By Lee Angela Igne
I am very excited and proud to be a part of another milestone for the Filipino Community in Manitoba.
The Manitoba Filipino Street Festival (MFSF) and our martial arts school, The Winnipeg Sikaran Arnis Academy (WSAA) will be having the FIRST EVER Manitoba Filipino Street Warriors. This is a competition between teams featuring Filipino Street Games or Larong Kalye on June 9 Saturday at 3pm at the Maples Multiplex Grounds.
I would like to share with you that this is also the first time that we will be enjoying the festivities and a lot more of events and activities from the different member organizations and associations of the MFSF for TWO DAYS! This inspired the WSAA to organize and bring some of the traditional Filipino street games. I am sure it will bring back sweet childhood memories of our Classic Titos and Titas in Winnipeg and also teach and show the Filipino Youth like me who were born here in Canada the fun that our parents had back home when they were our age.
I researched on some of these “Larong Kalye” and I found out that these were created by Filipino children using their ingenuity in innovating playthings out of anything that they can find from their yards or inside the house due to the scarcity of materials to make toys especially in the rural areas. They used stones, chalk, strings, and ball made of coconut leaves, coconut husks. And these games are played outdoors and involve a lot of physical activity. That is so cool! Examples are: patintero, luksong baka, luksong tinik, taguan, habulang pulis. I watched videos over the internet on how these games are played and I say WOW! They look so much fun, energizing and a lot of team building.
Being born here in Canada, we do have outdoor activities, and being raised as a Filipino Canadian, I feel very grateful for experiencing playing these games with our Filipino friends and our parents too!
I would like to encourage the different Filipino organizations and associations, barkadas, families, workmates, schoolmates to form your team and register for the First Manitoba Filipino Street Warriors.
The teams will be competing in different games where each team will earn points. At the end of all the games, the team who will accumulate the highest number of points will be declared as the First Manitoba Filipino Street Warrior and they will take home $500 cash courtesy of MFSF and a grand champion trophy courtesy of the WSAA. 2nd place will take home $300, 3rd place is $150 and consolation prizes for the rest of the participating teams.
Teams can pre-register via email to wsaa2004@gmail.com or visit us at the Winnipeg Sikaran Arnis Academt Sports and Recreation Centre at Unit 12 – 1833 Inkster Blvd. Mondays to Thursdays from 5:30 to 7:30pm. Deadline for registration is on Sunday May 27, 2018 at 3pm at the Filipino Seniors Hall at 49 Euclid Avenue. We will also have the briefing and orientation of the Teams and Team Captains on the same day.
