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You decide. Statement from the Tungtungan ti Umili via Sunstar.

On Panagbenga funds:
“People have the right to know where their money was spent and how their elected officials spent it,”

On that cultural street dancing thing:
“Clearly, this is at the expense of exploiting Cordillera indigenous culture so rooted in our indigenous peoples’ history of cultural heritage. Commercializing causes its own slow death — and this death is tantamount to that of indigenous peoples when we lose our identity due to national oppression.”

“To replicate this for public consumption and consumer satisfaction robs the people of their own cultural symbols and practices. Misrepresentation gives the broader public wrong impressions of the Cordilleran culture. In fact, we may be introducing the wrong culture to our children.”

So is the Tungtungan a party pooper or is it the voice of reason? Maybe both?

Miriam Coronel Ferrer has an article on Igorotness which you might find interesting. You can read it here. But here’s a quote:

… those who proudly self-identify as Igorots are generating more and more “Igorot” cultural resources to reproduce, enrich and somehow transform Igorot identity. Jimmy Fong’s presentation featured photos of children wearing t-shirts emblazoned with “Igorotak” (“I am Igorot”) followed by a dictionary-like entry that goes “n.Bibakese* – a statement asserting ethnic identity.” Fong also sampled exchanges in blogs among Igorots about Igorots. A hot topic were pop stars Paolo of Starstruck and Marky Cielo, both of Igorot descent, and their “Igorotness.” Or, in the case of Paolo, his shameful disowning of his identity ala the infamous quip, “My parents are Igorot but I am not.”

I’m not quite sure whether Paolo really did disown his identity. He was hesitant to reveal that he is part Igorot but there have been no reports of him expressly stating “na parents lang niya ang Igorot”. Maybe he did, maybe not. Pero may mga PaKoLI (parents ko lang Igorots) sa Quezon City (sa may E. Rod hehe). Hah, we coined PaKoLI ha. You read it here first.

Anyway, let’s go back to Coronel’s piece.
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Thanks to Inkblots for giving us permission to use his photo of Muslim women wearing our Igorot customes. For more on this encounter between north and south, visit Inkblots.

Here’s a short video on the art of tattooing in Kalinga. Towards the end of the video you’ll see some footages on the Tingguian’s “abel” or handwoven cloth.

Kind of nice, no? Video courtesy of angelgab. You can see the mannequin costume demo for the different Cordillera provinces here.

Cross-posted at From the Boondocks

UPDATE: For pictures of this soon to be dismantled Ifugao hut, visit The Nashman’s blog.

***
Well, we don’t know much about this story. But here are the facts which we gleaned from the announcement here:

The Ifugao hut is presently located at the Philippine embassy in London.
It was brought all the way from Kiangan.
The embassy is moving to a new address.
They haven’t found a suitable new home for the Ifugao hut.
So they are performing a “death” ritual for the hut on December 15, 2007 (10:00 am).

Now the question is, who brought the hut to London, the government? And did embassy officials have sufficient time to find a new place or a new custodian for the hut?

Because if the answers to both questions happen to be “Yes” then I think they should have done more (or should do more) than this “death” ritual they are planning.

And what exactly are they going to do to the hut? Burn it? Cannibalize it? That is its end after it served its purpose of “showcasing” our culture?
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