Maaram - "GAHUM" (Power)

MAARAM - “Gahum”
(“Power”)

In the friar dictionary Vocabulario de la Lengua Bisaya (1637), the Augustinian Alonso Mentrida’s lexical entry for the word gahum translates to poder. Poder or power.

Tatay Mirasol, a leader of the Panay Bukidnon community in Iloilo, grieves the loss of ancestral lands because of government-initiated projects. We see the sacred river of Halawod irreversibly damaged due to the construction of a mega dam. We see how the mountains have been blasted to give way to infrastructure. Throughout the episode, gahum unravels its nature as inner power and how it animates the Panay Bukidnon lifeworld, and the gahum as exercised by those who wield vast economic and political resources, resulting in the the loss of ancestral lands and the eventual erasure of indigenous peoples’ communities.

Direction and script: Maria Jovita Zarate
Additional material: Ron Stephen R. Reyes & Mary Joy H. Ramos
Editing: Ron Stephen R. Reyes, Sernne John P. Dominia, and Norman Jasm Cuala
Videography: Ron Stephen R. Reyes, Louie Miguel de Leon, John Rodriguez, Tonzie Escaño Gay