As told in previous posts, I was informed while I was in Kulaman village that I was one of the five finalists in the inaugural F. Sionil Jose Young Writers Awards. I wanted a few things tribal to wear with my black long-sleeved shirt, skinny brown pants, and brown leather shoes, so I bought a tubaw (head scarf) and a kelepi (small sling bag made of native materials). The tubaw is simply a square plaid cloth that is mostly red. It’s a common item among the indigenous and the Islamized people of Mindanao. The kelepi is more interesting, and it will be the focus of this post.
I asked my mother to identify the materials that the bag is made of. She said that the main material is pawa, a kind of native bamboo, which is much smaller than regular bamboo. The black strips interweaved with the brown bamboo strips are nito, a vine that grows in forests. No paint, varnish, or any artificial coloring was used in my kelepi. The sling is made of abaca, a tree that looks like a banana and whose bark yields a very strong kind of fiber. The fiber used for the sling is braided. Pawa, nito, and abaca are Hiligaynon terms because it is the first language of my family. Unfortunately, I don’t know yet the counterparts of those terms in the Dulangan Manobo language.
I loved the kelepi since the first time I saw a sample of it. Weaving one obviously takes time and requires skill. When I learned from my mother how the craftsman has to make use of three different raw materials, I appreciated the output even more. The kelepi is now one of my most-prized possessions. I consider it more precious than the black leather wallet and the modern gadgets that I keep inside it.
as the things that Manobos put inside it.
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