This is Tongass Voices, a series from KTOO sharing weekly perspectives from the homelands of the Áak’w Kwáan and beyond.
Every year on July 4th, drums awaken the streets of downtown Juneau. This iconic sound is Juneau Ati-Atihan, a musical marching group that brings the Filipino festival of the same name from Aklan to Juneau.
One of the lead drummers, Hans Javier, has participated in the Independence Day parade since he was a kid. Twenty years later, Juneau Ati-Atihan is his way of giving a shoutout to his culture, while spending quality time with his family.
Listen:
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Hans Javier: First name Hans, last name, Javier. What we are doing today is, we are drumming for the parade representing specifically my Filipino culture from Aklan, Aklanon, and we are drumming for Ati-Atihan.
Ati-Atihan is a festival, it’s generally like a week long. It honors the infant Jesus. It’s our saint, it’s Santo Niño. So primarily, the festival is celebrated for religious purposes. And you know, we do this back home in the Philippines on an annual basis. So, you know, doing it on Independence Day is a great way to represent our culture.
I watched my uncles and older cousins do this, and I always wanted to enter not knowing that, you know, they were open to me learning. And then one day, I believe it was, uncle Ed asked me if I wanted to join. And I think I was maybe 11 or 12 at the time, and ever since I’ve been doing it.
I am one of many leads. I’ve played all drums, from bass to snare. I was primarily a snare lead. We bought a new quad, so I switched over to the quad. Most importantly, my role as a quad is to make sure people stay in tempo. But my primary role overall is to make sure everything’s organized – drummers are present, organized formation, and yeah.
Hans Javier to the drummers: Ready! Start banging!
I feel like we bring flavor, and not to kind of downplay the rest of the parade, but you know, I feel like every time we pass through a certain area, you know, everybody gets up from the curb. Instead of waiting for candies, you know, they’ll get up and dance with us. We welcome people to jump in where they’re at and come dance with us.
Funny story, last year we had, I guess my drummers were banging so hard we broke like, four drums last year.
Yeah, when we pass a certain area, specifically like Marine Park and the Filipino Community, people tend to play louder and faster, and that’s where people generally break their drums.
I’m very close with my family, I’m very close with my cousins. And as we get older, it’s a lot harder to see them. But everybody, you know, around this time of year really makes time out to participate. And a lot of these cousins I don’t see until – and keep in mind, we live in Juneau, small town, right? – but a lot of these cousins I don’t see until, like, a month out of July 4th.
So it’s a great time for us to kind of reconnect and, you know, be a family. I really love that part about it.
