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Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes, PhD, Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia (IASA), University of Tokyo

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Database

Vanaw Epics and Folktales (Kalinga, Philippines)

“Documenting Tribal Memory in Text and Sound–Vanaw Folktales, Kalinga, Philippines” Priority Project, Research & Information Center for Asian Studies (RICAS), Instutite for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo (2018-2020)

The Vanaws reside in mountain areas of the northern Philippines, particularly across the border of the Province of Kalinga and Province of Abra. Yoneno-Reyes recorded some thirty folk tales of the Vabaws as narrated by late Mr. Barcelon Panabang (Toyota Foundation D04-I-029). With assistance of his son Warren Panabang, I compiled the transcription of the folk tales, English translation of respective folk tales, history of the Vanaws as imagined and reconstructed by Mr. Panabang and genealogy of some prominent Vanaw families in “Banao Folk Tales: Territory, Migration and Ethnicity”(2006). Due to insufficient research on orthography of Vanaw, the transcribed text remained too immature to be published.
In the Philippines, Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE) was introduced in 2012. In this milieu, young local scholars proactively involved themselves in Vanaw dictionary production. Yoneno-Reyes came to think that reliable transcription of Vanaw folktales would be realized in conjunction with the development of the dictionary project and took the opportunity to complete the unfinished work with financial and moral assistance of the RICAS. It is planned that sound files and transcription of the folktales as narrated by Mr. Panabang and other Vanaw elders shall be made available online at the end of the project.
(Updated 2020/12/12)

I acknowledge the financial support of the following grants for preparations of this database:

  • a) 2018 Priority Project “Folktales of the Banaos, Philippines: Documenting the Tribal Memory” (Research and Information Center for Asian Studies, of the Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo) (Representative: Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes)
  • b) Southeast Asian National Research Grant Program (D04-I-029) “The Banaos: Migration History and Cultural Integrity as Seen from Folklore” (Representative: Barcelon Panabang, General secretariat: Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes)

This research was conducted in consultation with, approval by, and support of the Banao Bodong Association and elders of Banao communities, Municipality of Balbalan, Province of Kalinga, Philippines.