Kadayawan: When gratefulness knows no tribe

There is something to be said about how a predominantly Catholic city conducts a big lumad celebration of life, each year, practically without miss for over 50 years. Davao’s first and only Bagobo mayor, Elias Lopez, decided in 1970 that the city’s various ethnic Muslim and non-Muslim tribes be given the attention and admiration they deserved.

And so he proceeded to institutionalize the Kadayawan Festival, a celebration of the city’s yearlong bounty in fruit and vegetable harvest, indigenous culture and norms, and the prevalence of peace.

The context of interest is that six centuries ago, in 1521, the Spanish Crown and the Catholic Church set foot in the Philippine Islands and stayed on as colonisers for 400 years. History tells us that although that effort was earnest, the lumad remained fiercely resistant to foreign rule. And so the latter prevailed and thrived, bruised but never beaten.

Four decades of subjugation, however, did leave a mark. The Philippine Catholic population is now the third largest in the world after Brazil and Mexico. Davao City’s residents alone are 80 percent Catholic.

And yet, Elias Lopez had the good sense to launch the city’s most important feast as a lumad one. In so doing, he had honored his roots. He had honored indigenous peoples worldwide. And he had honored other faiths and cultures for their tolerance and understanding.

For that is what Kadayawan truly stands for: a respect for diversity as we all sit at the table of plentiful yield, mindful of our differences but grateful for our shared dreams, singing in various tones but swayed by a single song of love.

Psalm 118:24 is apropos: “This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” It is a passage that is transcendent of faith. As gratitude is.