Iranun people
Born unknown, Sultan Kudarat, Mindanao, The Philippines
Live and work in Sultan Kudarat
 

Iranun artists Ulih Acub, Maimona Kusain and Minal P Salunsun live in the municipality of Sultan Kudarat, in Maguindanao del Norte. For the Triennial, they have created a group of bukabok, ceremonial lidded baskets made from woven tikug (sedge grass) that are often associated with weddings and auspicious occasions. Used to hold aromatic rice or corn grains, these brightly coloured baskets are decorated with Sarimanok, the legendary bird that is sacred to many Islamic peoples in Mindanao.
 

Harija Alaw
Tausug people
Born 1968, The Philippines
Nadia Allih
Tausug people
Born 1984, The Philippines

Live and work in Guimba Lagasan, Parang, Sulu Province, The Philippines

Pis syabit are the most refined of Tausug textiles and are indicative of the mingling of cultures, religions and trade in the Mindanao region, with elements of Islamic belief combined with Hindu and Buddhist influences. ‘Pis’ refers to the patterns, and ‘syabit’ to the hook or tapestry technique used to create them. They are usually made from cotton, silk or polyester on a backstrap loom. Motifs are passed between mothers and daughters, with designs derived from nature and daily life — including fish, houses, jackfruit and dragonflies —and rendered as intricate geometric patterns that follow principles of symmetry.

Artists Nadia Allih and Harija Alaw are associated with the Guimba Lagasan Handloom Association in Parang, Sulu. Along with fellow weavers Karma Gadjali Amilbangsa and her daughter Ruhina Rajik Muhaimer, they were apprentices of Darhata Sawabi (1943–2005), a nationally recognised Tausug weaver renowned for her skill with pis syabit.
 

Karma Gadjali Amilbangsa
Tausug people
Born 1976, The Philippines
Ruhina Rajik Muhaimer
Tausug people
Born 1994, The Philippines

Live and work in Kasamalan, Maimbung, Sulu Province, The Philippines
 

Karma Gadjali Amilbangsa and her daughter Ruhina Rajik Muhaimer make the refined pis syabit textiles of the Tausug people, featuring intricate geometric patterns that follow principles of symmetry. Pis syabit — ‘pis’ refers to the patterns, and ‘syabit’ to the hook or tapestry technique used to create them — are usually made on a backstrap loom from cotton, silk or polyester. Motifs are passed between mothers and daughters, with designs derived from nature and daily life, including fish, houses, jackfruit and dragonflies. Customarily worn by Tausug men as a head cloth, they are representative of the mingling of cultures, religions and trade in the Mindanao region, with elements of Islamic belief combined with Hindu and Buddhist influences.

Ruhina and Karma are associated with the Guimba Lagasan Handloom Association in Parang, Sulu. Along with fellow weavers Nadia Allih and Harija Alaw, they were apprentices of Darhata Sawabi (1943–2005), a nationally recognised Tausug weaver renowned for her skill with pis syabit.
 

Tausug people
Born 1995, The Philippines
Lives and works in Lawm Suwah, Parang, Sulu Province, The Philippines

Krisher Bayani Appay is a Tausug artist who lives and works in Sulu, an island and province that forms part of the Sulu Archipelago and the broader Mindanao region. She is known for her Habul Tyahian, hand-embroidered satin fabrics showing motifs associated with Muslim beliefs. On colourful satin backgrounds, embroidered motifs form continuous, linear patterns of three or five lines using the ukkil — a unique visual language of vegetal and flowing forms with its own grammar and vocabulary. Motifs include flowers such as the kayapo (lotus); nayaga (dragons or serpents), sulam (leaves) and bagun-bagun (vines).

Appay describes her works as a means to promote cultural identity and help women to be acknowledged as important players in community development, including the quest for a peaceful community. On display for the Triennial, Appay’s Habul Tyahian features cerulean satin embroidered with a three-line floral motif.
 

