Legarda invites Filipinos to Visit Weaving Demos at the National Museum

Sen. Loren Legarda donning a native-inspired attire. (Twitter photo)

MANILA — Senator Loren Legarda encouraged Filipinos on Saturday to visit the “Hibla ng Lahing Filipino” gallery at the National Museum in Manila every weekend to witness various weaving traditions continuously being practiced in indigenous communities in the country.

“As part of efforts to raise awareness on our culture of weaving and to ensure its continuity, the National Museum is organizing events that will further promote this tradition. From September to November this year, weavers from Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao will showcase their weaving traditions. I hope that Filipinos would be able to visit the Hibla gallery and witness these weaving demonstrations,” said Legarda, patron of Hibla, the country’s first permanent textile gallery.

For the month of September, weavers from Cordillera showcased their tradition, starting with Ifugao weavers from Kiangan, who demonstrated their craft last September 6 and 7, and Kalinga Weavers from Mabilong Weaving Center of Lubuagan, who showed their distinctive weaving design and pattern last September 21-22.

Weavers from Samoki, Mountain Province will demonstrate a distinctive style of weaving on a back-strap loom on September 27-28.For October and November, the National Museum invited weavers from Sagada as well as those from the Panay Island and Mindanao.

Weavers from Arevalo, Iloilo will demonstrate Sinamay weaving; the Indag-an Cooperative in Miag-ao, Iloilo will showcase patadyong weaving and its innovations; weavers from Bagaton, Bugasong in Antique will show their own style of patadyong weaving; and members of the Panay Bukidnon community will demonstrate their panubok embroidery.

Meanwhile, Maranao weavers from Tugaya in Lanao Del Sur will show their traditional back-strap loom weaving known as dagmay and langsay; weavers from the T’boli Weaving Center in Davao will feature their ikat weaving process on abaca textile; weavers from the Yakan Weaving Center in Zamboanga City will demonstrate their expertise in creating patterns from supplementary warp weaving; and Zamboanga-based Tausug weavers of Pis Siyabit will showcase their craft.

The weaving demonstrations can be viewed from 1:00-5:00 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays, at the Hibla gallery, located at the 4th Floor of the Museum of the Filipino People, Finance Road, Manila.

“These weaving demonstrations reveal the richness of our culture. We have many other weaving traditions as we see the various kinds of weaving patterns and designs in the textiles and items at the Hibla gallery. We will continue to collaborate with the National Museum in organizing more events that will heighten the awareness and renew the interest of Filipinos in our indigenous culture and heritage,” said Legarda.

In 2012, Legarda and the National Museum organized a lecture series on Philippine Traditional Textiles and Indigenous Knowledge, which included lectures from Dr. Maria Stanyukovich of Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in Russia; Dr. Lynne Milgram of Ontario College in Toronto; Dr. Patcharawee Tunprawat, a specialist in Cultural Heritage Management based in Bangkok; Hoang Thi To Quyen and Nguyen Thi Tuan Linh of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology; and Sonja Garcia, along with members of the Tudaya School of Living Tradition of the Bagobo Tagabawa Community who demonstrated weaving and making dyes from natural sources.