Bontoc Museum is located right at the town center beside the St. Vincent's Elementary School.
I remember, when I visited it years ago, that the museum was an eye catcher amongst surrounding sights of alloyed shades of deep green mountain sides crammed with towering pine trees. Within the compound was an array of things, many of which hides a story or perhaps a secret waiting to be uncovered...
A Granta blog by New York Times writer Ben Mauk about the Cordilleras -"The Steepest Places - In the Cordillera Central" says about Sister Basil and the museum:
".... Sister Basil adored Santa Teresita, had a girlhood love who was killed in the Great War, and hoped to gather together in her museum some of the instruments of Bontoc culture - rattan fish traps, rain shades, snail-collecting baskets - that might otherwise disappear into the hands of American collectors."
The statement got me hooked. Sister Basil having had a girlhood love who was killed in the Great War (WW1 1914-1918) made me wonder what else can I find about this lady who I owed so much.
I wanted my book "The Last Spirit Child" (published in South Australia in 2022 ISBN 9780645442328) to be part of the museum. My story owes its beginning to Mother Basil.
The book's cover photo is an outdoor nook of the museum taken in 2012. My nephew, Edwin delivered the copy to the museum.
