A Crooked and Dark Literary Journey

Roxie Go

Panayanons are so blessed: from our rich and glorious colonial past to our progressing present and an undeniably bright
future, we can look back and march into tomorrow with pride in who we are. At least that’s how I feel, after all those
semesters of reading about local history and learning from Professors Funtecha and Padilla; or by simply observing our
rapidly changing urban and suburban areas.

Now that I am an educator myself, I try to look back on my education, how and when it particularly made me conscious
of my Panayanon identity especially in the aspect of literature – only to be disappointed. It was not well until college
that I was able to discover our literary treasures: I have read Shakespeare before I was introduced to any Ilonggo poets;
my images of war dominated by Bierce and Crane before I came across Stevan Javellana; and I am pretty sure it is easier
to find a copy of a Jane Austen novel than one by Magdalena Jalandoni. To paraphrase an author, how does one
appreciate his own literary culture when he lives in a culture that alienates its own?

At this point, it is easy to blame the colonial past that we glorify so much, just as we have blamed it for every societal
malady we’re experiencing. But isn’t this also the best time to remedy the situation?

Last 14 October 2017, a group of 13 artists from the College of Fine Arts of University of San Agustin, opened a
collaborative exhibit entitled Sugidanon ta, Hampang ta: Tikum Kadlum at the Gallery i. The entire exhibit was
comprised of different parts: paintings, film, and a board game – all based on the research done by Dr. Alicia Magos on
the Panay Bukidnon epic, Sugidanon. The paintings presented some chosen scenes in the first episode, Tikum Kadlum,
and introduced the main characters of the epic such as Paiburong and his children Matang-ayon and Suranggaon. The
paintings then were supplemented by a puppet film which shows the adventures in the story. The board game,
fashioned in the style of Snakes and Ladders, features other characters, places and prominent objects from the other
episodes of the epic such as Bangsat - the seven-headed snake, Tarangban cave of Diya, the magical Agong, among
others.

The exhibit is only the tip of a proverbial iceberg; the first of a series of projects that will culminate in a children’s book,
our very own board game, and the inclusion of the Sugidanon epic in K to 12 literature lessons. Finally, I thought, a
chance to raise a generation whose introductions to the fantastical world of the written word are Panayanon through
and through: Sugidanon instead of the Greek mythology; Makabagting instead of Goliath; Matan-ayon or Nagmalit-ong
Yawa instead of Disney princesses; Labaw Donggon or Humadapnon instead of comic book superheroes.

The whole project mirrors the epic it wants to tackle: educate the young on our own literary culture, while preserving a
dying tradition, while sustaining an already thriving artistic community, while challenging the limits of conventional
story-telling. And similarly, it is also in the first stage of its ambitious journey.

Tikum Kadlum, literally means crooked and dark, words which foreshadow the path that the Sugidanon epic traverses;
words which also seem to foreshadow this monumental task we have at hand. The journey is long, crooked, dark, and
full of uncertainty; but it is, without a doubt, one journey worth taking.