Nine Tboli Women: Discretion

Nine Tboli Women:

Discretion

Nine Tboli Women:

Discretion

2022

Autobiographical recollection, impression on cornstarch,

and installation

Karl Castro (concept, concept development and artwork creation), Delia Anggol, Madia Tuan, Maria Todi, Mining Layol, Neneng Tohol, Nenita Kinan, Nida Anggol, Terry Man and Uyel Anggol (autobiographical detail), Marian Pastor Roces (concept and concept development), Sara Rivera (concept development), Jenita Eko (research and tranlation) Paul Formaran and Maria Fe P. Quiroga (curatorial assistance and translation), Maricel Hilario-Patiño (project administration and anthropological insight), Andre Rafael Agonoy (woodwork), Lester Ibarbia (assitance), Arnold Diano, Archie Opeña, Jaypee Gotera, Agnes Nantiza and Noralen Johnson (installation)

Slightly earlier, missionaries of

the Passionist Order, notably the figure of

former priest Rex Mansmann,

established Sta. Cruz Mission.

Among its innovations on social order

was the creation for the Manila market of

the traditional weftikat-dyed tnalak cloth,

by women who hence led

their communities into the transition

to the cash economy.

SAMA WOMEN AT A COMMUNITY MEETING WITH

THE RESEARCH TEAM IN MARIKI, ZAMBOANGA CITY.

The towns of Lake Sebu and Tboli

in what is now the province of

South Cotabato were formed during

a period—the same 1970s and

the years immediately before,

when Martial Law controls

were imposed on the entire nation.

These municipalities, incipient in

the 1960s, emerged from thick,

tropical rainforests penetrated by

a particular small set of

Christian missionaries and

Marcosian operatives. "Penetrated"

is used deliberately in this case.

A VIEW OF LAKE SEBU IN SOUTH COTABATO.

THE MALE MACHISMO OF

THE THEN-ESTABLISHED PRESIDENTIAL

ASSISTANT ON NATIONAL MINORITIES

(PANAMIN) WAS SHARPLY DEFINED BY

THE PATRIARCHAL EXERCISE OF LARGESSE

TOWARDS A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO

QUICKLY LEARNED TO TREAT ITS LEADER,

MANUEL (MANDA) ELIZALDE, JR.,

AS A GOD-LIKE PRESENCE AND FONT OF

GOODNESS AND RESOURCES.

Nine

Tboli

Women:

Discretion

Invisibilities

and seas: Grace

in the Sama islands

SAMA WOMEN AT A COMMUNITY MEETING WITH

THE RESEARCH TEAM IN MARIKI, ZAMBOANGA CITY.

They also understand that the

dislocations experienced in Sulu

increased momentum during the

Martial Law period that brought

war to the archipelago.

THIS IDEAL OF UNITY EMERGES FROM A CULTIVATED SENSIBILITY THAT KEEPS FAITH WITH PRE-ISLAMIC AND ISLAMIC-ANIMIST RITUALS PRESIDING OVER LIFE AND DEATH

IN THE SULU ARCHIPELAGO.

The word grace describes

the will to life of the participating

men and women in this project,

who wish it understood that

their desire to uphold

the ritualized Samalan sea-oriented

life of the past is neither belligerent

nor divisive. They seek a "One Sulu"

inclusive of Tausug and

Sama peoples, despite

historical asymmetries of power

between the language groups.

THE PROJECT COLLABORATORS ARE ACUTELY AWARE THAT THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF

THESE RITUALS IS THREATENED

BY FUNDAMENTALIST STRAINS

OF ISLAM, MODERNISM, AND INDEED CHRISTIANITY.

BALLED ABACA FIBER — BNOGO IN TBOLI — A RAW MATERIAL

IN MAKING THE IKAT-DYED CLOTH CALLED TNALAK.

MEETING THE TBOLI WOMEN TO INTRODUCE THE EXHIBITION PROJECT.

Mansmann, who has

many Tboli children

with different partners,

explains this conduct

via an embrace of

Tboli polygamy.

Elizalde's personification

of a beneficent

otherworldly being,

arriving by chopper

amidst the jungle and

departing via

the same bird,

brought patriarchy

to extreme levels.

IN THE HANDS OF

THESE RAVENOUS MALES—

OR IN THE VICINITY OF

THE IMPACT ZONE OF

THEIR CONTRASTING PRESENCE—

MANY TBOLI WOMEN

EXPERIENCED METAPHORIC OR

LITERAL SEXUAL PREDATION.

