Some of you have been googling for the lyrics of the Igorota song performed by Jun Utleg so we decided to blog about it. Here's the unofficial lyrics transcribed by a bibaknets member and forwarded to us.
Igorota On a soft green [play] ground by the river bend She was sitting there to meet the morning sun She was playing a [flute] when the songbird's broke out
As they listened to [her wonderful] melody And he was filled with every note she's playing Slowly I sat by her side
Refrain: Igorota, girl of my dreams You're the most precious gift that I ever had Igorota, queen of my heart I'll go on loving you Throughout my life
You are my day, my morning sun You'll forever be my only one She puts the [flute] then sweetly she smiles
And she asks me, "Why are you staring at me?" I held her close and a songbird sang I whispered to her, "I love you."
Repeat Refrain
I think credit for the song and its lyrics goes to Danny Tawanna. Great performance by Jun Utleg. By the way, the lyrics here are not 100% correct so please use it with caution :-)
So I was watching American Idol last night and one of the contestants sang a song about the boondocks. I must say that I fell in love with the song because it goes,
I feel no shame I'm proud of where I came from I was born and raised in the boondocks One thing I know No matter where I go I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks
Nice, no? It kind of describes most of us I think. This song is by an American country music group called Little Big Town and is titled Boondocks. In the absence of a more fitting song, I think this will be our theme song for now hehe. My only misgiving is that someone could rightfully say, "Hey Bill Bilig, how colonial-minded are you? Picking an American song, huh."
Well, I ain't no singer. And non-singers can't be too choosy in picking their theme songs hehe. Anyways, if you want to sing along with the Little Big Town folks, you'll find the lyrics after the jump.
Boondocks By Little Big Town (Chorus:) I feel no shame I'm proud of where I came from I was born and raised in the boondocks One thing I know No matter where I go I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks
And I can feel That muddy water running through my veins And I can hear that lullaby of a midnight train It sings to me and it sounds familiar
(Chorus)
And I can taste That honeysuckle and it's still so sweet When it grows wild On the banks down at old camp creek Yeah, and it calls to me like a warm wind blowing
(Chorus)
It's where I learned about living It's where I learned about love It's where I learned about working hard And having a little was just enough
It's where I learned about Jesus And knowing where I stand You can take it or leave it, this is me This is who I am
Give me a tin roof A front porch and a gravel road And that's home to me It feels like home to me
(Chorus)
I keep my heart and soul in the boondocks
You get a line, I'll get a pole We'll go fishing in the crawfish hole Five-card poker on a Saturday night Church on Sunday morning
(2x) You get a line, I'll get a pole We'll go fishing in the crawfish hole (Down in the boondocks) Five-card poker on a Saturday night Church on Sunday morning
And here's a beautiful fireworks from another part of the globe. I hope to see something like this in Baguio or anywhere in the Cordilleras before I turn into either ash or uod (to quote Ganda). Which means that I hope that we as a people will somehow improve the quality of our lives in the coming years such that we can afford to spend money on expensive, ephemeral, but amazingly beautiful fireworks like this.
Napintas koma ti baro nga tawen tayo amin. Iyaman kasin ken dakayo.
The earlier post on land grabbing in Baguio reminded me of Woody Guthrie's song, This Land is Your Land. You can read more about the song at Rex Pe's blog. You can also read more info on Woody Guthrie, one of my favorite singers, at woodyguthrie.org.
For me, what's most interesting in the song is the part that goes:
As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
If we are not alert, we will be seeing "No trespassing" signs all over the Cordilleras.
I'm not sure if it's still there but I once saw (and was shocked to see) a "No trespassing" sign in my beloved St. Mary's School. Apparently, you are not allowed to pass through the school's hallowed grounds if you are not enrolled as a student. It may be good for the school but it destroys the sense of community which Sagada is also famous for.
Sometimes I come across things that make me shake my head because I don't know what to say. The above video is an example.
I've watched it five times but still can't say whether it's good and cool or bad and silly. I don't know whether to appreciate Bob for wearing our wanes/wano/bahag or to hope that he's banished to kingdom come for appropriating our cultural attire to make a spectacle of himself. I think much of my uneasiness with what Bob is doing here is the fact that he's "out of context" or wala sa lugar. I don't mind people using our things but I do hope that they use it the right way.
