Re: Forum | Baybayin.com

Lapu2 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:58:32 -0000

Greetings, Christian~

Kayumanggi' Klay Ordona (tilde not showing here), posting this note.
Did we meet at Pistahan in SF?

I was among the early Baybayin scholars/artists
in California to teach young Pin@ys about our indigenous writing in workshops
at various schools, conferences, and kommunity centers.
I started doing artwork after I was exposed to LIWANAG
(published by Bay Area Pin@ys associated with PACE & KSW)
in High School in 1980.
After that, I studied various sources available in print at that time, and
learned from kultural workers in the Philippines about the aktwal kasaysayan
at praktis. I chose not to post my work on the internet in the late 80s/early 90s
to prevent it from being mis-appropriated or abused,
and to re-propagate ang Baybayin amongst Pin@ys (especially
Urban Poor & other impoverished kababayans) before others, amongst other reasons.

With all due respect, kapatid, you must correct one statement that you made
about the indigenous writing tradition. The original mode of writing
ang Baybayin is "away" from the carver (since it tended to be cut/carved
into leaves, kawayan, wood, atbp..), which means it was inscribed
or read from "bottom to top". This is how some of our people
in Palawan and Mindoro still do it. European colonialists did not
even figure this out, at first, just as they had to add the cross kudlit
to utilize the characters as they evangelized with their version of
the Judeo-Christian scriptures. But like the cross kudlit, their colonization
has influenced the minds and kultura of our people. Now many people
assume that the "right" way to write Baybayin is "left-to-right",
just like they often assume that maps are supposed to have
North as "up"(which is the Eurocentric norm).

I hope you will take this as constructive criticism,
for we all make honest mistakes,
and continue to evolve your work, kababayan...
and remember that not everything is on the internet
or in Eurocentric knowledge bases, like Academia.

If you wish to be in touch, you can reach me
at this email for now: Lapu2@sfsu.edu

sa*la*am*at*ka*pa*ya*pa*an

Re: Forum | Baybayin.com

Lapu2 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:47:40 -0000

I re-posted this in the more relevant string

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Re: Forum | Baybayin.com

Re: Forum | Baybayin.com