I was wandering by myself in a little community in Lakewood, when I heard the sound of a flute somewhere. I followed the sound and I ended up in this little shack of a classroom, and to my surprise, it was filled with kids in bright ensembles.
I went inside and found out that the kids in the classroom were kids from the Subanen tribe of the Zamboanga Peninsula, and this little place was an initiative from two Subanen women to educate the younger kids of their tribe about their dying culture. I was told that the younger generation started getting ashamed of their heritage because of racism.
So the Subanen women started to round up the kids and they developed little classes where they would teach the kids their music, dance, how to play their traditional instruments, how to sing their chants, and how to create and embroider their traditional garments.
The classes seem to be working well--the kids seem close to each other, and they looked like they were having fun dancing and playing their instruments. The clothes they're wearing in the photographs are clothes that they made themselves.
This is me with Nilda, who founded this whole thing. She let me wear clothes that she made and embroidered. Later on, she also let me keep the beads that she's hanging on me here. Then she told me that I could pass off as a Subanen princess, which of course, made my month. Haha!
I'm so in awe of these Subanen women. They don't get paid for this, but they love their culture so well that they took the time to make sure that the traditions live in the next generation. I feel so privileged to have met them--I feel like they're heroines, coming up with such a passionate initiative. It's through people like them that our beautiful traditions manage to survive even as the world starts changing. To be able to share the story with you is a gift :)
