In terms of traditional arts, the Philippines has a lot to show and offer with about 80 ethnolinguistic groups having their own or shared crafts. Examples include textile weaving of many groups from north to south; mat weaving with excellent examples from southern Palawan, Samar, and Tawi-Tawi; and brass-making of Tugaya, Lanao del Sur.
Many traditional artists have already been awarded the Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan (Gamaba) by the state like Teofilo Garcia of Abra, kattukong nga tabungaw or gourd hat maker; Eduardo Mutuc of Apalit in Pampanga, a master of pinukpuk; and the late T’boli weaver, Lang Dulay.
The Katagalugan or the Tagalog-speaking provinces of Luzon also has a rich cultural heritage including in crafts, and one of the examples is the craft of folding and weaving leaves of Malolos, Bulacan, called puni. One of its practitioner and proponent was the late Rheeza Hernandez whom a recently published book on the said traditional art paid homage to.
Authored and published by Bulacan cultural worker and local historian Jaime Salvador Corpuz, the book Puni: Sining ng Malolos, Pamanang Bulakenyo presents this lesser-known traditional art which was resuscitated and championed by the likes of Hernandez from almost being forgotten.
The book is divided into four parts with the first on Hernandez’s journey as a puni artist. The second part discusses the history of puni and gives other examples from other places such the United Arab Emirates and Mexico. Also discussed in this chapter are the materials used such as buri or buli and coconut palm; the different ways of weaving; uses of puni as a toy, food container, and for religious purposes; and the short biographies of practitioners Hernandez, Noemi Paguia-Garcia, Maria Lynda Tubid and Chelle Santos.
The next part shows images of puni products such as the bituin (star), bola (ball), ibon (bird), palaspas (palm leaf frond), and rosas (rose) from the collection of Corpuz who runs the private museum Bahay Makabayan in the town of Marilao while the process of weaving is contained in the last part.
This book is important not only in presenting to a much wider audience the craft of puni but it is also a way of safeguarding it. It is the first in Corpuz’s “Pamanang Bulacan” series on the province’s intangible cultural heritage elements, a series that according to scholar Felice Prudente Santa Maria, contains some of the “most attractive antique Philippine arts.”