Born 1984, The Philippines
Lives and works in Quezon City, Metro Manila, The Philippines

Adjani Arumpac’s Count explores data generated in a milieu of oppression. Set during the Philippine pandemic lockdown (the longest in the world, enforced with strict police rule), it ruminates on the rhythmic formal patterns found in the everyday. Folding in news of the outside world, bearing numbers of the brutal Philippine Drug War and COVID-19 fatalities, it seeks to map how the spectre of a colonial history impinges on the daily contemporary life of a middle-class family. The film begins with Arumpac teaching her sons about counting; as the family is engaged in everyday activities and online learning, the world outside rushes in through TV news clips, sounds, and memories of situations where counting (and accounting) led to loss and suffering.

Arumpac’s lifetime work is an ongoing auto-ethnographical trilogy of full-length documentary films, told through the intimate lens of her family. The first two parts are Walai 2006 and War is a Tender Thing 2013. Additional short documentary projects on Mindanao include Food for Peace 2017; Marawi did not take place 2019; and Project Padian 2019. Arumpac is also a member of RESBAK (Respond and Break the Silence Against the Killings).
 

Yakan people
Born 1973, The Philippines
Lives and works in Parangbasak, Basilan Province, The Philippines

Bilma Ausalin Hatamun belongs to a family of four generations of Yakan weavers in Basilan who trace their lineage from the nationally recognised artist Ambalang Ausalin (1943–2022). Basilan has not seen war for at least three generations, allowing culture and the arts to thrive. The Yakan practise Islam but with the integration of indigenous beliefs, like many of the Moro communities in Mindanao.

There are various types of Yakan weaving (tennun), though all follow ordered geometric symmetries representative of nature and Islamic geometry. Included in the Triennial are two examples of Hatamun’s bunga sama works, executed in red and in a rainbow array, composed of hexagons and rhombuses to form diamonds. Diamonds often represent rice and rice grains, a symbol of wealth and bountiful harvest. Other motifs include rice mortars, mountains, leaves, fish, crabs, birds and the python skin (snakes are sacred and considered guides to the spirit world).
 

Born 1975, The Philippines
Lives and works in Manila and Iligan City, The Philippines

Kiri Dalena is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work addresses social and political injustices, particularly in the Philippines.

In her evocative short film Mag-uuma (Farmer) – Lamentation by Melfe Ebalang from Valencia, Bukidnon 2014, Dalena filmed a young woman singing a haunting ballad of poverty and injustice. The woman, Melfe Ebalang, stands in a rice field, where farmers stopped work to listen to her sing. While covering the struggles of farmers and Indigenous people in Mindanao in 2014, Dalena had first encountered Ebalang singing during a protest.

Dalena, who has worked as a human rights volunteer, comments that what is usually expected of her in peasant communities is to document human rights abuses in the form of testimonies and interviews. When asked what inspired her to make this work, she replied: ‘These songs can awaken something that I thought was impossible to hold or capture. Something intangible, like hope’.
 

Born 1989, The Philippines
Lives and works in Rizal, The Philippines

Cian Dayrit is known for his cartographic artworks, which use maps and other institutionalised media to investigate notions of power and identity. Dayrit often deploys grassroots tools like ‘counter-cartography’, mapmaking that challenges dominant or colonial perspectives of identity, land and boundaries.

Frontiers of Struggle: A Working Atlas from the Ground at Mindanao presents a selection of maps originally hand-drawn by Lumad, Moro and peasant communities in the Mindanao region, during counter-mapping workshops conducted by artist activist Cian Dayrit from 2017. Dayrit deploys the process of mapping as a political gesture of survival and resistance to oppression, upholding human rights and social justice. The ‘counter-maps’ visually articulate and localise personal accounts of displacement, exploitation and harassment from state forces. They are accompanied by photographs by Mindanao-based photographers Jes Aznar and Pau Villanueva, with text by Dayrit and anthropologist Clod Yambao.
 