THE WOMEN WHOSE LIVES WERE OVERDETERMINED BY THE IMMENSE SUBTLY VIOLENT CHANGES

REPRESENTED BY THESE TWO MEN, SURVIVED WITH THEIR PERSONAE AND INDEED BAWDY HUMOR INTACT

In collaborating on an artwork

consisting of reproductions of

ikat warping frames for dyeing,

they tell their stories in a way that

reveals and conceals at the same time.

The ikat dyeing process itself is balance

of revealed and not revealed.

THE TBOLI WOMEN IN DIFFERENT WORKSHOPS WITH

THE EXHIBITION TEAM.

CURATOR MARIAN PASTOR (LEFT) AND PROJECT OFFICER

MARICEL P. HILARIO-PATIÑO (SECOND FROM LEFT) DURING A

MAPPING SESSION WITH THE TBOLI WOMEN.

RESEARCH PARTNER JENITA EKO (RIGHT) SHOWING ARTIST KARL CASTRO (CENTER) AND CURATOR MARIAN PASTOR ROCES (LEFT) A

WARPING FRAME USED IN MAKING TNALAK.

BY TACT, LEVITY, BRAVURA—AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, DISCRETION.

CONNER APAYAO
BALBALAN
BALENCIAGO MASS BASE
TOMIANGAN
NAPOCOR CAMP
NANENG MASS BASE
CAGALUAN MASS BASE
TANAP MASS BASE
MALUCUSOD MASS BASE
BASAO MASS BASE
BATONG BUHAY MASS BASE
MOUNT BINULUAN
HELD THE CORDILLERA
MASS PLENUM IN 1984
PLANNING OF SPLIT
MOUNT BINULUAN SIKUU'
MALLANGA
SUMADEL MASS BASE
PAY-ONG BANGAD
FULISONG BANGAD
BANGAD MASS BASE
TINGLAYAN
DANANAO MASS BASE.
MARKS BY JUANITA CHULSI AND
JUANITA D. CABABA
BITUAGAN
SADANGA
BELWANG MASS BASE
BUGNAY
BUGNAY GATE
MOUNTAIN BETWEEN
BASAO AND BUGNAY
BASAO
CHICO RIVER
NGIBAT
BUTBUT PROPER
LOCCONG
BUSCALAN
MOUNT CHUMANCHIL.
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M
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MARKS BY TINA BALWEG,
CAROLYN GAMBOA AND
MANDING TAYAB

THIS MAP COLLECTS SPATIAL RECOLLECTIONS OF

NINE TBOLI WOMEN WHO WERE TAKEN UP IN

THE EVENTS THAT INVOLVED THE ESTABLISHMENT OF

THE PRESIDENTIAL ASSISTANT FOR NATIONAL MINORITIES

(PANAMIN) ON ONE HAND, AND ON THE OTHER, STA. CRUZ MISSION.



TWO ALPHA MALES HEADED EITHER ORGANIZATION

AND THE WOMEN WERE AMONG THOSE DIRECTLY IMPACTED

BY THE ACTIVITIES OF EITHER MAN AND ORGANIZATION.

THEIR EXPERIENCES INCLUDED THE SHIFT FROM TRADITIONAL

TO MUTATED POLYGAMY, THE TRANSITION TO THE CASH ECONOMY,

AND THE SHIFT FROM BILATERAL KINSHIP TO PATRIARCHY.

Lake Sebu

South Cotabato

Kalinga

Tnalak

Cloth

Warp ikat dyed

Musa textilis Nee

Private Collection

Tnalak is the generally used term

to refer to the warp ikat-dyed textile form

of the Tboli of what is now South Cotabato.

In the recollection and current telling

of the women's stories, the rare cloth

of Musa textilis represents the Lake Sebu

Tboli transition to the cash economy;

and hence the medium the women understand

as self-empowering. This specimen,

degraded by time, was woven during

the 1970s period when the tnalak entered

the cash economy. It belongs to the set of

experiences when Tboli women learned

to cope with the introduction of virulent patriarchy

into their formerly mobile swidden culture,

traditionally organized along the lines

of bilateral kinship.

Tnalak

Cloth

Warp ikat dyed

Musa textilis Nee

Private Collection

Tnalak is the generally used term

to refer to the warp ikat-dyed textile form

of the Tboli of what is now South Cotabato.

In the recollection and current telling

of the women's stories, the rare cloth

of Musa textilis represents the Lake Sebu

Tboli transition to the cash economy;

and hence the medium the women understand

as self-empowering. This specimen,

degraded by time, was woven during

the 1970s period when the tnalak entered

the cash economy. It belongs to the set of

experiences when Tboli women learned

to cope with the introduction of virulent patriarchy

into their formerly mobile swidden culture,

traditionally organized along the lines

of bilateral kinship.

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