On Local Cultures and Communities: Celebrating Museum and Galleries Month and National Indigenous People’s Month

(C) Japhet Daniel Panggal

Culture binds the complexities of our humanness, and recognizing these complexities can widen our horizon from one culture to another. Yesterday, on the Ground Floor new building of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, students and faculty members gathered to witness the opening of PagtIPig: Exhibit of Indigenous Culture and Artifacts as part of the joint celebration for the Museum and Galleries Month with the theme: “Embracing Uncertainty: Showcasing Solidarity, Hope, and Recovery.” and National Indigenous People’s Month. The former was immortalized through Presidential Proclamation No. 798, s. 1991 and the latter under Presidential Proclamation No. 1906, s. 2009. The exhibit was organized by the Mindanao History, Heritage and Indigenous Learning Center (MHHILC) and the Institute’s Center for Culture and Arts and collaborated with the Department of History and Kalimulan Cultural Dance Troupe.

As part of his opening remarks on the program, Assoc. Professor Amado C. Guinto, the Center for Culture and Arts Director, highlighted the importance of galleries and museums in shaping our national identity and emphasizing their roles as “the cultural identifiers in a rapidly-changing world”. He added that “Through careful and prudent documentation and artifact preservation, a culture can be recorded and remembered regardless of what lies ahead for it in the future.” And that “cultures also get to share and understand each other through the aegis of museums and galleries.” These convictions reverberated to the fact that the Philippines, as a multicultural country, is also navigating trajectories for the future of our local cultures.

Dr. Cecilia B. Tangian, the Chairperson of the Department of History, posited a question to the crowd as a challenge to reflect on our national consciousness, awareness, and development to appreciate our local culture and its national representations.

Meanwhile, Dean Marie Joy D. Banawa, Dean of the College of Arts and Social Sciences, talked about the significance of appreciating our local culture as a way to appreciate our national identity in return emphasizing the quote “mahalin ang sariling atin”. She also forwarded a point of reflection as to how can our identity thrive if we do not give ample importance to our culture. With that, Dr. Banawa also took the opportunity to call and appreciate the Bachelor of Arts in History students for being the catalysts for strengthening and amplifying our local culture through student dialogues.

The opening program ended with a special performance from the institute’s Kalimulan Cultural Dance Troupe, followed by a ribbon cutting to officially open the exhibit.

[IN PHOTOS] Ribbon cutting (C) Japhet Daniel Panggal

About the Author

Adjemore Manabat

ADJEMORE A. MANABAT is a young Filipino writer from Lanao del Norte. His fields of interest in writing are mainly prose and poetry, while his research interest includes sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, media, gender and literature. His journey in writing started as early as grade school and certain school level writing competitions while also served as an Editor-In-Chief in high school, has earned him an experience in both the rigors of writing and editorial work. In his early days in CASSAYURAN as a freshman student, he became a correspondent for Palakasan and worked as both feature and literary writer. To date, he is a senior student pursuing a degree in English Language Studies and has plans to pursue a graduate degree in the same field while also serving CASS as a board member for Training and Development.