Born 1972, The Philippines
Lives and works in Sto.Tomas, Mindanao, The Philippines

Joel Geolamen’s landscape paintings often incorporate textile patterns characteristic of the Indigenous Tausug people in Mindanao. Born and raised in Davao, he studied Fine Arts at the Ford Academy of Fine Arts in Davao City, and has exhibited at the Yuchengco Museum and the Metropolitan Museum in Manila, in Mindanao and Baguio, as well as abroad in Malaysia, Switzerland and Sweden. Alongside his painting practice, he works as a cinematographer and art director.

The plurality of voices that occupy the varied landscapes of Mindanao is often evident in the artworks of its settler-root artists. For Tausug people, their textiles are intertwined with their culture and beliefs, and the geometric compositions that avoid figurative representation are indicative of their Muslim faith. In Habilin (Pis Syabit, Tausug) and Habilin (Tausug 2) 2021, distinctive Tausug textile patterns form mountainous landscapes. In making these works, Geolamen — who comes from a settler family that migrated to the Philippines after 1900 — expresses his solidarity with the region’s first inhabitants and their rights to their ancestral lands and sovereignty.
 

Misrifa A Juhaili
Tausug people
Born 2000, The Philippines
Nursima A Juhaili
Tausug people
Born 1982, The Philippines
Live and work in Bagsak, Parang, Sulu Province, The Philippines

Misrifa and Nursima Juhaili are Tausug artists based in Sulu, a province within the Sulu Archipelago, which forms part of the greater Mindanao region. Collaborating as artists, they create Habul Tyahian, a distinctive Tausug textile art form. Their work features intricate hand-embroidered motifs on vibrant satin backgrounds, forming continuous, linear patterns of three or five lines. These designs are crafted using the ukkil, a distinctive visual language of flowing, organic forms with a well-defined grammar and vocabulary of its own. The motifs draw from Tausug culture, depicting elements such as the kayapo (lotus flower), nayaga (dragons or serpents), sulam (leaves), and bagun-bagun (vines). While deeply rooted in Sulu’s artistic traditions, the ukkil also reflects Islamic principles of symmetry, symbolising the interconnectedness and continuity of the universe. Misrifa and Nursima are members of the Bagsak Youth Cooperative in Parang, Sulu.
 

Born 1985, The Philippines
Lives and works in Angeles City, Pampanga, Central Luzon, The Philippines

Mijan Jumalon comes from a family of painters in Mindanao and has been a practising artist for three decades, showing her work in Manila, Davao, Cebu, and abroad in Rome and Singapore. In 2019, Mijan ventured into production design and filmmaking, alongside her painting practice, and has won awards for her documentary and narrative short films.

Her recent paintings feature landscapes of forked pathways and ruined architecture, through which wander often solitary human figures. Crimson, ultramarine and yellow clouds form prairies under ominous skies. Jumalon deliberately conflates internal and external landscapes, representing spatial and emotional relationships through a surrealist aesthetic that comments on the movement of people — a condition endemic in Mindanao due to internal displacements created by conflict and unrest.
 

Julie Lluch
Born 1946, The Philippines
Lives and works in Quezon City, Metro Manila, The Philippines

Julie Lluch began practising as an artist in the 1970s and is one of the Philippines’ foremost sculptors. She was born in Iligan City, Mindanao and, like her daughter Kiri Dalena, retains strong links to her birthplace. Lluch is best known for portrait and figurative sculptures in clay and terracotta that address issues from feminism, religion and indigeneity to pointed critiques of political corruption and injustice.

Sunrise (for Adi) and Badi Grapiti (Para Kay Erikson) 2023 show her instead using the medium of cold-cast marble, with detailed scenes painted directly on the ‘skin’ of fragmented torsos and limbs. The sculptures pay tribute to individuals known to Lluch, such as social realist painter and committed activist Adi Baen Santos (1943–2021), and commemorate the tragic early deaths of activists and close family friends, including National Democratic Front consultant Ericson Acosta. Highlighting the nation’s long history of activism and protest, Lluch chronicles the prominent role that artists have played and continue to play in issues of human rights.
 