And what's the right way? I think it's the way we ourselves use them. Nowadays, we use our bahags for special occasions so it has become a special attire for us. We don't use it to frolic around like what Bob is doing here. (He's in Makati, by the way.)
But that's just me. What do you think? Well, vote in the poll below.
Do you remember those silly radio dedication programs where you can phone in and say, "Mister DJ, gusto ko pung ididikit ang song na ito kay ehem?"
Well, let's try this route and do a dedication post. Let's dedicate my favorite church hymn, "Once to Every Man and Nation", to two men who have been in the public eye lately. The first stanza of the song goes:
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Actually, this hymn has been on my mind ever since I blogged about Major Basilio Pooten who, when he was called upon to decide on an important issue of justice, decided to do the right thing. So this song is heartily dedicated to him.
This hymn is also dedicated to Baguio City Mayor Peter Rey Bautista who is now being called upon to decide on an important issue: Will he do the right thing by vetoing the City Council's "let's buy car for ourselves" legislation? Or is he going to scratch the back of his fellow officials so they will, in turn, scratch his back?
Well, honorable mayor, as we said the ball is now in your court. We are dedicating this song to you with the hope that you will follow the footsteps of Major Basilio Pooten. For those of you who want to sing along with the kids in the video, here's the complete lyrics of the hymn:
Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, in the strife of truth with falsehood, for the good or evil side; some great cause, some great decision, offering each the bloom or blight, and the choice goes by forever, 'twixt that darkness and that light.
Then to side with truth is noble, when we share her wretched crust, ere her cause bring fame and profit, and 'tis prosperous to be just; then it is the brave man chooses while the coward stands aside, till the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied.
By the light of burning martyrs, Christ, thy bleeding feet we track, toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back; new occasions teach new duties, ancient values test our youth; they must upward still and onward, who would keep abreast of truth.
Though the cause of evil prosper, yet the truth alone is strong; though her portion be the scaffold, and upon the throne be wrong; yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.
Lyrics: James Russell Lowell, 1849 Music: Ton-y-Botel (Ebenezer), Yn y glyn
Lisa Araneta of i-Baguio.com has an update on how the Baguio City councilor's voted on the "let's buy cars for ourselves" scandal. Read it here. We are with Lisa in hoping that Mayor Peter Rey Bautista will veto this ill advised budget legislation.
So the ball is now in the mayor's court. Let's see whether he stays true to his electoral promise that he's going to be "Simple Lang". But we should also help him decide by revisiting his campaign materials in the past election.
Our message to the mayor: Oy ang galing mo sa archery ah. Sir, this kind of self-serving legislation is also known as traditional politics. Please kill it with your arrow. Dapat bull's eye.
For those of you who like videos, here's a campaign video courtesy of the mayor's multiply site:
Those who are "friends" with the mayor in Multiply might also want to remind him of his pangako. You can also comment on his blog here.
He also included his email in his Blogger profile so we are publishing it here (peterreybautista[AT]gmail[DOT]com) in case some of you would like to get in touch with him personally. I believe there's nothing wrong with emailing him since he himself made his email public.
For our previous posts on Mayor Peter Rey Bautista, click here.
VIDEO/PHOTO CREDIT: Mayor Peter Rey Bautista/here and here.
Let's take a break from controversial (and depressing) stuff like those Baguio City Council members (except Councilor Tabora and Vice Mayor Fariñas) voting to buy cars for themselves to give out our next Boon Award.
If you remember, we give this award to people or groups who have done something good for their communities. This time we are giving the award to the Sagada Genuine Guides Association (SAGGA) for their "cave vandalism cleanup". Visit this site and read more about the group.
As you'll see in the above video, the members of SAGGA spent their time cleaning up the writings/ paintings/ markings of destructive mammals who wanted to immortalize themselves by vandalizing the cave's walls. I guess it's human to try to leave your mark wherever you can but let's not do it by destroying the work of nature.
