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BARBARA KIBED OFONG
Textile Weaver
T’boli
Lamdalag, Lake Sebu, South Cotabato
2023
Continuously producing the highest possible quality of T’nalak for more than 50 years, Bo’i Barbara’s remarkable artistry and knowledge is spiritually guided through her “ties” with Fu Dalu, the guardian spirit of abaca. As a dreamweaver, she has artistically expressed T’boli cosmology, human relationships, and reverence to natural surroundings through more than 90 patterns in her weaving while incorporating the use of dyes derived from nature.
Bo’i Barbara’s extraordinary visual memory and mastery of the abaca, expressed in each singular and complex composition in T’nalak, carries with it a profound connection to their T’boli homeland Lake Sebu, and their T’boli universe where there reside the T’boli spirits and generations of weavers through time.
