Da Kami Ay Anan-ak
The Heart of the Song
Even though we are poor, every dawn is happiness."
This song isn't only about playing and laughing. Its real message is deeper and braver: joy that doesn't depend on having a lot. Every sunrise is a fresh reason to be glad. When you sing the bright, bouncing sounds in this piece, you're singing the sound of chosen joy.
The heartbeat word of the whole song. You'll sing it again and again. The entire piece is built around this one idea.
"Da kami ay anan-ak" means "We are children." The song is sung in the voice of kids celebrating their world.
Not every sound is a word. These playful syllables are pure joy set to music, like the happy noises kids make everywhere.
Where in the World?
- This song comes from the Philippines, a country of over 7,000 islands in Southeast Asia.
- More exactly, it comes from the Cordillera mountains in the north of the island of Luzon.
- The Kankana-ey people live high in these mountains, in the Mountain Province and Benguet.
- They are famous for carving giant rice terraces into the mountainsides, some over 2,000 years old.
The People Behind the Song
๐ซ A living culture
The Kankana-ey are a living people, not a story from the past. In everyday life they wear modern clothes and go to school, just like you. Traditional dress, like the elders are wearing here, comes out for celebrations. This is a culture that is very much alive today.
๐ Mountain music
Traditional Kankana-ey music rings with the gangsa, flat bronze gongs played with mallets, along with bamboo flutes and the solibao drum. Music belongs to community celebrations.
Watch it played
๐พ Life in the highlands
They are expert farmers who grow rice on the famous terraces. Their songs, the patterns woven into their cloth, and their celebrations all grow out of this life close to the land and the mountains.
See the mountainsSay It Like You Mean It
Tap each line to reveal how to say it and what it means. The phonetics below come from the official pronunciation guide for this piece.
Songs Like Ours
Children's songs around the world share the same DNA: short repeated phrases, playful or nonsense sounds, building energy, and movement. Here are American game-songs that do exactly what this one does.
Watch & Listen
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Hear a real SSAA choir sing it
Scan the code or tap below to watch a choir perform this exact arrangement. Listen for the slow start, the build, the tumbling "woa woa" syllables, and the laughter at the end. Watch how the singers carry the joy in their faces.
Watch on YouTube