Mapping Antique’s Heritage for Culture and Arts Instruction

ANNA RAZEL L. RAMIREZ and MICHELLE L. VILLAVERT with MARIA JOVITA ZARATE

Introduction

The many forms of cultural expressions and artifacts found in the entire archipelago is a testament to the diversity of our identities as a people. However, globalization, climate change, digital technology, and even social strife have threatened the existence of these cultures. Even rapidly changing economic landscapes have altered many of these cultural practices and engendered the loss of many artifacts. Tourism has also packaged the representation of these cultural practices, expressions, and artifacts in ways that are insensitive to history and context. However, state agencies and academic institutions have designed and implemented strategies that would not only safeguard tradition and heritage but encourage its revitalization and resurgence in ways that are context- and culture-sensitive. For its part, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has led global efforts in the documentation and safeguarding of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Through its Philippine office, the worldwide efforts of the UN-led agency flow through the national institutions that have the mandate to protect and safeguard heritage so that future generations can enjoy, benefit and learn from the legacy of the past. Such was the most compelling impetus to implement a cultural mapping for Antique, a province that has recently made significant strides toward more inclusive economic, political, and cultural developments in the recent years. As a province of Panay Island, Antique is home to a broad array of intangible and tangible cultural heritage that draws deeply from the lifeways of the indigenous communities (Iraynun Bukidnon, Ati, and Cuyonin settlers) and the lowland Christian townsfolk.

The goal of this article is to share with teachers the cultural mapping process that the project has undertaken, and to impart the lessons that would be useful to teachers of arts- and culture-related subjects in the junior and senior high school levels. Even social science teachers can integrate cultural mapping as part of the lessons on local history, social institutions, and community development. Teaching students the skill on doing cultural mapping can contribute to the learning process as it can develop many skills and encourage values that foster deep regard for communities, community leaders, and culture bearers.

The Cultural Mapping Process

In December 2020, the University of the Philippines Visayas commenced the implementation of the Cultural Mapping Project of Antique. Together with the Regional Office of the Department of Education in Western Visayas, with the facilitation of the Office of the Deputy Speaker Loren Legarda, the project gathered teachers from 22 school districts who were dispatched to the field to undertake cultural mapping. For each school district, four teachers were tapped to focus on a specific geographic location. Seven local consultants were also mobilized to lend their experience and expertise to the project. When the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) was created in 1992, it assumed the overarching mandate of being in charge of the arts and culture development of the country. Specific to that mandate is the task of formulating and implementing policies, plans, and programs that will conserve and promote the nation’s historical and cultural heritage. To facilitate such mandate, NCCA has been actively pursuing the conduct of cultural mapping throughout the archipelago. Over the years, it has developed a pool of experts in cultural mapping and has generated a range of publications elucidating the significance of mapping in raising consciousness about the local and national cultures, as well as the preservation and protection of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. The pursuit of cultural mapping has also enabled them to connect with localities and their respective local government units. They have trained their sights on regions and provinces with immense cultural resources that have yet to be documented, and in the process have empowered cultural stakeholders to be aware of these assets and how they can be tapped for meaningful and inclusive community development.

„ Cultural mappers cross rivers and trek steep mountains to gather data on cultural resources in the province of Antique.

NCCA’s mandate to undertake cultural mapping of localities stands on three policy cornerstones.

First, Republic Act No. 10066 Sections 38 and 39 state that the Department of Education, in coordination with the NCCA’s Philippine Cultural Education Program, shall formulate the cultural heritage education programs both for local and overseas Filipinos to be incorporated into the formal, alternative, and informal education, with emphasis on the protection, conservation, and preservation of the cultural heritage property of the country. Second, the Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013 of the Department of Education (DepEd) has adopted the National Indigenous Peoples Education (IPEd) Policy Framework. DepEd Order No. 43, s. 2013 entitled Implementing Rules and Regulations of Republic Act No. 10533 has adopted the Indigenous Peoples Education Curriculum Framework (DO 32, s. 2015) in pursuit of the “Education for All” Program of the said agency. To generate the IPEd curriculum, on the other hand, the availability of learning materials on local indigenous peoples’ cultures should be made available to learning institutions. Thus, it is imperative to develop cultural profiles and databases of such cultural assets of indigenous peoples and to encourage its publication and dissemination. Third, NCCA is tasked under Republic Act 10066 or the National Cultural Heritage Act of 2009, through the appropriate cultural agencies and local government units (LGUs), to establish and maintain the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP). Local government units are specifically mandated by the law to maintain an inventory of cultural properties under their jurisdiction and to furnish the NCCA with a copy of its local inventory. To help the local executives identify and account for the cultural properties of their towns and cities, the NCCA seeks to further popularize cultural mapping as integral components of LGU plans and programs, and to further hone skills of cultural stakeholders in building databases of cultural resources.

