鈥淏y locating our cultural heritage, we ascertain our origins and future,鈥� Anna Razel Limoso Ramirez stated emphatically. The 抖阴探探 Visayas (抖阴探探V) publications officer is the overall co-project leader of the Cultural Mapping of Panay and Guimaras (CMPG), along with Director Anthea Redison of the 抖阴探探V Center for West Visayan Studies.
Formally launched in December 2023, CMPG comes after the Cultural Mapping of Antique (CMA), the pioneering regional initiative for Western Visayas, of which Ramirez was overall project coordinator. She and Dr. Alice Magos, whom Ramirez referred to as the 鈥渂ackbone鈥� of CMA, were invited back in 2018 by the Office of then Deputy House Speaker and Antique Representative Loren Legarda to help lead CMA, following their work, From Seas to the Mountains (Kadagatan Tubtub Kabukidan): Traditional Knowledge Practices of Panay and Guimaras, which was funded by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources-funded.
Ila tingog: their voices
Through cultural mapping, communities are given a platform to raise their voices, and proclaim and elucidate what is significant to them. Ramirez emphasized the non-negotiable condition of 鈥渨e don鈥檛 tell them, they tell us鈥�, when documenting heritage. Cultural mappers should record without bias, without asking leading questions to satisfy preconceived notions. CMA field workers were trained on cultural mapping by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), using its own developed toolkit. It will be the same for CMPG.
The province of Antique is largely rural; and most of what was mapped in all 18 municipalities were part of intangible cultural heritage. This, according to the NCCA toolkit, includes social practices and rituals, as well as practices regarding nature and the universe.
One common tradition among Antiquenhons that was seen in CMA, for example, was panguyang. It is the practice of making a food offering to a divine being, environmental spirits, and ancestral spirits before planting or fishing, to ask for good harvest and to give thanks for guaranteed protection from misfortune and harm. Panguyang is done again to show gratitude after harvest, whether bountiful or not. In both instances, members of the community partake of the offered food, as they, too, are seen as helpful partners in livelihood.
Another is the practice of consulting the babaylan, community healers who are also respected elders, in decision-making. Whether building a house, getting married, or having a child baptized, one seeks the advice of the babaylan, asking them to mediate in making offerings to the spirits. Again, Ramirez pointed out that local belief systems should be respected because 鈥渨e can only help them articulate, but the communities must always be the lead because those are their stories to tell. Who are we to contradict their cultural heritage?鈥�
From Antique to the whole of Panay and Guimaras
Antique is only one of the four provinces in Panay Island, the other three being Aklan, Capiz, and Iloilo. And those four make up most of Region VI or Western Visayas, where the other two provinces are Guimaras and Negros Occidental. With CMPG following CMA, almost the whole region will be culturally mapped.
CMA was coursed through the Department of Education (DepEd)-Division of Antique, which was given funds in the 2019 general appropriations. 鈥淏ut cultural mapping was not a usual task for teachers and undertaking the project was overwhelming for them,鈥� Ramirez explained. This is why, apart from Legarda鈥檚 office and DepEd Antique, CMA also involved NCCA for cultural mapping know-how, 抖阴探探 Visayas for research and publication expertise, and the Provincial Government of Antique for logistical support, especially since the work started and was done in the middle of a pandemic riddled with lockdowns and travel restrictions.
Despite the challenges of online training, COVID-19 testing, securing medical clearances, getting insurance, navigating harsh mountain terrains, and possible red-tagging, the CMA team, including the 90 cultural mappers composed of elementary and high school teachers, and Ramon Ramirez who had the unenviable but necessary task of photo documentation in remote communities, pulled through. In November 2022, the 21-volume Duna, Kinaiya, kag Paranublion (A Cultural Inventory of the Province of Antique) was launched. Seven of the 21 books contained uniquely Antiquenhon folklore and songs.
CMPG, originally intended to run for two years with funding from the 2023 general appropriations, will only have 2024 to do field and editorial work as the budget only became available in the third quarter of 2023. This time, 抖阴探探V has partnered with seven state universities, and eight government agencies and offices to conduct the massive cultural mapping of 98 municipalities and three cities across four provinces. Discussions for Negros Occidental to complete the cultural mapping of the region have begun as well.
In August 2023, signed into law was Republic Act No. 11961, An Act Strengthening the Conservation and Protection of Philippine Cultural Heritage through Cultural Mapping and Enhanced Cultural Heritage Education Program, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act No. 10066, Otherwise Known as the 鈥淣ational Cultural Heritage Act of 2009鈥�. Local government units (LGUs) have been mandated to conduct comprehensive cultural mapping of their areas of jurisdiction and maintain inventories of their cultural properties and natural properties of cultural significance.
Beyond cultural mapping
While the creation of a cultural map, by itself a comprehensive and visual cultural heritage registry, is the end product of cultural mapping, it is also a tool to be used for community development by local governments, policymakers, educational institutions, and citizens.
It can guide the creation of programs to preserve and protect environments and populations of endemic and critically endangered flora and fauna. It can provide indispensable information for disaster risk reduction and management initiatives. As it has begun in Antique, it can enrich education through contextualized cultural information. Higher education institutions can use cultural data to conduct further research and contribute to knowledge creation.
For the community and its people, a cultural map of the documented past and the practiced present asserts a sense of self that allows them to confidently determine how to shape their future.
Email the author at upforum@up.edu.ph.
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- We encourage activism. . . because we care.
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