So let's give a shoutout to the SAGGA kids for their effort to return the cave to its "unvandalized" state. Thanks, guys and gals for your service to the community. We hope you continue your good works.
We also hope that those Baguio councilors (Hello, Councilor Balisong nga kailiyan ni Nadjhin!) will learn a lesson or two from you kids about the meaning of "community service" or "public service".
And here's an explanation of the Boo and Boon Awards or the Boondock Awards. If you know of any person or group who deserves to be praised or to be booed, please share the info in the comment section. Thanks.
Of course, check out the above video by Badjao Roots, a group composed of singers from Cordi. They did a really good job mixing reggae with sallidummay. Way to go Badjao Roots! (Pero hindi kaya magagalit ang mga kapatid nating Badjao for your appropriation of their name? Just asking. Hehe.)
Will this video convince the people of Baguio to segregate their garbage? For their sakes, we hope it will.
Visit Padma's blog to read her take on this garbage issue, her "piso mind" to the mayor, and a picture of the city's newest attraction, the hanging garbage of Baguio. (Panlaban nila sa hanging gardens of Babylon at hanging coffins of Sagada ).
Here's an interesting video that you should watch. The first part contains footages taken at the Bontoc Museum and its artifacts of the past. The second part contains some footages of present-day Bontoc with its tricycles and all. It makes an interesting comparison between "then" and "now". [UPDATE: Oops, as two of you pointed out, this really is not present-day Bontoc since the video must have been taken 20 to 25 years ago. Thanks for the correction Anonymouses :-) Our mistake, we should have known better. Cheers.]
Although we like the video, we hope that the footage of the old woman is removed because she clearly didn't want to be videoed. Unless you are a public figure or are participating in a public event where video and photo shoots are expected, it IS invasion of privacy when someone takes your photo/video without your consent. This is becoming a critical issue for us as a people because of the ease with which one can now secretly take videos/photos, the ease these can be published in blogs or web sites, and the proprietary attitude (i.e., this photo is exclusively mine, mine, mine) of some people who takes videos/photos of our people.
We can be rightfully accused of being hypocritical about this because we are using the above video anyway (and have previously used photos which we suspect were taken without the subject's consent) but, in our defense, we uploaded it to start a discussion on the issue. Some questions:
1. What do you think of the video footage above where the old woman (our alapo) was covering her face? If it was up to you, would you still have included it in this video?
2. What do you think of the photos and videos of our people (particularly of old people and young children) that we see on the web? Do you think these were taken with the subject's informed consent (meaning that they know that these will be uploaded for public viewing)?
3. What do you think about the way these photos/videos are presented? Are we being presented in the way that all people should be presented (i.e., with respect) or are we being presented more as objects of curiosity?
Just asking, folks :-) We do have other questions related to this issue but we'll do it in another post before we totally become like a 1990s grim and determined activist hehehe.
Now, about the Bontoc Museum, we should give kudos to the Catholic Church for putting it up. And because we don't think they get enough money from the entrance fees to keep the museum going, we should again give them kudos for subsidizing the museum's continuing operation.
Hmm, now that we think of it, maybe we should give our friends in the Catholic Church a Boon Award which, if you remember, is our award for our kailiyans who are doing good things for our "ili". I think we will all agree that collecting and preserving things of the past for the future is a good thing. [Exception siyempre yung ninakaw na mummies sa Egypt or sa Benguet, at dinala sa US.]
So we are giving a Boon "thank you for building a museum for our people" Award to the people behind the Bontoc Museum. Now, those of you who have not visited the museum should visit it when you are in Bontoc.
For more Boondock awardees, both the good ones and the bad ones, click here.
Dear John Denver, Thank you for your gift of music. I remember listening to you while riding the Skyland Bus from Sagada to Baguio. The bus conductor kept playing your songs over and over and yet over again. Maybe he didn't have any other cassette tape to play. But maybe, and I think this is the more likely reason, he is a big fan of yours.
The interesting thing is that no passenger complained about it. No one got up to tell the conductor to shut you down after we heard Rocky Mountain High for the uptenth time. Maybe we were all too tired to care. After all, the Halsema trip is a tiresome ride, then, as it is now. But maybe, and this is the more likely reason, we too were all big fans of yours.
