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TAWI-TAWI, Philippines –When it comes to legends, folklore, and other stories, indigenous communities often use oral tradition to pass them on. This preserves the culture and history of the indigenous people (IP). Unfortunately, some Filipino languages are dying.
Out of 183 Filipino languages identified by The Summer Institute of Linguistics, 96 of which are indigenous, 11 are considered to be “dying,” while 28 are “in trouble.”
With this, language conservation advocates created initiatives to preserve the Filipino language — from codifying language in a dictionary to promoting regional cinema and writing workshops.
Danielle Florendo, an Ibaloi native and artist from Baguio, also embraced this advocacy by writing and illustrating children’s storybooks in their native languages.
A personal advocacy
“I write and illustrate for IP communities, particularly for the Cordilleras, because I wanted to know more about my identity since I am an Ibaloi,” Florendo said.
Apart from her Ibaloi ancestry, she is also part Ilocano and Pangasinense which drew her to work on books connected to these communities.
The 27-year-old, who is also a Fine Arts lecturer at the University of the Philippines Baguio, has illustrated the books Si Fatima at ang Kwintangan Kayu by Christine Magpile, Pong Pong Ginatbong by Dr. Felicidad Prudente, Balitanay’s Laktob by Dr. Analyn Amores and Renalyn Albert, and Si Migoy, Ang Batang Tausug by Nelson Canlas and Dr. Isabel Cabel Moreno-Go.
‘The Legend of Uta Cave’ is the first book Danielle Florendo wrote. Most recently, Florendo debuted as an author with the publication of Kaub-ofuden Shin Lijang Utah (The Legend of Uta Cave). This is the first book she both authored and illustrated, in collaboration with the IP community of Balbalan, Kalinga.
It follows the story of a young boy who can see spirits, his encounter with the mischievous God of the Mountains, the Great Kabunyan, and an unusual rock with an unusual name (uta is the Salugsog word for vomit).
“The Legend of Uta Cave is a first-of-its-kind — a children’s book retelling a Kalinga province legend which is written in both the Salugsog Kalinga language and English,” said China Patria de Vera from Aklat Alamid, the book’s publisher.
There are other books about Kalinga legends, but Florendo’s is the first one to turn it into a picture book for kids written in their native language.
“I chose to retell a folklore from this community because I grew up close to a woman from there. I consider her my second mother and she used to take me to the mountains since I was 9,” Florendo said.
In a way, going back to that community felt like coming home for her.
She chose to retell the origin folklore of the famous Uta Cave because it is an integral part of the community’s culture. This idea was suggested by Florendo’s good friend and daycare center worker Teresa Masadao.
Florendo gives copies of the book to elementary and daycare teachers in Balbalan, Kalinga. All photos from Danielle Florendo“This cave is a water source for people that gives them many other important resources. I truly believe it should be a protected area because they face problems concerning mining and land degradation,” she explained.
While it is a tricky and controversial subject, she believes that the story has to be shared because of its importance to the IP community.
“I hope that the production and publication of this story can help with the preservation of the Cordilleras,” she added.
Apart from this deeper reason for retelling the folklore, Florendo also mentioned that the book touches a lot more on the IP community’s culture that other books do not usually talk about.
As a children’s storybook, it’s quite unusual to mention alcohol, death, and ceremonies, but these have certain meanings to their culture.
“I realized that the Philippines is full of rich and vivid culture that all of us should know about especially our youth, so what became my personal advocacy became an advocacy in pursuit of education,” Florendo said.
Collaborating with an indigenous group
The pursuit to understand and partner with an indigenous group was not an easy path for Florendo. Publishing The Legend of Uta Cave was a three-year journey.
Her first challenge was the travel from Baguio to Balbalan, which included a nine- to 12-hour bus ride, a two-hour jeepney ride, and an hour-long hike.
Florendo did this four times in a year, all while fulfilling her role as an instructor to college students.
She also had the problem of convincing the community to allow her to retell the story even if most of the elders had already given their approval.
“Some of them were hesitant because they weren’t fully aware of how things worked, what processes were gonna happen, and why I wanted to do it,” she said.
As a response, she gave talks on the importance of books and how they are materials that would preserve their culture. She also made sure that they were aware and guided every step of the way.
Florendo shared that the best way to keep their culture alive is by documenting and writing them down, which can be done by publishing books.
Writing the story took her a week, while the illustrations took her a month. But coordinating with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) turned out to be a lengthier process.
When producing work with IP communities, artists must obtain a Certificate of Precondition from the NCIP. This certification ensures that proper research was conducted and approved by the community elders of the partner IP community, in this case, of Balbalan.
