Indigenous Sounds of Gathering: Music and Dance Memory in the Cordillera Highlands of the Philippines

This documentary film demonstrates how indigenous music and dance are deeply ingrained into the Tinggian people’s collective memory. The Tinggian people are from the province of Abra and are one of several ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordillera mountains of the Philippines. Most of this documentary film’s contents were filmed in the barangay (village) Taripan in Malibcong, Abra, Philippines. This documentary film depicts two traditional Tinggian dances accompanied by Cordillera flat gong music, pallook and tajok. Pallook is a joyful group dance performed at celebrations, where women and men dance in alternating formations with (usually) men playing the gongs. Tajok is a social partner dance between men and women of all ages and the accompanying musicians play the gongs on their laps. The film also shows a traditional chant called Uggayam, which is included at all social gatherings and performed by a chosen elder of the community, signifying its importance to Tinggian cultural identity. Ugayyam is usually performed at the beginning of an event before other dances or chants to signify the start of festivities at a celebration. These performances in the documentary were a part of a birthday celebration where the community gathered together. The documentary also depicts scenes of road travel, environment and daily life, which are interwoven with the scenes of music and dance. By juxtaposing the scenes of music and dance with scenes of road travel, environment and daily life, the documentary explores ideas of tradition, heritage, indigeneity, and homecoming. This documentary film was created from various video and audio clips recorded during fieldwork research in July 2024.