Wherever I am, the world comes after me. It offers me its busyness. It does not believe that I do not want it. Now I understand why the old poets of China went so far and high into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist. "The Old Poets of China" by Mary Oliver
Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light | A Lecture Demonstration, Performance, and Exhibit Launch
Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light | A Lecture Demonstration, Performance, and Exhibit Launch
Details
The UP Asian Center, in collaboration with the UPD Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts and the UP College of Fine Arts, will hold the "Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light," featuring a lecture demonstration, performances, and an exhibit launch on 6 June 2024, 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM, at the GT-Toyota Asian Center Auditorium, UP Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. The event is free and open to the public. Online pre-registration is recommended due to limited seating availability.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
This project highlights the role of the University of the Philippines Diliman as a space for indigenous and marginalized cultures to be expressed. Building on the Asian Center's history of opening its doors for traditional culture and expression, exemplified by the Pesta Igal series in 2010 which celebrates Sama Bajau music and dance, "Tampat Pag-addatan Sahaya: Place, Tradition and Light" aspires to share experiences, insights, and narratives that underscore why and how UP continues to be a haven for indigenous cultures.
Through a series of lectures by esteemed Southeast Asian experts on the Sama Bajau igal dance and kulintangan music ensemble traditions and a lecture-demonstration on the pansak dance tradition of the Sama Bangingi, this project not only provides a window into these underrepresented cultural expressions but also encourages dialogue on how the University can further champion inclusivity, diversity, and the preservation of the Philippines’ rich cultural heritage.
As a culmination of the lectures, a photo exhibit highlighting the pansak dance movements of the Sama Bangingi will be opened to the public for free.
This project is part of the UP Diliman Arts and Culture Festival 2024 with the theme “Pamamalagi and Pamamahagi.”
ABOUT THE LECTURE SPEAKERS
Igal in the Field, the University Stage, and Other Spaces: Continuities and Transformations HANAFI HUSSIN, Ph.D. Honorary Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University of Malaya
Professor Hanafi Hussin is an Honorary Professor in the Department of Southeast Asian Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Universiti Malaya. His main research focuses on Southeast Asian anthropology, particularly ritual and performing arts. He actively researches and publishes on rituals and identity of the Kadazandusun community of Sabah, particularly in Penmpang and Tuaran Sabah and Bajau and Bajau Laut/Sama Dilaut of the East Coast of Borneo and Southern Philippines. He previously served as the Dean of the Faculty of Creative Arts (2022-2024) and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (2016-2018). He also served as Head of the Maritime Community, Law, Policy and Governance Unit, Institute of Ocean and Earth Sciences (IOES), Head of Universiti Malaya Cultural and Heritage Research Centre (UMCHRC), and Head of Malaysian Population and Migration Research Centre (MPMRC), Universiti Malaya.
JUDETH JOHN BAPTIST Founder and President Southeast Asia Music Education Exchange
Judeth John Baptist was formerly the Senior Curator and Head of the Research and Resource Division of the Department of Sabah Museum. Over her 37-year tenure with the Museum, she conducted extensive ethnographic research and curated numerous exhibitions on material culture in Sabah. She has spent years of research on the religion, cosmology and customary law of many indigenous groups, including the Lotud of Tuaran, the Kadazan of Penampang, the Rungus of Kudat, and the Sama Bajau of Semporna. In 1990, she set up the Budaya Maju Cultural Troupe, comprising mostly indigenous youth from Kota Kinabalu to promote Sabahan arts and heritage. She also led the coordination of local efforts by state-run Persatuan Seni Budaya Sabah (Sabah Art and Culture Association) to participate in various international folk festivals organized by UNESCO and other international cultural agencies in South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Philippines and Cambodia. After retiring from the Museum in 2018, she founded the Southeast Asia Music Education Exchange (SEAMEX) of Sabah, a non-governmental organization that aims to support cultural documentation and research on Indigenous cultural heritage in Sabah Malaysia.
DATUK SA'ADILAH BIN HAJI ABDILLAH Head, International Bureau and Supreme Council Members United Sabah Bumis Organisation
Datuk Sa'adilah Bin Haji Abdillah, a Sama Bajau native of the Semporna District in Sabah, is a retired Civil/Public Service Officer of the Sabah State. He has co-organized several conferences including the International Conference on Bajau/Sama Diaspora, Maritime Southeast Asia Cultures, the International Conference on Bajau and Maritime Affairs in Southeast Asia (ICONBAJAU), the International Igal Festival, and the Festival Titik Bajau/Sama Semporna 2022. Sa'adilah Hj Abdillah holds a Doctor of Business Administration degree from Universiti Teknologi MARA and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy at the same university with a focus on “The Malay-Muslim Political Leadership Thought.” His research interests include popular progressivism, specifically, democratic political governance, progressive popular movement, reconnection of people and politics, community organizing capacities and capabilities building, and the study of Sama/Bajau traditional institutions in the era of democratization.
