CALGARY—Filipino Canadians had the opportunity to learn baybayin—the Philippines’s ancient script or syllabary—during the fourth episode of Sining Filipinas International Online Lecture Series on May 31.
Resource speaker Dr. Edwin V. Antonio, head of the National Committee on Northern Cultural Communities of the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA), showed viewers how baybayin is written and read, as he explained the ancient writing system’s vowels and consonants.
According to Dr. Antonio, baybayin—the Tagalog script—was used as the writing system all over the country during the precolonial times until at least the 17th Century. When Filipinos then opted to use the Roman and Latin alphabets “for certain reasons,” the baybayin became half-buried in the memory of ancestors, only to be seen later in some artifacts of stone and copper, as well as some potsherds.
A few ethnolinguistic groups, such the Hanunuo and Buhid Mangyans of Mindoro, as well as the Tagbanwa and Pala’wan, continued to use their native scripts to date. As Dr. Antonio cited, the native scripts of these people were formally inscribed in 1999 in the Memory of the World Register in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or Unesco.
He shared the use of such has “hyped up at least in the past few decades.” It led to the signing of the Baybayin Act of 2013, which calls for the use of the Philippine native-writing systems in the logos of government agencies, departments and offices. Now, baybayin scripts can be seen in the current logos of government cultural institutions such as the NCCA, Cultural Center of the Philippines, National Library, National Archives and Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, among others.
Baybayin writings were also incorporated in the New Generation Series of Philippine banknotes released by the Bangko Sentral, and the Philippine passport.
Consul General Zaldy B. Patron described this latest episode of Sining Filipinas as “truly educational and revealing of the Filipinos’ ancient writing system.” He encouraged the younger generation of Filipinos to know, learn and practice baybayin to enrich their heritage and culture.
The event, organized by Binhi ng Lahi Philippine Folk Dance Troupe and cosponsored by the Philippine Consulate General, was streamed via Facebook.