The Cuyonon Language's First Rock Band

Cuyonon (or Cuyono) is a language spoken by the Cuyonon people of the Cuyo Islands and the island of Palawan in the Philippines. In 2000, there were 29,142 speakers of the language. Due to migrations, the influence of television, rapid economic development, and intermarriage with non-Cuyonon speakers, the use of the language has drastically eroded. Approximately only ten percent of children in Cuyonon households speak the language, and many of the young people that do speak a highly creolized version of the language heavily mixing in influences from Tagalog and English.

The question of the language's survival in the coming decades has been ominous, but thankfully there have been indigenous efforts for language revitalization. Ester Timbancaya Elphick studied linguistics at UCLA and started a non-profit called the Cuyonon Language and Culture Project with the aim of documenting and revitalizing the language by establishing a standard writing system, creating a bilingual dictionary, and fostering awareness of Cuyonon cultural heritage among Cuyonons and others. They successfully incorporate elders, young people, and professional linguists in their projects, and they have developed a useful online presence. Hopefully with efforts like these, the lack of academic and social attention to the Cuyonon culture and language will be reversed and we'll see more developments like this.

Contributing to this revitalization effort is a rock band called Bulyaw Mariguen which released the first album ever to be sung in the Cuyonon language. Their name comes from the Cuyonon version of the game hide and seek. They formed the band because of "their desire to express themselves in music that makes use of their own Cuyono language, of creating music that they can call their own and that young Cuyonons can enjoy and relate to and their vision of having Cuyono music diversify (from folk to different genres) and contribute to its development." This is a picture of the band:

It's exciting to see you young speakers of an endangered language use music as a form of advocacy and revitalization so intentionally. They state that their advocacy is the following:

• a response to a need for self-expression
• a response to a need for representation in Palawan's media institutions
• a means to entice teenagers to learn the Cuyono language
• a means to somehow change the perception of the Palawenyo youth about Cuyono music and language
• a means to take part in developing Cuyono music
• a means to move Cuyono and Palawenyo history

This is a music video that the band produced:

For information on Cuyonon and CLCP: http://www.cuyonon.org/
For information on the band: http://bulyawmariguen.blogspot.com/