The Centre for Samar Studies: A Samareno Heritage

The Centre for Samar Studies was conceived to be a repository and showcase of everything that is Samarnon. Samar is an important thread in the weave of a national tapestry. It being the third largest island of the country, its history dates back to pre-Hispanic times, and is, in fact among the first people in the Philippines to be Christianized.

The CSS was formally launched in June 1998. As a repository of the cultural heritage of the island it has retrieved and is still retrieving artefacts of culture. Researches are on oral traditions and oral literature. This activity peaked towards the end of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Sociology professors swelled the CSS collection with artefacts of material culture – fishing and farming implements, indigenous products, clothing, household items and religious articles. There is a collection of native recipes, and researches on the people’s beliefs, practices, and folk games.

As of now, it has a collection of theses on ethnobotany and other areas of ethno science. It has a beautiful collection of corals from the island of Biri, shells, and insects found in the entire Samar island. With these collections, it has become a resource centre for scholars interested in studying the various aspects of Samar’s culture and history.

The CSS has an article dating back to circa 1920, written in Spanish about the inauguration of the UEP forerunner – the Catarman Farm School. Its oldest book – circa 1930 – is an agriculture textbook authored by the second Filipino principal of the then renamed Catarman National High School. It also has a reproduction of the oldest Philippine Map.

Writers from Northern Samar like Cecilio Arillo, Ricardo Lo, and Msgr. Gaspar Balerite, have gifted the CSS with their works.

While there was an attempt to produce a Samarnon dictionary by undergraduate language and literature students, the output consisting of 10,000 words needs fine-tuning to facilitate reference going by the English words, and not the vernacular listing.

It has a rich collection of native songs, folk and oral literature, although no myth nor epic has been discovered yet.

There are two holographs which are incomplete plays – a number of theses on riddles, proverbs, folk speech, oracion, popular tales, legends, and children’s verses.

On exhibit are samples of folk craft and industry products made of “tikug,” wood, coco coir, rattan, bamboo, and “nito.” Some samples of art done by native artists are also showcased. Old coins are exhibited, too.

The Centre’s publication – Talutang – has featured some of the studies in its issues. It is now supposedly in its 13th year but for lack of logistics.

Nevertheless, the Centre moves on, with some donations, in cash or in kind, from private individuals. But foremost of all, it began because of the DOST’s initial funding of P200,000.00 which funded the procurement of a computer, digital, still and video cameras, as well as the travels of CSS researchers to retrieve indigenous artefacts. The cameras, however, were stolen when the glass door of the CSS was broken into by misguided elements.

As it marches with the times, the CSS has yet to embark on one of its cherished aims – to organize workshops and seminars to encourage studies on the history and culture of Samar. So much, indeed, has yet to be done. But, that the CSS has been started is already success enough, albeit a small one. If each Samarnon contributes to the CSS, it will certainly become the Centre of the Samarnon Spirit.