National IP Month celebrates our cultural heritage – Manila Bulletin

On October 23 and 24, representatives of Indigenous Peoples (IP) communities will come together in a celebration called “Dayaw” to proudly showcase their rich cultural heritage through performances of music, dance and oral tradition, and to share stories about best practices in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage (ICH).
The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), through the Sub-Commission for Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts (SCCTA), is leading the celebration. The theme that will unite the celebration of National Indigenous Peoples Month is “Pagtataguyod ng pamayanang kultural para sa isang matatag na Pilipinas (Defend cultural communities for a robust Philippines)”.

The Presidential Proclamation of 1906, signed in 2009, declared October “National Indigenous Peoples Month” which mandates the “recognition and protection of the rights of Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs). The gathering of cultural communities kicked off on October 2 at Rizal Park, with performances representing IP communities across the country. Today, October 23, the Dayaw show will take place at the open-air auditorium in Rizal Park. On October 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 in safeguarding ICH which are “measures to ensure the viability of intangible cultural heritage” so that efforts for its preservation, promotion and transmission to the next generation are initiates.

ICH includes “traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and transmitted to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and nature. universe or the knowledge and know-how necessary to produce craftsmanship.”

Its importance, according to UNESCO, “is not the cultural manifestation itself but rather the wealth of knowledge and skills that are transmitted through it from one generation to the next”.

The Philippines has a rich intangible cultural heritage, some of which is now familiar to many of us, but others have yet to be documented and disseminated so that they continue to give us “a sense of identity and continuity, connecting with our past, through the present and into our future.

The NCCA develops projects and programs and nominates ICH elements to UNESCO Representative Lists and Urgent Safeguarding Lists. In UNESCO’s Representative List of Humanity are three elements of the ICH of intellectual property in the Philippines. These are the Hudhud songs of Ifugao province, the Darangen epic of the Maranao people of Lake Lanao Maranao and the rituals and tugging games of the Tuwali tribe in Ifugao, the NCCA said.

Declared a UNESCO Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity in 2001, the Hudhud Songs and in 2005, the Darangen Epic. The shooting rituals performed in the Hapao River were inscribed on the UNESCO list in 2015.

The School of Living Traditions (SLT) inscribed in UNESCO on December 16, 2022 is also listed in the UNESCO Register of Good Safeguarding Practices. They are community-run informal learning centers where practitioners can impart knowledge, intangible cultural heritage, skills of their community. and values ​​to the younger generation.

An article on indigenous peoples in the Philippines estimates that there are 14–17 million IPs in the country. PIs are mainly concentrated in northern Luzon (Cordillera administrative region, 33%) and Mindanao (61%), with a few groups in the Visayas region, according to a report published on the United Nations Program website. For the development.

The celebration of National Intellectual Property Month also highlights our role in protecting them. In addition to government programs, individuals can do something to help preserve the diverse 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 intellectual property community or document intangible cultural heritage.