Complexity often frightens people from engaging with the critical context and history that informs our current realities. So, what you will read is [not] complex. It is current and quite easy to understand: Colonizing powers have a problem with Indigeneity.
Kinding Sindaw’s In Honor of the Ancestors: Indigenous Living Traditions From the Philippines in Diaspora, an exhibit mounted at La MaMa Galleria 47 Great Jones, highlights Indigeneity, ancestry, and resistance of the marginalized people of Mindanao.
Located in the southern section of the Philippine Archipelago, the native inhabitants of the region are the Meranao, The people of the lake; the Tausug, The people of the river; Maguindanao, The people of the flooded plains; and the Tboli, the people of the plateau. All ethnic groups that customarily and historically practice Islam except for the Tboli, who do not practice Islam but instead practice animism. As one can imagine, these groups have experienced oppression and persecution since…
Word bank:
Spanish American War
Spain
United States
Christianity
16th century
日本によるフィリピン占領
[insert time period], when the archipelago was colonized by [insert a colonizing country with the second most spoken language worldwide.] The dominion philosophy at the quintessence of [insert a religion] led to Spain’s systematic oppression of all ethnic groups in the archipelago. In the late 19th century, the [insert the country to which the Philippine archipelago was its largest colony or insert the country that committed the Būd Dahu Massacre] claimed the islands and continued the oppression of the previous governing power. After 48 years, the archipelago became a crucial location for [insert the characters ] (Japanese occupation of the Philippines) during WWII. In 1946, the Philippines became self-ruled.
After all of the governing powers, persecution, and repression, the mere act of remembering is a radical one. Kinding Sindaw harnesses these memories in their exhibit and showcases the beauty that predates the history of the United States — and in The United States nonetheless.
Walking into the exhibit, I was met by the exhibition designer, curator, and multidisciplinary artist Ali Purpura and Potri Ranka Manis, a descendant of the late Datu Mamintal Dirampaten, Sultan a Gaus of the Royal Meranao House of Borocot Maguing, Artistic Director of Kinding Sindaw, Performer, Nurse, Author, and Activist.
A multisensorial experience, I was offered handmade sandals woven of abaca grass from the Philippines. In the air, a sweet aroma of kamangyan incense fills my nose, and the resonant sounds of Kulintang settle over my consciousness like a silk scarf around my shoulders. Somehow, in this place, this culture, in which I am a tourist in the midst of this war for survival, I am made to feel comfortable and looked after — cared for. This was not surprising when I learned that Ranka Manis had come to the United States as a nurse during the AIDS pandemic, during which she often used her musical talents and dancing as a mode of healing for her patients.
I asked Ranka Manis what it means for her to present this exhibit in New York City on stolen Indigenous land, and she told me it means to “Assert! Assert our existence” and “a way of fighting the war” without regard for the bias against to her cultural heritage many still attach. “Intentional” is not a sturdy enough word to hold the fight for survival that is Kinding Sindaw’s art.
The multimedia installations included films curated by Margaret Guzman and featured over 30 years’ worth of ephemera passed down by relatives and close confidants of Sultans Guiwan Mastura, Sultan Mamintal Dirampaten, and La MaMa’s Founder, the late “Mama” Ellen Stewart, with whom Potri Ranka Manis was very close. Projected on the wall by the entrance of the exhibit displayed Dances from Legends and Epics — some from the Darangen, a 72000-line epic poem that takes a week to recite.
In another nearby media installation, we bear witness to Movements of Resistance, Mindanao’s methods used to subvert and combat imperialism. This section includes Silat, as Potri Ranka Manis describes as “a graceful martial art” related to and often disguised as dance.
Continuing on, we encounter two documentaries. One documentary exploring the legacy of Meranao and Maguindanao leaders Sultan Mamintal Dirampaten, Sultan a Gaus of Borocot Maguing, Sultan Abdulaziz Guiwan Mastura IV, and Sultan Muhammed Kudarat of Maguindanao who liberated Mindanao from Spanish Colonization. In the second documentary, a look at how Ellen Stewart, “Mama,” supported many artists, including the artists of Kinding Sindaw.
Additionally, the exhibit showcased photos by “The Undisputed, Unofficial Asian American Photographer Laureate” Corky Lee (1947 – 2021,) physical heirlooms, instruments, crowns, headdresses, and malongs as evidence of the existence of the past and present people of Mindanao, and their living traditions.
Like the martial artistry of Silat, Kinding Sindaw is indeed the graceful movement of resistance that sparks (shines) the light on what is often convenient to forget.
Thank you, Potri Ranka Manis and Ali Purpura, for your help in representing your beautiful exhibit with accuracy.
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