Schools of Living Tradition

For some people, fashion and fabrics are superficial things that can be discarded as soon as the new styles and the new season roll around.

But for the country’s indigenous peoples (IP), the clothes on their back are representative of a culture unique only to them -- certainly not something to be discarded.

It was precisely the protection, preservation, and perpetuation of these fabrics and the history behind them that is the focus of the ongoing Senator Loren Legarda lecture series on Philippine Traditional Textiles and Indigenous Knowledge.

Held every two months at the Queen Sophia Hall of the National Museum, the lecture series seeks to explore the aesthetics, material culture and processes of ethnic identity, along with skills and information-generation through cloth. The Queen Sophia Hall also houses the “Hibla ng Lahing Pilipino: The Artistry of Philippine Textiles” exhibition.

Legarda, who heads the Senate Committee on Cultural Communities, says that the lectures should help those of us outside of the IP community to better understand their ways and rituals.

“Let’s understand the culture and the heritage that produced the fabrics because every thread, every hibla, tells the story of who we are as a people. While we exhibit the textiles in the National Museum, we should not just stare at the t’nalak, not just enjoy and appreciate the malong, but also understand where the IPs are from, what are their pains and struggles, and what is the essence of their culture,” Legarda explains.

The series’ inaugural lecture was held earlier this year featuring Dr. Maria Stanyukovich of the Russian Academy of Science who talked about Philippine and Southeast Asian textiles found in the Peter the Great Museum.

It was followed by a talk by Ontario College of Arts and Design professor Dr. B. Lynne Milgram who discussed the second-hand clothing market and the women vendors of Baguio.

The most recent lecture in the series was delivered by National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) vice chairperson and former Department of Tourism (DoT) Region 11 director Sonja Villareal Garcia, who talked about the DoT’s cultural village project, which aims to help IP communities utilize their culture and turn it into a supplementary source of income.

THE CULTURAL VILLAGE

In her presentation, Garcia defined the cultural village as a group-managed, culture-focused, multi-stakeholders’ project implemented in selected ancestral domains of the IP and duly endorsed by the Regional Development Council. It involves the establishment within the village of a tribal hall, an amphitheater, indigenous dwellings, and multipurpose pavilions, the construction of which the community themselves oversee.

The tribal halls also serve as Schools of Living Tradition, a venue for cultural exchange, creative industry, as well as a learning site for the conservation of cultural and natural resources.

The IP community is also taught several social enterprises, such as improved farming systems, the enhancement of their traditional arts and crafts, and the hosting of local and international tourists.

All of these, of course, are done with the community’s consent.

“We will not start unless the IP want it because you can’t just go to a community and say that you will help them. They must want you,” says Garcia.

One of the earliest to adopt this paradigm are the Tudaya tribe in Davao del Sur.

“They were very receptive, that’s why we were able to build it. They were losing their traditional arts and crafts, and when we offered it to them, that this is what we’re going to do, they said ok,” recalls Garia. “The datus gave us their property. We built it and then they had a resurgence. In the beginning, it was very difficult for them to realize that this was for their own good. But in six months, the community agreed.”

Garcia also brought to the lecture two weavers from the Bagobo Tagabawa community of Davao del Sur, who demonstrated weaving traditions.
CULTURAL TOURISM

Garcia says that the program has had positive effects on the communities that have adopted it, citing an increase in household incomes as well as IP returning to their roots.

“It is interesting to note that people who are from that area and who have tried going to Manila go back because they realize they really have something special up there,” she shares.

Garcia even reports a rise in tourists, even from as far away as Europe!

It is this cultural tourism that Senator Legarda says should be taken advantage of by the current administration at the DoT.

“Cultural tourism could be a multimillion dollar industry. We have our beaches, fine, we must protect our ecosystem. But we have our cultural communities, their chants, from the mountains where they live, to the lowlands, all of these things should be protected and it is an untapped resource and potential for a multimillion dollar industry,” she declares.

But more than what it can do for the country’s tourism industry, Legarda says the biggest benefit to be had is how these Schools of Living Tradition preserve these practices not just for the IP community, but for the greater Filipino community as well.

“These Schools of Living Tradition can pass on tradition to us, the next generation, whether oral or literary, or rituals. The School of Living Tradition preserves it, protects it, perpetuates it and teaches outsiders about these traditions whether written or oral,” she says. “Kung sila ay naghahabi, tulungan natin sila upang ipagpatuloy ang paghahabi. Kung sila ay nagcha-chant tulad ng Ifugao na Hudhud, i-preserve natin ang kanilang oral tradition.”