In this research, PhD candidate Primitivo III Cabanes Ragandang advances the concept of ‘hypernegative peace’, which occurs when a peace project fails to include the healing of generational wounds caused by past violence and trauma by and during the colonial era. He argues that the current and future peace projects will only be successful if peacebuilding actors recognise and reconcile the past. Drawing from the case of the Tausug tribe’s ballad called parang sabil kissa, this research explores how the Philippine Tausugs remember the Bud Dajo massacre even after a century. Ballads are one of the mechanisms by which local communities express their unhealed wounds of the past. It is an artistic oral form of recalling the community’s traumatic history and a vehicle of memory passed across generations.
This project received support from Seeds for Mindanao’s Advocacy and Youth Leadership (SMAYL).