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Photos taken by Sam Estrada at Eyoomkuuka’ro Kokomaar (We Paddle Together) Canoe Launch June 15, 2024, Yelamu (aka San Francisco, California, at the Aquatic Cove Park). Script below is from the Canoe Protocols in your language written by L Frank Manriquez & Emmy Akin Olivo and ______. Version 1.0 Eyoomkuuka’ro Kokomaar (We Paddle Together) 2024.

Nangayo mig permiso nga anhi diri. Nangayo kog permiso nga anhi dinhi.

Gikapoy mi. Gigutom mi.

Pahuway ta dinhi? Walay sapayan dinhi.

Nalipay kami kanimo nakabiyahe nga luwas.

Nagtanyag kami kanimong pagkaon, tubig at dapit nga pahulayan. 

Panahon na nga mamauli na ta.

Ako/kami nagpasalamat sa…pagkaon, tubig ug dapit nga pahulayan. 

Nanghinaot mi nga magkita ta
pag-usab.
Maayo ka
bisita sa atong
yutang natawhan.
Nanghinaut kami nga luwas ka
biyahe pauli.

We ask permission to be here. I ask permission to be here. We are tired and hungry. May we rest here? You are welcome here. We are glad you traveled safely. We offer you food water and a place to rest. It is now time for us to go home. I am/we are thankful for… food, water and a place to rest. We hope to see you again. You have been a good guest in our homelands. We wish you a safe
journey home.

Mabuhay kay Kanyon Sayer-Roods, on behalf of the Yelamu for a warm welcome. Thanks to the Indigenous peoples of Yelamu lands and waters for gifting us Filipinos-Fil-Amx of Balik sa Dagat Bangka Journey a sacred space to connect, reconnect, learn, and re-learn how to love, care, and share with each other. Thank you to the Pacific Northwest Tribal Canoe Journeys, Indi-Pinays, and Indi-Pinoys. WE LOVE YOU!

Thanks to the youthful folks from Kapwa is Medicine, led by Camille Santana and Erica, folks learned more about the World Bangka Journey’s stories. Thanks to Bituin Studio via Jenn Ban for hosting this World Bangka safely in SF’s SOMA. Thanks to the gift-making team led by Holly Calica and Grace Duenas. Much gratitude to the musicians and dancers led by Manong Alexis Canillo, Kulintang practitioners led by Conrad Jaminola Benedicto via Kulintang Dialect practitioners. Deep gratitude to skippers-in-training, Dhara Taneo, Fenua Ibabao and Champoy. Hands up in gratitude to drivers, the many hands that helped load/unload and moved bangka safely. Gratitude to Baylan Megino as this blogsite admin since 2012. Mabuhi tanan. Salamat sa Ginoo. 

Gift of this World Bangka’s Many Names:

Baba Adekunle Akangbe Ogun initiated by gifting its spirit name: Ọpọn Ayọ = Canoe of Joy. Stay tuned for the future naming ceremony of this World Bangka as Uncle Philip H. Red Eagle as we await its Salish name. Manong Alexis Canillo shared a Tagalog word, Tadhana which means Destiny.

Ifugao Mumbaki Master Carver Mamerto Lagitan Tindongan explained: “No canoe in our mountain abode, so we will just call it Hagabi, which is a prestige bench but looks like a canoe. One Ifugao elder, Engr. Art Butic, who now lives in Texas thinks that the Hagabi design could have been from a canoe form.”

Let it be known that for me, Mylene r.a.d. Leng Leng, the Bisayan name, Musayaw ni Lumba-Lumba which means Dolphin Dances fits, awaiting a collective conversation to consider for she does dance with joy esp. in the water and whether she is up in the air or on the ground she is dancing with joy, Ọpọn Ayọ.

I know that dear late elder Lolo Babe’s feet are dancing.

Honored with joy to reconnect with Ate Jeanette Acosta, whom I first met at a gathering of storytellers around a fire at Paddle to Swinomish 2011, in Anacortes, Washington State, where prayers and blessings were placed to the fires for the Filipinos showing up at Tribal Canoe Journey.