Kalinga IPs join Luzon cultural festival

Tabuk, Kalinga (22 November) — Twenty performers from the province joined recently the Timpuyog Cultural Festival of Luzon, an occasion for indigenous peoples (IPs) in Luzon to celebrate the richness of their unique culture and an opportunity to exchange what they have for better understanding among themselves, held recently in Santiago City, Isabela.

According to National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Commissioner Domingo Bakilan, the festival also served to foster deeper understanding and an avenue to preserve the culture of peace among IPs in Luzon. He said the province’s representatives came from Tanudan headed by Cultural Master Vicente Gummuang.

Various students from colleges and universities in Region 2 came to watch the historic affair as part of cultural awareness and for them to appreciate the diverse Filipino cultures still practiced today.

Bakilan said sixteen major cultural communities gathered for the celebration that promoted the advocacy of preserving and integrating traditional culture and various creative expressions in mainstream society.

Heherzon Alvarez, Presidential Adviser on Climate Change and Global Warming who was Guest Speaker stressed on the importance of culture as a way of life, according to Bakilan. In his message, Alvarez told participants to be proud to be Filipino even if they belong to different cultural communities with diverse culture.

NCCA Chairman of the Board and Department of Education Undersecretary Vilma Labrador encouraged the IPs not to allow themselves to be exploited. She directed school administrators in Luzon to stop teaching modern dances to their pupils and students but teach them instead the traditional and cultural dances in the locality.

The six-day celebration according to Bakilan is a project of Sub-Commission on Cultural Communities and Traditional Arts of NCCA hosted by the City government of Santiago. (PIA-Kalinga)
photo credit: glenmcbethlaw