Introduction
From 1973 to 1975 my wife Elly and I stayed in the Philippines
as ONV volunteers. Just before we arrived the then acting president
Marcos had declared Martial Law to make it possible to establish
his New Society. A year later Mr Marcos announced a large scale
celebration, coinciding with the Miss World elections in Manila.
For the public, including all the Miss World candidates, an enormous
pageant was organized, representing all major events in the history
of the Philippines, from early times to the day the New Society
was proclaimed. Most of these representations were in the form
of a kind of tableaux vivants on large floats. The early
history and Southeast Asian origins of the country were symbolized
by a group of people at the very start of the pageant. They were
representatives of all ethnic minorities in the country. This,
to us, was the most impressive part of the pageant. Until that
day we had only seen pictures and artefacts of these people in
the museums. They were dressed in beautiful, colourful costumes
and they played gongs and bamboo instruments. I made as many pictures
as I could. They enjoyed being photographed, we exchanged many
smiles and the photographs came out very well.
We thought it a pity that we could not show these people the
results. But if they could come to Manila, then surely we could
go to their villages. We decided that we would find out how to
get there. At about the same time we had met with John Nance,
author of the book The Gentle Tasaday. He had good contacts
with Panamin (the Presidential Assistance to National Minorities)
founded by multi millionair Emanuel Elizalde. Mr Nance introduced
us to the Panamin staff. The result was that in the summer of
1974 we started out on our first trip to South East Mindanao.
It involved uncomfortable rides on all kinds of vehicles (mostly
former weapon carriers from the Vietnam war) and long and steep
hikes, sometimes for several days. But the results were highly
rewarding. We met with the people, and stayed in their villages.
The visit of two foreigners was obviously an occasion to celebrate
with dance and music. I made as many photographs as I could afford
(being an ONV volunteer, our budget was limited).
Later, back in Manila, I showed my pictures, many of which were
of music instruments and musicians, to dr. José Maceda,
ethnomusicologist of the University of the Philippines. This resulted
in the financing of two new trips, one to the south, and, several
years later, another trip to the north. The goal of these trips
was to document with photographs the making and playing of indigenous
music instruments. During these trips I also made lots of pictures
of the people in their festive and daily wear and of their activities.
We bought several music instruments and examples of weaving and
adornments; some were given to us. All this resulted in a small
but representative collection of textiles, personal adornments
and music instruments.
In the mean time we had noticed in the National museum in Manila
and in curio shops a bronze bell with a peculiar design. Later
we came across this bell over and over again, in the Philippines,
in Indonesia, in Thailand, in Nepal, etc. The search for this
bell and its history became sort of a sideline with long lasting
effects.
Elly Hemmes and Fekke de Jager
Venray (The Netherlands), 2005
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