Mangyan culture exhibit in Kalibo
BY BOY RYAN B. ZABAL

KALIBO, Aklan – The exhibit on Mangyan culture opened at the historic Museo it Akean here. The collection of photographs depicting the Mangyan's way of life and artifacts from the different Mangyan tribes, runs until October 24, in cooperation with the Archbishop Gabriel M. Reyes Memorial Foundation, the Kalibo Council for Culture and the Arts, the Provincial Government of Aklan and the local government of Kalibo.
Aklan Vice Gov. Gabrielle Calizo and Provincial Administrator Atty. Diego Luces graced the opening of the major exhibit of Mangyan Heritage Center (MHC) with the theme "The Mangyans of Mindoro: Myth and Meaning."
“The exhibit showcases the indigenous and rich Mangyan culture. They (Mangyans) are perceived as illiterate and beggars for generations, but with this must-see exhibit in the town of Kalibo, the Mangyans have the rare chance to prove they are a gentle, non-violent and peaceful people,” Emily Catapang said of MHC, a foundation set up by Mangyan missionaries Fr. Ewald Dinter, Antoon Postma and Jesuit volunteer Quint Fansler.
Mindoro is the home of eight of around 110 indigenous peoples (IP) groups existing in the Philippines. In 1997, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) declared the Mangyan endangered scripts of the Hanunoo and Buhid Mangyans of Mindoro, the Tagbanua and Palaw’an tribes of Palawan as National Cultural Treasures. In 1999, the Mangyan syllabary was inscribed in the Unesco’s Memory of the World Register.
MHC, founded in 2000, expanded to become a non-government organization that focuses on Mangyan culture. It was put up after a year of hard work and support from the Phinma Foundation, Toyota Foundation and the Ala-ala Foundation.
Today, the MHC has a collection of 36,000 recorded samples of Ambahan poetry, over 2,000 recorded Urukay songs, over 10,000 decades of old photographs (1900-2004); over 10,000 theses, studies and journals of the Mangyans; over 2,000 news clippings dating back to 1900; some 500 Mangyan folktales; documentation of Mangyan encounters dating back to 1570 and Mangyan artifacts.