group are Blaan, Bira-an, Baraan, Vilanes, and Bilanes. Up until today this admirable
people still wear their colourful garments and play their ritual music; they dance their native
dances, and sing their tribal songs in sacred chants.
I as well as my peers was assigned to sing this song in which they called “Kastifun” which means
a feast or a celebration. We sang “Kastifun” because we portray or internalize being a B’laan that
day, and we thought that people who want to gain knowledge or want to know us as well as our
tribe calls for a celebration and a feast. While the exhibit was about to start we felt very uneasy,
anxious, uptight and excited different emotions keep coming as every deciseconds pass by. Yet
hroughout the whole performance we did not just sang, it may be too corny for me to say this but
we sang it with from the bottom of our heart. And then we sang another song called
“Salugamudani” which means welcome. We sang that song because that was our way to give a
warm welcome to our judges that day. We have also did display some musical instruments such
as “Kudlung” a Two stringed lute made of wood, one string for the melody, one for the drone. Eight
frets originally held in place placed on the neck of the lute by a sticky rubbery substance,
called sicoco. And we also show off their “Gong” or what they call Falimak I learned that Gong’s
are not only used in music, it is also used when their is wedding  and occasions. And on the other
side the man’s wealth and status depends on the gong.The more gongs that a man obtain the
greater the mans wealth and status. Three large gongs, can be used to pay the dowry for the
family of the bride.
Despite the fact that I was not part of the “Fdayen” or the courtship dance performed by my peers I
was able to acquire some knowledge regarding this dance this dance display  a set of behaviors in
which an a male attempts to attract a female and exhibit their desire to copulate. These behaviors
often include ritualized movement, vocalizations, mechanical sound production, or displays of
beauty, strength, or agonistic ability. By performing this this display or allows the male to present
his traits or abilities to a female and a well as the female towards the male.
I discover that B’laan has a similarities of weaving with Bagobos. I have also watched different
videos on how they weave, It looks so easy but it’s harder than balancing a balance sheet. For
example they elegantly pull some abaca strands and then makes a loop at the end then join them
again to form a loop and then the rest is a history of a wonderfuly woven cloth. They also have this
amazing beadworks, beads that comes with different colours producing a rich colour pallets and
nice texture.
This exhibit did not just educate me about the B’laans culture but also I did improve my
interpersonal skills towards my classmates. Amidst the chaos the difficulties and the challenges
we have faced we work as one to create such as wonderful output, the shared bonding and
memories we made is impossible to forget. Those chaos we have faced made our subdued
capacity balsted to its maximum tdecibels. And most importantly this teaches me on how to
respect them as well as other ethnic groups. They are often stereotyped, often mocked and
mistreated by other people for being different not knowing this culture and ethnic group create a
big impact on the continuous progress of our own country, the Philippines. I wish people would
take time on learning about them, the culture the traditions because being appreciated really does
make them happy. This exhibit has a a direct impact on me. We invest so much time on learning
foreign culture yet our culture is way richer yet less appreciated. “Democracy is not enough if the
culture dies the country dies as well” –Pat Butchan