“The National Arts Month celebration provides local artists with opportunities for visibility”
WHAT many Filipinos saw and heard on Feb. 8 – in Manila as well as Mindanao and the Visayas – endorsed the theme of the National Arts Month, pushed by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
It underlined the ability of arts to speak the truth, inspire courage, and contribute to peace and development – but properly, in the many activities watched by an expected 50,000 attendees who are well within the rink of the country’s cultural heritage.
We saw this in the presentation of performance artists from GUMI Filipinas – the dallot or chanted poetry by Benn Cabacungan of Ilocos Norte; the dramatic reading of the Ilokano mythology Angalo ken Aran by Anna Lisa Gaspar of Ilocos Norte; and the daniweng (Ilokano acronym for poetry and song) by Joker Maranion (rhythm guitar) and Ariel Sotelo Tabag (base guitar) of Cagayan, and Rene Boy Abiva of Nueva Ecija (cajon) at the CCP Complex on Sunday.
The GUMIL participants and others, in Metro Manila and elsewhere, suggested a rich linguistic landscape, which encompasses Filipino and English as the Constitutionally mandated official languages and major regional languages – Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Pangasinense, Kapampangan, Bikolnon, Ybanag, the unique Spanish-based Chavacano creole, widespread Taglish code-switching, and 170 plus other languages, including critically endangered indigenous tongues.
We doff our cap to the CCP and the NCCA, where we were once a part of its Committee on Literary Arts before and shortly after the millennium rollover, for the celebration to honor Filipino artistry, preserve cultural heritage, and promote the role of arts in nation-building.
This year’s theme – “Ani ng Sining: Katotohanan at Giting” (Fruits of the Arts: Truth and Bravery) – symbolizes the role of Filipino art as a powerful, courageous, and honest expression of national identity and signifies the utilization of creative works to champion truth, inspire courage, and foster collaborative efforts towards a more just, progressive, and sustainable society.
That different regions have been asked to participate underlines the strategic effort to ensure inclusivity, decentralize art, and showcase the diversity of Filipino culture beyond Manila.
Appropriately, the celebration moves beyond traditional metropolitan settings to bring art to all corners of society, ensuring that regional artists have a platform to showcase their talents.
The diverse heritage has been raised by the regional participation which highlights the unique cultural expressions, indigenous roots, and local traditions that contribute to the national identity, rather than a singular, unified narrative.
By bringing arts closer to local communities, the organizers aim to spark curiosity and cultivate a new generation of artists and audiences who will carry forward Filipino cultural traditions.
The celebration provides local artists with opportunities for visibility, which helps sustain their livelihoods and promotes the creative economy.
The Pasinaya, the collaborative artistic exchange, will show as it has started to show a networking initiative which fosters collaboration between local, national, and even international artists, enabling exchange programs that enrich the local art scene.
Essentially, the National Arts Month acts as a “call to action” to invest in Filipino creativity, ensuring that cultural development is inclusive, relevant to the times, and reflective of the entire nation’s diverse experiences.
And we ask, how urgent is the need for scholars and linguists to gather their act together to translate oral traditions of a multi-lingual country like the Philippines?
We have had sessions with some of them, and they chorus the urgent thought as the country faces what they call “a rapid, slow-motion crisis” where dozens of languages – and the oral traditions they carry – are in danger of disappearing due to modernization, globalization, and a shift toward dominant languages.
This refers to a paradoxical, if continuing, collapse of linguistic proficiency and diversity happening slowly enough to be overlooked, yet quickly enough to threaten cultural identity and national development.
This scenario implies a silent, deep-seated educational failure, a shift toward dominant languages, and a profound erosion of local heritage.
As the 47-year-old Tabag, president of the 57-year-old GUMIL Filipinas, told us: “I believe regional languages have much to contribute to a country’s development. That is why translation is important.
“Some ideas may not be fully articulated in Filipino, but in regional languages, they have long been preserved as tradition.”
Tabag nailed a perfect argument for nation-building which we feel scholars and other language experts cannot ignore.