Almanis Madjidul
Tausug people
Born 1988, The Philippines
Lives and works in Kajatian, Indanan, Sulu Province, The Philippines
Radzimir Hailil Madjidul
Tausug people
Born 1987, The Philippines
Lives and works in Kajatian, Indanan, Sulu Province, The Philippines
Shaidalyn Jadi Zaldy
Tausug people
Born 1999, The Philippines
Lives and works in Lumbaan Mahaba, Parang, Sulu Province, The Philippines

Almanis and Radzimir Madjidul, along with Shaidalyn Zaldy, are Tausug artists from Sulu, a province in the Sulu Archipelago that forms part of the broader Mindanao region. They are known for their Habul Tyahian, intricately hand-embroidered fabrics that incorporate motifs reflecting their cultural and religious beliefs. These textiles are often created collaboratively, as the meticulous embroidery process demands significant time and effort. Habul Tyahian feature vibrant satin backgrounds adorned with continuous, linear patterns of three or five lines, brought to life through the ukkil — a distinct visual language characterised by flowing, organic forms with its own rules and symbolism. Common motifs include the kayapo (lotus), nayaga (dragons or serpents), sulam (leaves), and bagun-bagun (vines). The kayapo, considered sacred, symbolises a connection to the divine, while the peacock — featured in Almanis’s design — is traditionally associated with weddings and festivity.

For the Triennial, the three artists collaborated on Habul tyahian with a richly embroidered bagun-bagun (vine) motif set against a striking violet satin background. While collaboration is a longstanding tradition in creating these textiles, the participation of men, such as Almanis’s husband Radzimir, represents a recent and evolving practice.
 

Tboli people
Born 1964, The Philippines
Lives and works in Klubi, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, The Philippines

Yab Trulan Man, a respected cultural leader (Boi) of the Tboli people, resides near Lake Sebu in South Cotabato. She is renowned for her Tnalak textiles, skillfully woven from abaca fibres, which hold deep cultural, ritual, and ceremonial significance within Tboli communities.

Tnalak are made on a backstrap loom with the ikat dyeing technique and are always rendered in three shades: white for the motif, red for relief elements and black-brown for the background. White is the natural colour of the abaca fibre, red is obtained from the roots of the loko tree and black-brown from the leaves of the knalum tree. Some of the many human and animal motifs passed between weaving generations are kleng (crab), sawo (python skin), klung (shield) and tofi (frog). When completed, the fabrics are polished with a cowrie shell to achieve a smooth lustre.

Tboli weavers are often referred to as ‘dreamweavers’, as they are said to receive new motifs in their dreams from the goddess of the abaca, Fu Dalu. Essential to wedding ceremonies, Man’s Yê Kumù is one of the most revered types of Tnalak and can woven exclusively by individuals who have undergone specific rites of passage.
 

Sama people
Born 1959, The Philippines
Lives and works in Nunukan, Sibutu, Tawi-Tawi Province, The Philippines

Rhudsia Jamih Mohammad is a Sama artist from Tawi-Tawi, an island province in the Sulu Archipelago within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Her work celebrates her Muslim faith and Sama heritage through the creation of Tutup, vibrantly coloured woven food covers with ceremonial significance. These covers are adorned with motifs inspired by seafaring traditions, including the five-pointed star (bintang), zigzags representing lightning, and undulating lines symbolizing waves. Typical of the Sama style, Mohammad’s Tutup feature a rounded top.

Innovating on the form, Mohammad also creates miniature Tondaan, intricately detailed boats with colourful sails reflecting the Sama people's maritime heritage and boat craftsmanship. The Sama people, originally from Tawi-Tawi, Sulu, and Basilan, have a long history in the region. However, ongoing conflict in the Sulu Archipelago has led many Sama to migrate to Sabah and Sulawesi in recent decades.
 

