T’nalak: A fabric of bravery and love

KORONADAL CITY, South Cotabato – People often find identity in the clothes they wear.

Amusingly, many people wear designer clothes and accessories as a fashion statement, not even caring to know where it came from or how it came into being.

Take the case of that fabric distinct with ethnic patterns that has reached even the international fashion landscape, but only a  know its name and how it was woven from abaca fibers to produce a cloth fit for royalty.

Many celebrities are seen donning it either as a vest or just an accent in clothing or bag, implying that the one wearing it has gone to Mindanao.

But where in Mindanao? Would they know that the fabric is called t’nalak and that it was woven from abaca fibers?

T’nalak, a unique yet colorful way of weaving the abaca cloth by the T’boli tribal communities in South Cotabato, has gone beyond mere cloth weaving or art itself.

Residents of this resource-rich province have taken pride of the t’nalak as reflective of South Cotabato’s varying regional and ethnic cultures, belief, dialects and art woven together to form a wonderful tapestry.

Nimfa Estabillo, South Cotabato’s information chief, said it is with such appreciation that residents of the province go out of their way each year to celebrate a weeklong T’nalak Festival in observance of the founding anniversary of South Cotabato.

South Cotabato turns 41 on July 18 with festivities going on since a week ago.

The T’nalak Festival, now on its 8th year, started in 1998 when former President Fidel V. Ramos declared abaca weaver Bey Lang Dulay, a T’boli native from Lake Sebu, as a “Living Treasure on T’nalak Weaving.”

Handmade, a t’nalak cloth takes months to weave. Colorful geometric patterns are typical in t’nalak designs.

South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Avance Fuentes explained how the t’nalak cloth best typify the people of South Cotabato, saying that the strong white abaca fibers could represent the people’s honest intentions.

The t’nalak’s rich black and deep reddish-brown strands are dyed with herbs extracts of permanent colors – red for bravery, commitment and love.

The black strands represent the struggles and hard beaten-era of pioneers, who developed strong character and perseverance.