Graffiti Of My City No. 25 - Ancestors Of My City

Hello everyone. This is my second time to join in this contest, Graffiti Of My City, initiated by @slon21veka. The first one was more than 3 months ago. That was for No. 15. Now it is for No. 25. Long time ago. It is because I do not see much street art in my city. Also, I do not go out much because of the pandemic. But luckily I was able to see and photograph some street art last week which I am posting here. For those interested to join, the contest post can be found here.

I was driving to work a few weeks ago when I happened to notice these paintings along the wall of one of the public schools in my city, the Davao City National High School, the premier public secondary educational institution in Davao Region. It is located along F. Torres Street, Davao City, Philippines.

I live in Davao City, Philippines. It is located in the southern part of the country in the island called Mindanao. Now, there were several tribes that settled in Mindanao. One was called Manobos who lived along the central and northern part of the island. Another tribe, the Mandayas, settled along the eastern part which is the Davao Region. These tribal folks were of Malayan descent and have been in Mindanao as far back as the 12th century. They are considered the first settlers of the southern part of the country. The Manobos and Mandayas have similar lifestyles and appearances. They are an agricultural people of the slash and burn type. This accounts for the wrinkled and dry facial skins especially of the old folks as a result of overexposure to the sun and other elements. Their womenfolk have a fondness for trinkets and beads and other ornamentals which they wear with elaborate and colorful costumes.

These street art were done by Archie Oclos, a Street Artist / Muralist whose body of works focuses centrally on the plights of farmers, indigenous people and socio-political themes. In these murals he hopes to convey the delicate condition of these tribal people who have been displaced from their ancestral lands because of logging, mining, industrialization and modernization. He is a well-known artist in my city and the country as well. Here he is painting one of the murals depicted above. This is not my photo. I just included it here as I think it would be a cool idea to see how such art is made. Source of photo is indicated below.

Source

And finally, the whole wall (or at least most of it) as I saw it from my car the first time with the photo taken just a few days ago. The school building can be seen behind the wall.

It's a big school and I am sure there are some other murals to be found in it's other walls. I will find the time to pass by here again and check out if there are other street art to be found.

That's all for now. But I will be back again once I find other street art in this school. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as I did making it. Best of luck to all the participants. May you all be safe and healthy. Have a great week ahead!

(Unless otherwise indicated, all photos are mine.)