"VAKUL"

"VAKUL"

I’m in the northernmost island of the Philippine archipelago after crossing the choppy seas separating the islands in a rough wooden cargo boat carrying vomiting women and passengers fiercely praying, a cow as my seatmate. Magencia is leading me from her stone house to the fields where she will harvest sweet potatoes, yams, and corn for our dinner. She’s singing songs in a language I can’t identify as Filipino. She walks slowly wearing her vakul, the headwear designed to protect Ivatans from the rain and the cold. The Ivatans live on the islands of Batanes. Time moves slow here, and in every home there are dreams of Manila. Batanes is an isolated province in the Philippines, and one of the most sparsely populated. It looks nothing like the rest of the archipelago, with its grass-covered rolling hills and stone houses in place of coconut trees and nipa huts. Today they are developing roads, getting access to cable television, and their idyllic stone homes are being replaced with tin. But the Ivatan culture still surfaces, with fishery schools requiring students to create dances about their fishing heritage, and vakuls hanging on posts for tourists to buy.

Magencia, or Nana Maggi, as we fondly call her, hangs her vakul on a tree. “The new generations don’t use vakuls anymore. They don’t want to. she tells us. “Because how are they going to use it in the office?” She chuckles. Later on I would find myself in a pageant in a university on Batanes’ mainland, and watch Ivatan students perform in rented dresses and heels to Ylvis’ “What Does the Fox Say.”

No other plant but the voyavoy, with its degree of influence to the people and exclusivity to the place, can best represent the Batanes Islands. Also known as the Philippine date palm, it grows to about four meters tall. Despite its hard and rough trunk and prickly leaves, it attracts the attention of humans and animals alike. 
The older Ivatans, the native dwellers of Batanes Islands, know the better use of the voyavoy. Under the wild, punishing summer sun or the undaunted, harsh rainfall during the typhoon months, it is the ever-reliable leaves of the voyavoy that keep the islands’ farmers and fisher folk warm and protected. 
In its full bloom, the voyavoy finds its slim leaves fluttering to the beat of the wind. But cut and dried, the leaves shed their former life as they are transformed into vakul, a headgear, and kanayi, a vest. These are the famed Ivatan all-weather gear, created by the local residents long before the Spaniards came to the place. Both thick and heavy, the vakul is worn by women, and the kanayi by men.

One of the endemic clothing of the Ivatans is the vakul. A vakul is a headgear designed to protect the wearer from sun and rain. It is made from abaca fiber of the vuyavuy palm   

>It is a headgear used to protect the Ivatans from rain, wind and sun. Vakuls are used by women while its counterpart "Talugong" are worn by Ivatan men. 

>Vakuls are made out of Philippine Date Palm or "Voyavoy" leaves. The palm leaves are being dried under the sun, shredded into thin parts and woven to make a "Vakul".

ISA weariNg a "vAkul"..