“This was a full-on collaboration with the community because I was retelling their folklore. Stories coming from the community are owned by the community and not just by one person,” Florendo said.
She shared that there was a lot of paperwork for the book to be published, but it was worth the effort to put the Kalinga IP community as a co-author on the book cover.
Apart from the administrative work, Florendo also had to revise her drafts according to the comments of the elders.
“There was one scene where the main character goes to the forest to play his flute, but the elders said no one goes to the forest just to play music. I then had to change it to hunting,” Florendo shared.
There were also revisions in her illustrations. For instance, she changed the character’s clothing from tapis and bahag to dried leaves because the former had not existed yet at the time setting of the story.
The main character of the book, Dong Lianan, wears a covering made of dried grass instead of a bahag. For the translation, she was helped by a teacher in the community, Ferlina Maglia Meana, along with her fellow teachers.
“The book is also complete with every apostrophe and glottal stops. It teaches its readers how to pronounce the words so that anybody outside the community can learn how to read the book in the Salugsog language,” she said.
Growing up with arts, books
Art wasn’t alien to Florendo. She grew up with a coffee artist father, Patric Palasi, who introduced her to the wonders creativity brings.
Florendo comes from a family of artists. Leonard Aguinaldo, a renowned rubber-cut artist is her uncle; and Kat Palasi, a photographer, designer and owner of Abek Home, is her aunt.
“I was always surrounded by art growing up and I would say that they were the ones who pushed me into the art world,” Florendo said.
“I was probably born with a brush in my hand,” she joked, but also admitted that growing up, art was something she really wanted to do.
So, she went to art school as a kid and was trained in classical fine arts at a young age. This eventually led to her taking a fine arts course in UP Baguio.
Meanwhile, her mother was a teacher who always brought her secondhand books as pasalubong. She was always encouraged to read even at a young age.
“The combination of my dad’s and mom’s influences on me are definitely one of the reasons why I illustrate children’s books now,” she shared.
Florendo uses watercolor and acrylics in her art but she mostly dabbles in watercolor illustration.
She also learned techniques in digital art and experimented combining it with traditional styles. Eventually, she used both in her artworks through digital collaging.
Her career started to blossom when she won an art-making competition by Tahanan Books. They asked for an illustration of a girl cooking pinakbet.
Florendo tried her luck and won the competition. It turned out that the winner would be illustrating the book for an Ilocano folk song “Pong Pong Ginatbong.”
On her art style, Florendo said she tries to find tones, looks, and palettes that feature the Filipino identity.
“When I illustrate, especially for children’s books, I make sure that the world I’m building is very familiar to Filipino kids,” she explained.
She looks back at her past as a young girl, remembering the world and sceneries she grew up in.
“It’s usually orange and red — warm colors because we’re in a tropical area. I use it as a guide because a lot of the Filipino identify with those color patterns,” she said, explaining that her works are very colorful as she wants them to resemble Filipino fiestas.
Art for a greater good
It’s not just her art style that Florendo makes sure is relatable to her audiences. This is why she wanted The Legend of Uta Cave to be written in the local Kalinga language.
But her advocacy in supporting IP communities transcends education. When she learned that the village of the woman she considers her second mother did not have a clinic, she started worrying that they’re not getting enough resources.
Florendo wanted to help them in her own way.
According to her, the storybook’s royalties will all go to the IP community so they can build a clinic or provide essentials for the children.
Members of the IP community attend the book’s homecoming launch, along with teachers, leaders, and elders. “There were times when I cried because the paperwork took too long. I missed multiple grants, and times where I could have launched the book. I was very exhausted but I really persevered. This book has to see the light of day,” she said.
With a translation grant from the National Book Development Board, she was able to successfully complete her project and has officially launched the storybook.
In January, she launched the Aklat Alamid publication in its home, the Liglig village in Balbalan, Kalinga.
They donated about 60 copies of the books to the different barangays who were involved in the story, as a way to “give them back their own.”
The next months were dedicated to a book tour. From Baguio to Manila at the Philippine Book Festival, to the Iloilo Mega Book Fair, Atimonan Book Fair, and the Manila International Book Fair. Her books will also fly to Italy for the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.
They plan to end the book tour in October during the National Indigenous Peoples Month with a homecoming back to Balbalan.
A cultural dance presentation during the launch featured dances from Kalinga as a way of giving thanks. “I remember giving the books back to the teachers and how they were smiling because finally they had a children’s book that they could confidently read in their language,” she said.
It meant a lot to the people of Balbalan to see the book on the shelves of different bookstores and sites where people could finally purchase them.
“Their culture is now being talked about, not just in the mountains, but beyond it.” – Rappler.com
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