The Hinilawod Recordings collection contains the Hinilawod, or the epics of Panay, recorded in audio format using a magnetic tape recorder by anthropologist Dr Felipe Landa Jocano and Panay Bukidnon epic chanters “Ulang Udig” from Lambunao, Iloilo and Narcisa “Hugan-an” Lingaya of Tapaz, Capiz, from 1956 to 1957. It preserved 15 epics (two were published) that were narrated/chanted in archaic Karay-a, one of the languages of Panay. The epics reflected the worldview of an indigenous people’s group that lived far from town centres, and was protected from lowlanders’ intrusion by their rugged terrain and environment. The recordings are the earliest known extensive documentation of the epics, which inspired wider interest in the studies of Panay oral literature. It preserved the living voices of the chanters, the very important sound of culture or performance that is the heart of an oral literature and which is absent in manuscripts of tales with origins in oral traditions. This is a sample of an indigenous oral literature with apparent precolonial provenance, thus, a rich resource for the understanding of the indigenous Bisayan culture and the shared and threatened oral tradition of the Asia Pacific region. Its inscription to the MOWCAP Regional Register will help in its immediate conservation, including transcription and translation of the remaining epics to prevent dissociation.
Doctrina Christiana en Lengua Española y Tagala (Christian Doctrine in Spanish and Tagalog), Manila, 1593 (2024)
The Doctrina Christiana is the earliest printed book in Tagalog and is the among the first books printed and published in the Philippines. The unique surviving copy in the US Library of Congress is irreplaceable and priceless. It bears witness not only to the endeavours of the Spanish colonizers to convert the local people to Christianity, but also to the existence of written language in Tagalog (the language of Manila) in the local script in 1593 C.E. It is of unique historical and linguistic significance for the people of the Philippines, Spain (from where the author and authorizers came from) and China (whose techniques and people physically produced the book). The book is also among the oldest attestation of possible correspondences of Philippine scripts to other Southeast Asian and Indian scripts. Thus, it can be said that its printing represents a crucial period in Philippine and Asian history, embodying the meeting of cultures, worldviews, technology and languages.
Film World Meets Memory of the World
An Asia Pacific Cinema Documentary Heritage Conference took place in Manilla from 26-28 October. MOWCAP and the Asia Culture Center are very pleased to have supported (along with many others) this important initiative through our 2018 small grants program.
Moving images are how the memory of the world of the 20th and 21st centuries has been and is being captured, preserved and transmitted. Photojournalists’ recording of historic events as they take place and filmmakers’ efforts to document, investigate and look below the surface or to convey literary works or fantasy — in all these ways film represents the quintessential modern means of communication.
Culion Leprosy Archives (2018)
The Archives preserve and protect rare volumes of journals, text books and other reference materials on leprosy.
The documents are testimony to the struggle of controlling leprosy from the establishment of the Culion Leper Colony in 1906 down to its transformation to a General Hospital in 2009. The documents provide all traces of segregation of the patients and the efforts of maintaining their own community until WHO declared the elimination of leprosy as a public health problem in 1998.
The Culion Sanitarium was one of the first in Asia which had a successful model of leprosy treatment facilities. The documents are of great significance, as a unique collection of primary sources on the history of one of the most important leprosariums in the Asia/Pacific region. One can learn from these diverse resources the history of the formation of the colony in 1906, the management up to its closure in the early 21st century. The final document in the collection is from 2015.
The books and archival resources show the global and regional connections between Culion and other leprosy organizations. Their coordination reflects the global medical efforts at containing the disease and finding the cure for it in the end. The effort at maintaining the dignity of those afflicted deserves to be remembered before it is forgotten.
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The Presidential papers of Manuel Luis Quezon (2010)
Principal documentary source of Philippine history for the American colonial period 1898-1946.