Spotlight on ritual and tradition in Philippine Indigenous Textiles
THEY charm, they mesmerize, but they also represent significant periods in Philippine history. These are the geometric patterns found in select textiles from chosen indigenous groups in the Philippines, currently on view at Ayala Museum in Makati City.
Curated by Patricia Araneta, Ph.D. of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London, this exhibition is part of the indigenous Philippine textiles collection donated by Mercedes Zobel to the museum.
According to Araneta, these textiles came to be through weaving traditions passed on from generation to generation.
“A back strap loom loaned from lawyer Jose Arturo Tugade and Charisse Aquino-Tugade illustrate how portable weaving could be for the tribes with the setup easily done when moving from place to place. One of the oldest weaving technologies, this was also called a body tension loom as it is suspended by an elevated beam such as a tree with weaver’s body hung from their back. The threads are then organized by rods, which come in two forms—the laze rods, narrow and alternated to lift the even and odd threads, and the coil rod that has the thread wrapped around. The beams and rods usually stay where they are, while the heddle is a part that holds the threads in place and moved to create the patterns. The complexity of weaving depends upon the number of heddles used,” said her notes.
Textiles belonging to indigenous communities from the Cordilleras in Northern Philippines such as Bontoc, Gaddang, Isneg, Bugkalot, and the southern cultural groups in Mindanao that include Bagobo, Maguindanao, B’laan, and Maranao are equally represented in the exhibition, giving today’s Filipinos a glimpse of colorful roots. The Ayala Museum is open from Tuesdays to Sundays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., with email address hello@ayalamuseum.org.