The Arborg Filipino community treated area residents and visitors to a cultural feast for the eyes and the tastebuds last Friday night during Arborg’s annual Culturama celebration.
Arborg resident Beverly Magaway said the event was well attended, and the Filipino community was one of several cultural groups that kept people fed and entertained and enjoying each other’s culture.
At the Philippine pavilion, visitors could sink their teeth into delicacies such as crispy spring rolls, pancit (noodles) with a savoury sauce – which Magaway helped make – and roasted peanuts with garlic.
Magaway said a member of the Filipino community, Cecile Andool, who’s a former public-school teacher from the Philippines, made the spring rolls (along with her husband) and also choreographed a folk dance called the salakot, which celebrates the rural way of life through industries such as fishing and farming and showcases rural folks’ hard work and resilience. Wilma Memoracion helped lead the dance.
The dancers were all from the Arborg area and included a mother and son dance team and a father and son dance team.
“The troupe just formed about three weeks ago to prepare this traditional dance just for Culturama. The salakot is a wide-brimmed hat made from bamboo or rattan and it symbolizes protection for farmers and fishers from the sun and rain. The dance is very simple and portrays the hard work of people who live in the rural areas of the Philippines,” said Magaway, who did not dance with the troupe. “We have lots of folk dances that portray rural life. For example, dancers can balance a lit candle in a glass on top of their heads to represent light, or a clay pot on their heads.”
For the Culturama performance, the dancers used a sombrero. The female dancers’ dresses were simple yet elegant and the men’s costumes showcased a working-man’s attire with simple trousers and a lightweight white shirt.
“We were so happy to share our culture with the community,” said Magaway. “Next year, the dance troupe is planning on showcasing a bamboo dance called tinikling where dancers have to step or hop between bamboo poles slid on the ground.”
Magaway offers Filipino cooking classes to the community – she said she once made 6,000 spring rolls for her daughter’s graduation several years ago – through a program offered by the Arborg-Bifrost Parks and Recreation Commission. She’ll be teaching a class in October. People can call the recreation commission to find out how to register.
Express Photo by Corrine Einarson