Tboli people
Born 1969, The Philippines
Lives and works in Klubi, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, The Philippines

Noemi Ofong, a Tboli artist from Lake Sebu, is renowned for her Tnalak textiles, woven from abaca fibre. These textiles are a cornerstone of Tboli culture, playing an integral role in rituals and ceremonial practices. Tnalak are crafted using the intricate ikat dyeing technique, within specially built longhouses where a legogong (backstrap loom) is suspended from a bamboo beam in the ceiling and secured around the weaver’s lower back.

The textiles are always rendered in three distinctive shades: white for the motifs, red for relief elements, and black-brown for the background. White reflects the natural hue of abaca fibres, red is extracted from the roots of the loko tree, and black-brown is derived from the leaves of the knalum tree. Motifs passed between generations are often uniquely combined by individual weavers, include kleng (crab), sawo (python skin), klung (shield), and tofi (frog). Once completed, the fabrics are polished with a cowrie shell, achieving a luminous finish.
 

The Philippines, est. 2016 / Raymund Ric Bisna b.1983 / Venerando (Rey) Bollozos b.1967 / Bryan Cabrera b.1980 / King Nelson Duyan b.1994 / Alfred Galvez b.1967 / Dominic Pilapil b.1990 / Rene Pilapil b.1959 / Mark Tolentino b.1984 / Dominic Turno b.1987 / Kim Vale b.1992
Live and work in Davao City, The Philippines

The Silent Witness is a collaborative painting by ten artists, representing various generations, who make up Piguras Davao. The epic mural celebrates the long history and melting pot of cultures of Mindanao in a profusion of symbols and references. Mythology, historical events and elements from popular culture are anchored by a vast textile, stretching across the landscape and travelling through time and space.

We see the god Manama creating the world; Mebuyan, the goddess of the underworld; Spanish conquistadores and American fighter planes; Islamic and Christian sacred places; Arab and Chinese traders; and sultans and samurai interacting in the dreamlike panorama. In the sky of the right panel, an ornate Naga (or dragon of Mindanao) confronts a Chinese dragon. Signs of the coming of ‘civilisation’ appear with a pop art absurdity: a golden toilet and an Indigenous child eating a hamburger. The painting is intended as a tribute to Davao and the influences and consciousness of the artists whose families were part of the influx of settler culture.
 

Tausug people
Born 1980, The Philippines
Lives and works in Patikul, Sulu Province, The Philippines

Siling Sabturani, a Tausug artist of Muslim faith, creates vibrant Tutup — woven food covers with ceremonial significance. These covers are adorned with motifs inspired by seafaring traditions, including the five-pointed star (bintang), zigzags representing lightning, and undulating lines symbolising waves. Each Muslim community in Mindanao produces distinct styles of Tutup, and Sabturani’s work is characterised by the peaked tops typical of Tausug designs. Her navigational motifs are rendered through basic geometric forms: circles, squares, and triangles.

In 2017, Sabturani’s community in Patikul was displaced by battles between the Abu Sayyaf group and state forces. After five years away, she has only recently returned home. For many communities in Mindanao, including those displaced by conflict or former combatants, weaving has become more than a livelihood — it serves as a source of solidarity, a space for healing and a means of fostering a collective sense of renewal.
 

Blaan people
Born 1992, The Philippines
Lives and works in Towak, Matanao, Davao del Sur province, Mindanao, The Philippines

Alfred Sarino, a Blaan artist, continues the intricate craft of Tabih weaving, or abaca ikat, which he learned under the guidance of state-awarded artist Fu Yabing Masalon Dulo (1914–2021). In Blaan society, male weavers are rare; however, Sarino recalls that his grandfather was also skilled in this art. The highly specialised process, similar to the Tnalak of the Tboli, begins with the harvesting of abaca, stripping the fibres, tyeing them for resist dyeing with natural pigments, and then weaving on a backstrap loom. Each Tabih can take several months to complete, requiring immense skill and patience. Motifs in the Tabih often feature human figures and crocodiles (binuwaya), which are considered protective charms that ward off evil spirits and are believed to bring good fortune. The textiles are used for clothing, now largely worn on special occasions, and symbolise prestige and social status. Sarino’s Tabih ikat exemplifies the Blaan’s deep connection to their land, beliefs and cultural identity, as well as their ability to evolve through innovation and variation.
 

