Chancellor Lyre Anni Murao delivers her welcome message to the Kadayawan archery competition participants

Madayaw nga adlaw!

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you all to the Kadayawan Archery Youth Tournament, which is spearheaded by the Davao Archery Club Inc., represented by its officials, in line with the celebration of the Kadayawan Festival.

The modern Kadayawan Festival evolved from the local thanksgiving feast practiced by the indigenous peoples living in the foothills of Mount Apo dedicated to Manama, the supreme deity of the Manobo, as thanks for their beautiful harvests. The name Kadayawan is taken from the Mandaya word "Madayaw," which means "good" and "beautiful."

Hence, it is an opportune time to be invited to an archery event during the time of Kadayawan.

For in the ancient past of Mindanao, the Lumads or indigenous peoples inhabiting these lands practiced their own form of archery using a bow and poisoned arrows to hunt animals in the forest for food. Artefacts on these indigenous bows and arrows can be found at various museums here and abroad. You can see these artefacts at the National Museum of Anthropology in Manila and even in our own Davao Museum of Ethnography and History in Insular Village in Lanang.

Why am I talking about this historical tidbit?

Because I want to drive home the point that archery is part of our indigenous culture and our history as a people. It is not something foreign that was introduced by our colonizers.

Our vision of modern archery might be influenced by Western culture, particularly in the Olympics. Archery was introduced in the Olympic Games as early as the 1900s and has been part of the games ever since.

But our ancestors used a bow and arrow even before we learned how to play basketball, football, or tennis. Maybe not for sport, but as part of their way of life to sustain themselves using the gifts of the forest.

Because of this connection to our culture and history, it is with great honor to be invited to open this event.

The University of the Philippines Mindanao is committed to the development of sports in the island of Mindanao and beyond. One of pillars in our expansion plan is the creation of a College of Human Kinetics, which will be the academic home for the training of the next generation of athletes in various sporting events. For now, we are currently offering an Associate in Arts in Sports Studies, which you can enter as a stepping stone for a Bachelor of Science in Sports Science, under the Department of Human Kinetics. So, I hope some of the young sports enthusiasts here might be interested in joining these programs.

I am happy to note that since the opening of Associate in Arts program in Sports Studies, we have produced gold medalists: In 2023, one of our students Ms. Jersey Enaj Vye Gonzales won a gold medal for archery during the Palarong Pambansa 2023. Just this year, another one of our students, Ms. Kristine Madeline Ibag won two gold medals in Palaro 2023 and set two new Philippine records during her event at the 2022 Philippine Archery Cup Finals and Philippine National Archery Championship.

Our commitment to sports also extends to the use of our sports facilities for various sports events. Because of our shared vision for Mindanao being a mecca for sports, we have partnered with the City Government of Davao for the establishment of the Davao City-UP Sports Complex. And we have hosted the Davao Region Athletic Association (Davraa) Meet in 2019 and this year; and we have also hosted the Palarong Pambansa in 2019.

I commend the Davao Archery Club Inc. for hosting this event, and I hope that we can partner together to champion archery and promote other "marginalized" sports as well. Let's face it, we can never win in basketball, the most popular sport in our country, because of our height disadvantage.

Look at where we excel at sports: weightlifting, which Hidelyn Diaz won a gold medal for at 2020 Summer Olympic in Tokyo, Japan, and gymnastics, which Caloy Yulo won 2 gold medals for at this years Olympics in Paris, France. These sports are not as popular as basketball in our country.

But if we want to excel in sports, we need to look deeply at our past and cultivate the ancient skillsets that are etched in our cultural memory. For example, the Philippines is an archipelago surrounded by seas and oceans; hence, our swimmers have the potential to become Olympians and gold medalists. Our indigenous ancestors were excellent hunters with the bow and arrow as well; hence, I hope our archers will win gold in international events and our archery team will become known as the best in the world.

Again, madayaw nga adlaw sa tanan!

Competitors at the Kadayawan Archery Competition held in UP Mindanao