In 2012, I traveled from Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, to Tandubas on a sluggish bangka for several hours in order to visit Haja Amina Appi, a recipient of the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan award who is well-known for her tepo designs. There was a quiet dignity to this Sama woman who let her creations define who she was. I was fortunate to have taken her photograph when I could. She passed away a year later in 2013.

“Haja Amina Appi already comes from a people famous for the weaving of pandamus mats into works of art. With a face exuding serenity, her hands are thick and dye-stained from a lifetime of harvesting pandamus and the drawing out of dream-like designs in her mats. For her, the most difficult part of her craft is culling from ethnic memory the visualization and execution of design. It is high precision work, requiring the mastery of the medium and an instinctive sense of proportion and symmetry, even asymmetry. Proclaimed in 2004 for mat weaving, she was respected and recognized for her artistry even in her own community of weavers. There was gentleness in her teaching of others. And quietly, she passed away in 2013.”

From Pinagmulan, Enumerations from

the Philippine Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage

#ProjectLarawan.

Profiles of the Filipino. One portrait at a time.

Project Larawan is an initiative of Gabriel “Gabby” Malvar, a documentary filmmaker, writer and photographer, whose narratives

are nuanced with unique, inventive perspectives to provoke an inquisitive look at his favorite subject, the Philippines.

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