The art festival that promotes and wants to raise awareness to indigenous culture and arts held at Financial Park, Labuan, Malaysia dubbed as Borneo Arts Festival (BAF) last September 27-30, left a positive impact on Palawan artists.
The three-day event highlighted cultural performances and art exhibits from participating artists across South East Asian countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines.
The Philippines sent a visual artist from Palawan and two from Cebu to join the exhibit.
Some musicians of Palawan Cultural Heritage also performed the Filipinos local music during the festival at Financial Park Convention Hall that got praises from the audience and Malaysian leaders.
Leonard Ansiong of GUHIT Pinas – Palawan was one of the delegates to the art festival who shared excitedly what they experienced, contributed and learned.
“Masaya po yung byahe namin, di lang po kami yung delegation from Philippines. Nag-invite din po pala sila from Cebu. Paintings ko lang po yung display from Palawan featuring our indigenous people po, tapos isa rin po sa nagpasaya sa festival yung performance nila Kuya Ronnel Ubay ng Palawan Cultural Heritage,” Ansiong narrated.
He further recounted that, “Nagustohan po nila yung mga tugtugin natin dito lalo pa nilagyan ng twist nila Kuya Ubay, nung last night, nag-perform po sila sa convention hall, sa harap ng mga leaders ng Malaysia, kasama po dun yung Minister nila.”
The Palawan and Cebu local artists created a doodle art sketch that measures 2 x 5 feet of “The Chimney” a famous landmark in Labuan, Malaysia, and water village called “Patau-Patau” during the event and they gave these as tokens to Mr. Timbalan Menteri, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture of Malaysia at the last day of the festival.