LA TRINIDAD, Benguet—Gustavo Montero is an Ibaloi artist and artisan who is contributing to the preservation and increased awareness of indigenous arts beyond his native province of Benguet.

It all started in 2009, when Montero first became interested in Kali, the Filipino martial art that involves hand and body movements and the use of bladed weapons. He trained in Kali up to eight hours a day, learning how to engage in open-hand combat and to handle different weapons. He became so proficient in it that he was soon being called to train men and women in uniform in Benguet as well as in neighboring provinces Ifugao and Abra.

For his weapons of choice, Montero went to the bladesmiths and blacksmiths of Ifugao who have traditionally fashioned not only sturdy but also beautifully adorned blades. Initially he wanted his blades to be merely functional, but soon he was asking the craftsmen for blades custom-made according to his unique designs. It came to a point that they were finding it difficult to execute the intricate details he wanted. 

This posed a challenge to Montero, who eventually decided that he would study blade-making so he could execute his concepts himself.

He had closely watched the Ifugao craftsmen while they were at work, and he honed his skills by studying videos on YouTube of Filipino and foreign blacksmiths. Then, in his garage, he put together his own setup, including a forge, an anvil, and hammers.

An important characteristic of the blade, Montero points out, is that it is made from one piece of metal from the tip to the handle. After the blade is forged, rattan strands are woven around its handle. He remembers that it was 2018 and Supertyphoon “Ompong” (international name: Mangkhut) was inundating the Cordillera day and night, so he had time to perfect the weaving process: making each strand pliable, then tightly weaving four to five strands together.

A blade he can finish within two hours, but the design and weaving of the rattan, then the designing and crafting of the scabbard, require a lot of patience and time, he says. Each project takes him at least three weeks to make.

During the pandemic, his craft became an outlet for his creative expression. He donated a piece to the Betag Community Pantry in his hometown of La Trinidad; it was put on auction for the cause.

‘The inspiration comes naturally’

In 2022, Montero expanded his skill set to abstract sculpture and mixed media, particularly, using turmeric, coffee and annatto, as well as acrylic and ink, to paint slabs of balete trees. “I like using that particular tree because of the grain, which already has a natural design,” he says. He accentuates each work with a weapon he has forged to balance the gentle strokes with the hardness and coldness of metal.

“The inspiration comes naturally to me, and the improvisation flows when I work,” says Montero, who has had no formal training in the visual arts. He credits his forebears, composed of artists and artisans—in particular, a grandfather who was a rattan weaver and a grandmother who was a mambabatek (traditional hand-tapped tattoo artist)—for this natural inclination. 

The fire mummies of Kabayan, his grandparents’ native town, are so well-preserved that the patterns of the traditional tattoos on their skin can be deciphered by the naked eye. Montero says his grandmother inspired him to unlock another talent, this time in hand-tapped tattooing. His interest was piqued when he designed and crafted tools for another hand-tapped tattoo artist. 

Staying close to tradition, Montero pokes the skin with lemon or agave thorns dipped in a mixture of water and pine soot. He has inked both Filipinos and foreigners during events in the Cordillera and in the Ilocos.

In 2024, Montero explored using pyrography—pioneered by another Cordilleran, Jordan Mang-osan—in his multimedia work. With pyrography, an artist uses an electrical heated pen to apply controlled burn marks to create an artwork. Montero has since participated in two such exhibits at the Tam-Awan Village in Baguio City.

It was at an exhibit at Tam-Awan that Montero met National Artist for Film Kidlat Tahimik. Baguio’s “Tatay” was impressed by Montero’s talent, and purchased a hefty work.

Just as he studied videos on YouTube to familiarize himself with blade-making techniques, Montero turned to technology to present his works to the world. He posted photos of his one-of-a-kind creations online, and it did not take long before orders from collectors, enthusiasts, and fellow artists started pouring in.

Links and roots

“All over the world, not only in Asia and the Pacific islands, indigenous peoples are linked somehow by similarities in their material and lived cultures. These can be seen in their forms of self-defense, crafts, artworks, and tattoos, which are strongly rooted in their history and culture,” Montero says.

He is a firm believer that artists need to sustain one another through organizations from which they can draw encouragement and inspiration. He is one of the cofounders of the La Trinidad Visual Arts Society, established just this year to nurture this communitarian spirit.

Through the blades he fashions and the tattoos he imprints, Gustavo Montero is forging a link with the indigenous arts for us who live in the present.