Davao City has once again celebrated the grandest festival — the Kadayawan Festival — as it paid tribute to its 11 ethnolinguistic tribes and expressing gratitude for a bountiful harvest.

The 11 groups are the Ata, Bagobo Klata, Bagobo Tagabawa, Obu Manuvu, and Matigsalog, comprising the Lumad people and the Moro groups — Tausug, Sama, Iranun, Maguindanaoan, Maranao and the Kagan.

In its 39th year, the Kadayawan Festival highlighted the tribal village, which showcased the rich culture and heritage of the city’s 11 tribes.

The houses representing each city tribe gave visitors a glimpse of the tribes’ way of life and allowed them to experience each unique culture and tradition, fulfilling their curiosity about tribal music, dances, craftsmanship and artistry.

As part of the festivity, Dula Kadayawan was also conducted to showcase the Lumad and Moro games, fostering awareness and education among the younger generation about their traditional games.

For the Lumad group, the Ata tribe emerged as this year’s champion, breaking the six-year winning streak of the Bagobo-Klata by winning five out of 13 Indigenous People (IP) games for 2024.

Second place went to the Matigsalug tribe, and third to the Bagobo-Klata.

For the Moro games, the Kagan dominated the six Moro tribes, followed by Iranun and Tausug in second and third place, respectively.

Apart from the tribal village, this year’s Kadayawan added a new event, the Pananam sa Kadayawan Food and Products Fair, showcasing the delicacies and products of the city’s 11 ethnolinguistic tribes.

“With a heart for service and the will to give back to the community,” said Shane Marie Awe of the Bagobo Tagabawa tribe, who was crowned the Hiyas sa Kadayawan 2024.

Awe showcased the rich culture of the Bagobo Tagabawa, highlighting their traditional dyeing methods and practices as well as their vibrant music in her cultural presentation.

Awe also said that her tribe taught her to always “carry the torch that burns with passion and purpose to serve” not only her tribe but the rest of the 11 ethnolinguistic groups and the city as a whole.

“I have two plans of action. First is to implement my advocacy in our tribe which was the preservation of ‘binadbad’ clothing design — the traditional and natural way of dyeing and creating clothing design,” she said, adding that she plans to implement the advocacy in Barangays Atan-Awe, Sibulan, and Baracatan, the three main areas inhabited by her tribe.

Kadayawan Festival comes from “dayaw,” a word in the Mandaya language that means anything good or valued.

The origin of the festival is from the ancient practice of ethnic groups in Davao that pay respects to the deity they call Manama and express their gratitude for a good harvest.