Welcome, BA Ilokano Banquet

Gagayyem ken kakabsat:

Lumaemkayo iti daytoy a tallaong ken iti daytoy a panagkakammayet ita a rabii.

Manen, saksiantayo ti panangpadayawtayo kadagiti agad-adal iti Ilokano iti Universidadtayo.

Ket iti daytoy a panangpadayawtayo kadakuada, paggaammotayo nga isublidanto daytoy a rikna kadagiti sabali tapno iti siklo ti panangpadayaw iti maysa ken maysa ket dita a tumarubo ti rikna a panangilala iti bukod a kultura ken pagsasao.

Daytoy a pasken ti pakadagupan amin a sakrifisio dagiti agad-adal iti programatayo. Ditoy nga iparangarang dagiti estudiante ti nagsabalin a paniriganda iti kultura a naggapuan dagiti dadakkelna, ti namungayan ti panunot a tinawidda, ken ti linaon dagiti tagainepda.

Iti daytoy nga Scholarship Banquet, rag-o ti mariknatyo, rag-o ti balligi, ken rag-o met laeng iti panangimutektek nga adu pay dagiti nasken nga aramiden tapno iti kasta ket iti agnanayon ket mataginayon ni Ilokano ti lengguahe ken kulturana.

Friends and guests:

We welcome you to come into this gathering and into this solidarity for each other that we have tonight.

We come here again to witness the ceremony that honors our students of the Ilokano Program.

And in our act of honoring them, we are certain that they will give back this affection to others in this cycle of honoring each other, and we know that from there comes that clear feeling that our students will come to honor and preserve their ancestors’ language and culture.

Tonight’s event sums up the sacrifices of our students. For here, tonight, they will demonstrate to us the changes in their perspective on how to honor the culture and language of their parents, the root of the thought they inherited, and the content of their dreams.

In this banquet, we can only feel but joy, the joy of our heart, the joy of triumph, and the joy in recognizing that we all have a lot do to perpetuate and permit to thrive and thrive forever the fundamental marker of our identity, our being Ilokanos, our being Ilokanos who are committed to the pursuit of diversity, human freedom, and pluralism.

We thank you for joining us tonight. Agyamankami iti idadar-ayyo. Dios ti agngina kadakayo amin. Naimbag a rabiiyo—good evening to all of you.

Hale Koa Hotel, Honolulu, HI, April 30, 2010

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