Talaandig people
Born 1988, The Philippines
Lives and works in Songco, Bukidnon Province, The Philippines

Salima Saway Agra-an, the youngest daughter of Datu Kinulintang — former leader of the Talaandig people in Bukidnon — carries a name imbued with cultural significance. Salima, derived from the Talaandig word alima (hands), symbolises nurturing and care. In the Talaandig epic of the great flood, Salima is the wife of the guardian of the golden jar, a powerful emblem of peace and reconciliation. Reflecting on her name, the artist shares: ‘Because I was given this name, I understand that my father hoped I would take on the role of being the Salima of my generation — to care for our culture and our people.’

Created specifically for the Triennial, her ‘Cultural Fragility’ series of paintings uses ochres sourced from the soil of her ancestral lands in Bukidnon, Mindanao. These richly layered works draw on Talaandig epic chants, mythologies, cultural practices and laws, advocating for the preservation of indigenous ways of life, knowledge, and land stewardship. She describes her use of soil in her paintings as a reminder of indigenous spirituality and humility.

Ugali ng lupa ang tapakan, dumihan, nasa kanya na ang lahat ng bigat, nguni’t ugali nitong kumanlong ng lahat na bagay at buhay, kung hindi siguro’y lahat na bagay ay palutanglutang. Mapagkumbaba ito at bumubuhay. Lahat nakaapak dito ngunit lahat ay makakatayo dahil dito.

It’s the characteristic of soil to be stepped on, to be dirtied. The earth carries all the weight, but it continues to nurture and give life. Without the earth to connect to, we will just be floating aimlessly. The earth is humble yet life-giving. All of us step on it, yet all of us are able to stand up because of it.
 

Born 1970, The Philippines
Lives and works in Davao City, The Philippines

Jong Tangiday, a respected and established sculptor based in Davao City, is renowned for his intricate wood carvings that explore folkloric and religious histories from across the Philippine archipelago. Featured in the Triennial is an untitled mahogany wood sculpture from Tangiday’s ongoing series, ‘Once upon a pre-colonial time’ 2019–present. This work draws inspiration from the imagery of the neolithic Manunggul Jar (890–710 BCE) of Palawan, an artifact from an era when the island was part of the Sulu Sultanate. The sculpture evokes a journey to the afterlife or a search for a homeland, depicting a huddled group of travellers aboard a vessel with a prow shaped like a Naga (dragon-like creature). In the centre, a young mother lifts her child aloft, looking outwards. Symbols from the ancient Baybayin script of the Tagalogs adorn the boat.
 

Tausug people
Born 1969, Jolo, The Philippines
Died 2023, Zamboanga City, The Philippines

Rameer Tawasil was five years old when war broke out between government troops and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) in Sulu in 1974, forcing his family to flee as the city of Jolo burned. Relocating to Zamboanga City, he would go on to create a style of painting known as ukkilism, which draws on his Tausug cultural heritage. The ukkil or arabesque motif can be seen across the art forms of many Moro peoples; it consists of a combination of scroll and plant-like design such as leaves, vines and ferns, as well as bird-like and curvilinear forms representing the naga (serpent or dragon) or suggesting ripples and waves.

The Tausug people are skilled at making and flying many kinds of traditional Taguri (kites). Included in the Triennial, Tawasil’s bold, colourful Taguri were made at the end of his life. Inspired by the multiple designs of the prized Royal Kites of Sulu, widely used during the era of the Sulu Sultanate, they are formed of carved ukkil. These Taguri have a spiritual import, conveying the artist’s joy in his Tausug culture and heritage, and a consciousness of his own impending mortality.
 

