Thursday, November 27, 2008 The 'tayao' is fading By Delmar Carino
THANKS to the Adivay. It made Benguet's culture a festival anew.
But Alumno Ampaguey, an Ibaloi elder, believes that the province's culture is more than a festival but rather a way of life, which must be respected and preserved.
Alas, he said, there is now a gap between the old who still dance the tayaw (native dance) and young who prefer to hip-hop and rhythm and blues.
Ampaguey, the 60 years old president of the Tuba Indigenous Peoples Organization, shares what many elders and local officials feared - loss of cultural identity.
The fear is founded.
The mambunong (native priest) chanted and offered pigs anew to Kabunian (god) for the blessing of the Adivay and Benguet's 108th founding anniversary.
But as the beat of gongs faded and the pigs squealed their last, so is the province's culture and indigenous practices, especially among the younger generation.
Domingo Bakilan, a National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) commissioner, said the province's dilemma is the same with the rest of the Cordillera where mass media and modern technology had eroded the youth's passion for indigenous practices.
"The trend is marked by a shift from tradition to theatrical presentations of native dances and practices with contemporary music capitalizing on the youth's clamor for fun and being in," he said.
Board Member Juan Nazarro Jr. is worried the province is looking at a stark reality - a culture gap between elders and the youth.
"The battle is between computers and mobile phones and tayaw and the solibao (native drum)," he said.
Jimmy Fong, a University of the Philippines-Baguio mass communications professor, scored some museums, which prohibited students from playing with indigenous instruments on display.
"That's a way of killing the curiosity of young people about their culture," said Fong, a kankanaey from Kapangan.
To arrest the skid in the observance of indigenous practices, Nazarro, chairman of the Provincial Board (PB) education committee, and Board Member Nardo Cayat, culture committee chairman, had called on the PB to pass an ordinance that would require the Department of Education (DepEd) in the province to teach indigenous customs to all public elementary and high school students.
Both Nazarro and Cayat wanted that the teaching of indigenous musical instruments such as the ganza (gong), solibao (drum), tallak (wooden sticks), the proper wearing of indigenous attire, and the dancing of the tayaw be included in the curriculum.
"This is one way to preserve our cultural identity," said Nazarro, an Ibaloi from Bokod town.
These practices are the ties that bind the kankanaey, ibaloi, ikarao, kalanguya, and other tribes in the province, said Cayat, a kankanaey from Buguias.
But DepEd officials expressed reservations on making indigenous practices a part of the curriculum.
Dr. Teresita Velasco, DepEd deputy regional director, said the department had been encouraging the indigenization of the curriculum by incorporating tribal practices in teachers' lesson plans and students' extra-curricular activities.
Julio Tatpiec, DepEd English supervisor for the region, welcomed Nazarro's proposal, saying it would institutionalize the learning of indigenous practices.
He said that as of Wednesday, indigenous practices are not separate subjects but are incorporated in musika at pampalakasan subjects.
But Dr. Magdalena Niwane, Benguet DepEd superintendent, said that Nazarro's ordinance should not impose any liability for schools and teachers who failed to teach indigenous practices.
"Let the DepEd decide on that," she said.
Under Nazarro and Cayat's proposed ordinance, education officials and employees who failed to teach would be administratively liable.
Clarita Prudencio, provincial tourism action officer, said the NCCA has been at the forefront of putting up schools of living traditions in the country.
"The agency had been funding projects for the teaching of traditions," she said.
As of September 2008, the NCAA had funded 29 cultural projects for north Luzon. Benguet has the most with nine projects.
The projects involved, among others, tapuey making, performing arts, weaving and school of living traditions.
The school of living traditions trained the students on how to dance, chant, and speak the indigenous way.
Today, the province has four school of living traditions - Balili Sebang Community Association in Buguias, Cabuyao Elementary School in Tuba, and Tinongdan Barangay Council and Kamora National High School in Itogon.
