On Oct. 23-24, representatives of Indigenous Peoples (IP) communities will gather in a celebration called “Dayaw” to present with pride their rich cultural heritage through music, dance, and oral tradition performances, and to share stories on best practices in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH).
Leading the celebration is the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) through the Subcommission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts (SCCTA). The theme that will unite the celebration of National Indigenous Peoples Month is “Pagtataguyod ng pamayanang kultural para sa isang matatag na Pilipinas (Upholding cultural communities for a robust Philippines).”
Presidential Proclamation 1906, signed in 2009, declared October as the “National Indigenous Peoples Month” that mandates the “recognition and protection of the rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICC). The gathering of cultural communities kicked off last Oct. 2 at the Rizal Park, with performances representing IP communities around the country. Today, Oct. 23, the Dayaw performance will be at the Rizal Park open air auditorium. On Oct. 24, the Dayaw forum will be held at the Metropolitan Theater in Manila.
The heart of the celebration will be the sharing of best practices on safeguarding ICH which are “measures aimed at ensuring the viability of the intangible cultural heritage” so that efforts in its preservation, promotion and transmission to the next generation will be initiated.
ICH includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.”
Its importance, according to UNESCO, “is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that is transmitted through it from one generation to the next.”
The Philippines has a wealth of intangible cultural heritage, some familiar to many of us now but others still remains to be documented and disseminated so that it will continue to give us “a sense of identity and continuity, providing a link to our past, through the present, and into our future.”
The NCCA has been developing projects and programs and nominating ICH elements to the UNESCO Representative and Urgent Safeguarding Lists. In the UNESCO Representative List of Humanity are three ICH elements of IP in the Philippines. These are the Hudhud chants of the Ifugao province, the Darangen epic of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao Maranao, and the tugging rituals and games of the Tuwali tribe in Ifugao, the NCCA announced.
Declared as a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001 was the Hudhud chants, and in 2005, the Darangen epic. The tugging rituals done in the Hapao River was inscribed in the UNESCO list in 2015.
Also in the UNESCO Register of Good Safeguarding Practices is the School of Living Traditions (SLT) inscribed in UNESCO last Dec. 16, 2022. These are informal, community-managed learning centers where practitioners can transmit their community’s knowledge, intangible cultural heritage, skills and values to the younger generation.
A paper on the Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines estimates that there are 14-17 million IP in the country. The IP are mainly concentrated in Northern Luzon (Cordillera Administrative Region, 33 percent) and Mindanao (61 percent), with some groups in the Visayas area, according to a report in the United Nations Development Programme website.
The celebration of National Month of the IP also highlights our role in protecting them. In addition to the government’s programs, individuals can do something to help preserve the various cultures that enrich our heritage as Filipinos. If you are a company looking for a relevant corporate social responsibility project, consider one that will benefit an IP community, or document an intangible cultural heritage.