ABOUT THE LECTURE DEMONSTRATION
Pansak Sama Bangingi: Kinaesthetics, Convention and Improvisation
MATTHEW M. SANTAMARIA, Doctor of Law Professor, UP Asian Center Institut Latihan Sektor Awam Negeri
THE SAMA BANGINGI DANCE PERFORMERS Radzmina Tanjili Kiram Ignacio
Accompaniment: Titik Umaral by Sama Bangingi kulintangan ensemble musicians Marana Kapala, Lapila Calvi, Merita Adahani, Salasina Hunaini, and Amina Latpi
ABOUT THE PERFORMERS:
Radzmina Tanjili is a Sama Bangingi dance master based in Dakota, San Andres, Manila. She is acknowledged expert in the Sama Bangingi pansak tradition in her community. Originally from Campo Islam, Zamboanga City, she has served as consultant to several Philippine dance troupes in the United States and Australia.” She was one of the performers of the Laot, Lungsod, Langit: Mga Kuwentong Sama Dilaut (Bajaus) devised for the Department of Social Work and Development by playwright-director Ron Capinding with the assistance of Charles Yee in 2012.
Kiram Ignacio is a Sama Bangingi who hails from Kawit, Zamboanga City. He came to Manila in 1990 and since then worked in the area of Dakota, San Andres, Manila as a tricycle driver. He learned his pansak dancing skills from his mother when he was growing up in Zamboanga. Kiram was also part of the Laot, Lungsod, Langit production.
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
“Pansak Pusakah: A Visual-Kinetic Cultural Heritage of the Sama Bangingi” showcases the pansak dance movements by Radzmina Tanjili and Kiram Ignacio who are part of the diasporic Sama Bangingi communities living in San Andres, Manila.
This exhibit looks at the structured movement of the Sama Bangingi traditional pansak dance through the literal and figurative lenses of the structured image produced by the discipline and creative expression of photography.
THE PHOTOGRAPHER:
Marc San Valentin is an Associate Professor of Visual Communication. He earned his BFA (2000) and MFA (2015) from the University of the Philippines College of Fine Arts. After beginning his professional career in IT as part of the dot-com industry, he joined the UP Diliman Interactive Learning Center to develop interactive learning materials for various courses. He was later invited to teach at the College of Fine Arts and has been with the Department of Visual Communication for over fifteen years. He served as the department's chairperson for a cumulative period of almost a decade. He currently leads the College of Fine Arts as its Dean. His research interests and creative practice center around photography, photographic printmaking, and the active role of design and visual communication in society.
THE CURATOR:
MCM Santamaria is a Professor of Asian and Philippine Studies at the Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman. He served as Assistant Dean for Cultural Affairs of the same institution from 2021 to 2024. He has received the title of UP Artist from the University of the Philippines System. He is known for his works on Sama-Bajau ethnography, dance studies, ethnic conflict as well as law and religion in Southeast Asia. He received his Doctor of Law degree from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Law in 1999.
For inquiries, please contact us atThis email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call 891-8500 loc. 3586.
The Asian Center, University of the Philippines Diliman offers M.A. degrees in Asian Studies with four fields of specialization: Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and West Asia. The UP Asian Center also has an M.A. program in Philippine Studies that allows students to major in Philippine society and culture, Philippine foreign relations, or Philippine development studies. It also offers a Ph.D. program in Philippine Studies in conjunction with the College of Arts and Letters and the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy. For an overview of these graduate programs, click here. As an area studies institution, the Asian Center also publishes Asian Studies: Journal of Critical Perspectives on Asia, the latest issue of which can be downloaded at the journal's website.
Kiram Ignacio is a Sama Bangingi who hails from Kawit, Zamboanga City. He came to Manila in 1990 and since then worked in the area of Dakota, San Andres, Manila as a tricycle driver. He learned his pansak dancing skills from his mother when he was growing up in Zamboanga. Kiram was also part of the Laot, Lungsod, Langit production.
