Passport to the Philippines a Success!

It’s Sunday, and the Passport to the Philippines that started Thursday is coming to a close. We are proud to announce that yesterday’s parade and performances were a success! It would not have been possible if not for all the Igorot families that came out to support and partake in this wonderful event. We were first unsure of how many people were attending because of the few responses from our BIBBAK members on Facebook and our Webpage. However, any questions and concerns about having enough participants to represent us Igorots were quickly answered when the line for the parade outside Navy Pier showed many Igorots eager to lead the Filipino parade.

The day started out cloudy, and the temperature was cool with a light mist in the air, but this didn’t hold back the smiles of all the lolos, lolas, parents, teens and young children. They held their ground dressed in their tapis and wanes. The younger children held their instruments while the teenage boys held their shield and spears. The men clung to their gangsas in anticipation, while the onlookers to our left, right and ahead took pictures and observed.

This is our third year doing the Passport to the Philippines event at Navy Pier, and some changes have taken place since our first time. The most pleasing of those are the increase number of new faces joining us; new not only to the event, but to BIBBAK-Illinois. This year, the women and girls also added a beautiful touch to their apparel by including beautiful flower arrangements, which were made by Raul, one of our new members. Again, thanks to Raul, the men and boys included tattoos to add more flavor to our already flavor-filled cultural recipe. Inside the Children’s Museum where we performed, we held our first Igorot workshop that featured coloring of pictures by Steve Limpkin, tattoos by Raul Buendia and the touristy-like picture board by Arlene Sadcopen.

Another pleasing alteration to our portion of the event was the focus of having our children do most of the dancing inside the museum. This was something we discussed in the beginning of the year: focus on our youth. Unlike the last two years, the adults performed the music on the side, while the children took the stage. Their first dance was the Tayao or Tayaw. After that, two of our younger boys, Royce and Darryl, performed the Bontoc war dance. Since there were many children in the audience, we pointed out that the bravery and courage displayed in the dance portrays the importance of using the Igorot trait of bravery and courage to stand up for good when bad things try to change us to bad people. The last dance was the Bendian in where all the children joined the lolas and some parents.

All, but one thing were great new changes/additions to our portion of the event. Ah, and what is that one sour apple you may ask? Well, we were asked prior to the event not to expose our ubet (buttocks), which is written more about in Rex’s blog (topic of g-strings). Maybe we can convince the event leaders next year to allow us to be truly “free” (at least those who want to be).

We are very pleased to see the change of attitude in some of our youth, who understandably had reservations about wearing the bahag or participating in dances. What may have been reservation in the eyes of our youth a month ago, turned into a sparkle of pride yesterday. This is such great and encouraging news because we live in a culture that can easily sway our children from their heritage.
For those who could not attend, we hope you plan on participating in more of our future events by keeping up with our events calendar. For those who attended: THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support! There are many pictures and videos currently circulating throughout Facebook, but for those who are not Facebook members, please enjoy a snippet of those pictures below. Also, please share this with your friends. Hope to see you all at our Early Summer Picnic in July (see event calendar)!