So we spent eight long hours in the bus listening to your songs. I would like to believe that we all savored the moment.
John, there's something about your songs that speaks to the Igorot/iCordillera soul. Maybe it's the messages in them. You know, we as a people don't go for songs that don't mean anything at all. Maybe it's also your unpretentious voice because we also don't go for singers who go for vocal calisthenics (pinayegpeg according to my brother). Maybe it's also because, even though you were in the U.S., you were singing about us: our Cordillera mountains, our winding country roads, the sunshine in our shoulders, and my classmate named Annie. It might interest you to know that Take Me Home, Country Roads has informally become the Cordillera regional anthem (Update: Ha! I wrote this before I read Chyt's blog where she also makes the same assertion.) I'm sure most of us, particularly those who have left home, will tear up whenever we hear it. I'm sure we will also remember the bonfire sessions during cold December nights when we passed around the gin, sang Country Roads, and pretended to be you.
By the way, can you explain to us what "mountain mama" means? Is that the name of a mountain in West Virginia? Or were you referring to the mountain as a nurturing environment. We always wondered about it during those bonfire nights but never found out what it means. Maybe this is a good time to ask.
John, thank you also for your gift of activism for peace, social change, and the environment. I must admit though that it is only now that I am discovering this facet of your life. I apologize for not knowing about your advocacies earlier. But, as they say, it's better late than never.
I'll end here I guess so you can go back singing with your fellow angels (is it true you only use harp there in heaven?) and I will go back discovering more about your life and work to draw inspiration from them.
Sincerely, Bill Bilig Igorot Blogger From the Boondocks
P.S. Since you have access to the Lord, can you ask him to send a bolt of lightning to the following people: George W. Bush, Gloria Arroyo, and Archbishop Akinola. They need to be reminded as to who is the real Lord. Thanks again.
Ito ang mga kamag-anak ni Gandang Igorota. Maybe those Miss Universe organizers are right after all, maybe beauty contests are an effective way of promoting one's culture.
Apologies to all of you for being missing in action. I've been sick these past days but have since recovered. I hope to continue blogging regularly again :-)
Meantime, here's a cool video of the Bangued Bamboo Jeepney which we first blogged about here. In case you missed this comment in our earlier post, this unique jeepney was made by the dad of our blogger friend and regular commenter, the Novice Blogger.
Every time we hear some people (i.e. NGO or DSWD workers) talk about child labor in the Cordilleras, our reaction would be something like, "Duh, you don't know what you are talking about. What's wrong if a kid spends some of his time feeding pigs, or gathering water, or planting rice during weekends? It is character-building if you ask us." Admittedly, our not-too-favorable reaction on the issue is shaped by our personal experience. As a child, we had to do our share of work and it helped us learn the meaning of responsibility. Also, the work we were made to do didn't prevent us from being a kid or from having fun.
However, after watching the videos above of children working in rock quarries, we realize that anti-child labor advocates do have a point, i.e., that child labor does exist in our region and that it is not as harmless as we first imagined it to be.
Note: The quality of the videos is rather poor but they are certainly worth watching.
Ahn Nyeong Hah Se Yo! We'd like to say "Hello" and "Thanks" to our regular visitors from South Korea :-)
The above video shows some of our kailiyans performing a courtship dance during the Arirang Migrant Festival. Thanks to rbusiley for uploading the video.
Here's a very nice video of Bangued, the capital town of Abra. Don't miss the Sleeping Beauty around the 20-second mark. You can read more about the town of Bangued at Bangued Online. Our friend who is managing the site is doing a great job promoting the town.
If the DOST folks get some lessons from Bangued Online, they will realize that they don't have to spend P97.1 million to build a tourism database. Thanks friend and more power to you :-)
Here's a video of Ramirr Grepo, a contestant from Baguio who made the top 12 [male group] in last year's Philippine Idol competition. He was well praised in this performance but he didn't have enough votes to send him to the next round.
It is likely that everyone assumed he will move further in the competition and so voted for other contestants who were perceived to be in danger of being cut. If we're not mistaken, Ramirr is an Igorot-Caviteño mestizo.