Talaandig people
Born 1994, The Philippines
Lives and works in Songco, The Philippines

Through their creation stories, the Talaandigs express their role as caretakers and stewards of the earth. Their customary art forms include weaving, dance, and music, and more recently, innovating by painting on canvas with ochres. Chong Tecson is a painter and instrument maker. His Kudlong is a reinterpretation of the boat lute, a type of stringed instrument crafted by various Indigenous and Muslim communities in Mindanao. While each community gives the instrument distinct characteristics, from incising, carving and embellishing, the boat lute is consistently recognised for its elongated neck and boat-shaped body, as well as its two strings. One string sounds a single continuous note, and the other plays the melody. In this Kudlong, Tecson reimagines the traditional form by carving a lizard motif, one that is more frequently seen in textiles.
 

Born 1984, The Philippines
Lives and works in Davao City, The Philippines

Mark Tolentino was raised in Tausug communities in Davao City and considers himself ‘Tausug at heart’. Tolentino studied at the Ford Academy of the Arts in Mindanao and his paintings often focus on Mindanao’s cultural traditions, including its Indigenous people and their modes of dress. Tolentino participated in the collaborative painting Silent Witness 2019, included in this Triennial, and painted murals for the Ateneo de Davao University chapel that combine Tausug and Christian imagery to represent a process of inclusive peace. Alongside his painting practice, Tolentino makes Tausug ceremonial cloths.

A burras is a type of Tausug wall-hanging, featuring starched white appliqué designs cut out and sewn to a coloured background fabric. Used as decoration for festive and auspicious occasions, including weddings, the best known of these appliqué designs feature the Tawbi or tree of life. In Tolentino’s Burras, the Tawbi in the central panel is framed by a large border and shows ornate branches, vines and flowers executed using the ukkil motif — an arabesque form that indicates unity and continuity for many Moro communities. The tree of life as a subject may also reflect early trade with India, from the thirteenth century.
 

Born 1995, The Philippines
Lives and works in Bukidnon, The Philippines

Judelyn Mae Villarta was born in the Bukidnon region of Mindanao and her paintings often honour the distinct cultures of the region’s seven ethno-linguistic groups: Bukidnon, Higaonon, Talaandig, Manobo, Matigsalug, Tigwahanon and Umayamnon peoples. Villarta’s family are settle-root people, as they are known in Mindanao; living in Bukidnon, she has been immersed in their culture and conveys her admiration and respect for their traditions.

Bukidnon cultural gathering 2024 focuses on the seven Indigenous Lumad communities in Bukidnon who come together during the annual Kaamulan Festival — a significant event to celebrate their diverse traditions and the goal of peaceful coexistence. Men and women are shown wearing the customary dress associated with each community, along with their musical instruments and carvings. Villarta has chosen to depict the gathering around a mandala, the circular design symbolising unity and harmony. The artist comments:

Through my art, I strive to help people appreciate the richness of Bukidnon’s culture and the beauty of its traditions. I hope that my work serves as a bridge, connecting viewers to the vibrant and diverse heritage of the indigenous communities in Mindanao.
 

Meranaw people
Born 1983, The Philippines
Lives and works in Tugaya, The Philippines

Mohammad N Haji Zaman works in Tugaya, a traditional carving village in the BARMM (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region). The region was first established in 2019 after decades-long peace negotiations between the Philippine government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Of Islamic faith, Meranaw communities are customarily clustered around a mosque and a torogan or royal house, which belongs to the preeminent economic household in the area and is decorated with the same style of ornate carving seen in Zaman’s works.

The sarimanok — a mythological bird often represented by Meranaw carvers — has elements of a peacock, birds of prey and a rooster, and is always shown with a fish dangling from its beak or talons. Zaman’s carved birds are painted in commercial colours, with their plumes made of the arabesque shapes that are referred to as ‘okir’ by the Meranaw people (and ‘ukkil’ by the Tausug people) and are characteristic of Muslim Mindanao.