The Social Sciences (SS) Dragons emerged as this year’s Sadsad Mindanaw Indigenous Dance Competition champion with their rendition of the Tausug’s Tau Higad or sea dwellers.

Held at 4/F Martin Hall, Friday evening, the SS Dragons performed with a stunning flurry of blues and pinks as they portrayed the Tausug tribe, most commonly known as the people of the current.

Following the SS Dragons were the Business & Management (B&M) Vipers for their rendition of Singkil sa Laya of the Maguindanaon, and the School of Engineering & Architecture (SEA) Tigers and Computer Science (CS) Chameleons’ collaborative dance of Pagkalinisa Isa Katawod Adala Mapatpat So Ginawa Nin of the Maguindanaon.

The Kagan tribe’s folktales were performed by the Accountancy (ACC) Griffins with the Haram na Pagkalinihay and the Humanities and Letters (HUMLET) Wolves with the Mag and Samaw.

Along with the SS, the Tausug’s folktales were also collaboratively performed by the Natural Science and Mathematics, School of Education, and School of Nursing clusters.

In her opening remarks, Office of Student Affairs Theresa Salaver-Eliab emphasized how this event highlighted the importance of cultural diversity, with which Ateneo promotes.

“We do this in the hope that we can help promote greater appreciation of our commonality and diversity as Mindanaons. But more than that, we do this, likewise, in the hope that we promote greater appreciation of what the celebration means to us as Ateneans, and what it can do to promote our common aspirations and common human fraternity towards achieving lasting peace in this region,” Eliab said.

The overall champion of this year’s Festival of Excellence is the SEA Tigers, followed by ACC Griffins and HUMLET Wolves.

For the Esporre Photojournalism competition, ACC were hailed champs, followed by SEA and HUMLET.

SEA garnered Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Musical Score, Best Editing, Best Screenplay, and Best Production Design for the Mugna Film Festival, and were also declared as champions. They were followed by the HUMLET with Best Acting and Best Poster, and the SS as second runner up.