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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the role of archives and the archived folk osipon (narrative/s) on nature in Bikol, Philippines, in the production of the lore of the folk. What kind of knowledge/lore is produced? How was it produced, circulated, maintained, and challenged by other human and non-human narrators?

Paper long abstract

If collective memories are archives, we should then ask how these archives are produced, and how were/are osipon (stories) circulated, maintained, and for whose benefit. Examining the history itself of the different archives of the myths on nature in Bikol including those of the famous Mayon Volcano, reveals concerns not only on the identity of the area which will eventually be officially named as Bikol but a host of other issues as well including the meaning itself of folklore. Is the lore truly of that of the people? What is the discursive position of a specific version of a folk story? or more properly, what positions are revealed? How does nature speak in these narratives? How is the human and the non-human understood in certain stories? What is the place of nature in the narratives of a people whose geographic location gifted them with seas and mountains and yes, typhoons and earthquakes as well?

The paper proposes to investigate selected Bikol folk narratives on nature including the myths on Mayon Volcano, located in the province of Albay in the geopolitical region named Bikol. These narratives exist today in archives with versions of the myths circulating in different media. In all these narratives of nature, this short paper aims to study the role of the archives in the production of the nation's or region's knowledge, the lore of the people. Which people? We might be compelled to ask. Osipon, Bikol's word for story, is also orosipon (plural).