What is Cultural Mapping?

Broadly conceived, cultural mapping is a systematic way of building an inventory or a database and accounting for and coming to terms with the cultural resources of communities. Steward (2007) defines cultural mapping as “a process of collecting, recording, analyzing and synthesizing information in order to describe the cultural resources, links and patterns of usage of a particular community or group.” Duxbery (2015) takes us further by citing how “cultural mapping, as an emerging field of interdisciplinary research and a methodological tool in participatory planning and community development, makes visible the ways by which local cultural assets, stories, practices, relationships, memories, and rituals constitute places as meaningful locations.” Furthermore, Duxbery adds:

Methodologically, if one accepts that the intangible, the subjective, and the immaterial are important to what culture is as an object of study, then quantitative methods alone are inadequate. This interest in making the intangible visible heightens the importance of drawing on cultural research traditions that are primarily qualitative in nature and, in some cases, drawing on ethnographic and artistic traditions of inquiry. (18)

The output of a cultural mapping process is a local cultural profile that bears information, stories, narratives, local history, multimedia images, and a broad array of quantitative and qualitative data on cultural assets and

resources. It can be packaged as a visual presentation, with charts and tables to illustrate both raw and consolidated data, and even an essay that will address qualitative findings. Sometimes a synthesis articulates policy recommendations, elucidating how quantitative and qualitative data can be harnessed by culture bearers, cultural planners, arts managers, and local executives for enhancing the life of a community, for preserving and promoting tangible and intangible heritage, and for responding to issues and problems such as neglected forms of cultural knowledge and vanishing traditions. Sometimes this local cultural profile is called a cultural resource database of a community. If stored electronically, local cultural managers can have easy access that will allow further collection, updating, and consolidation of data in ways that are timely and responsive to changes in the community. Gaining a profound understanding of a community’s cultural resources calls for participatory and culturally sensitive modes of inquiry. These include studying local histories and how these are implicated in the present economic, political, and social landscapes; leveraging the role of local informants and recognizing their contributions to knowledge production and archival work; and being fully aware of customs that may have a bearing on how data information is culled out by the researchers.

During the inception stage of the Antique cultural mapping project, the cultural mapping team of UP Visayas decided to anchor the project on two pillars: first, the body of knowledge known as Traditional Knowledge Systems or TKS; and second, applied ethnography as a research method. Traditional knowledge is about the ways and means by which the locals adapt to the environment and how they leverage natural and cultural resources to provide for their basic needs (Magos 2018). The TKS lens allows for a more nuanced way of experiencing a cultural locality and generates heightened consciousness of the indigenous ways of practicing culture that is unique to a place. Traditional knowledge systems are collectively owned and managed. They are mainly practical in nature, as seen from the traditional lifeways in agriculture, fisheries, resource management, and indigenous forms of healing and spirituality. TKS come as intangible forms, flowing through oral traditions, cultural beliefs, rituals, and social practices seen through the prism of everyday life. These systems of knowledge, practices, and innovations have been with the local communities for centuries, and they have harnessed the lessons and have adjusted so they can respond to the changes in their environment. For instance, climate change has radically altered agricultural practices in the province of Antique, especially in the upland areas where arable lands are totally dependent on rain water. Farmers using traditional technologies are slowly adapting to these changes, often with the help of agriculturists and scientists from the lowland areas. It is also through the use of the TKS lens that cultural mappers and culture policymakers come to appreciate the innate creativity of the indigenous peoples as they wrestle with the challenges of their lived environments.

Applied ethnography, on the other hand, relies on the fundamental principles of ethnography as utilized by the social sciences, but selects specific methodologies that will serve the purposes of cultural mapping. Fieldwork is still the defining method, and extended stays in the localities allow for deeper interaction with the locals, thereby gaining their trust and enabling them to build their confidence to tell stories that could bear information and validate or even nuance previous data.

Two specific ethnographic methods were utilized: key informant interviews and focused group discussions. Both methods compelled the cultural mappers to immerse themselves in the community and make the locals feel at ease with them. A facility with the local language, Kinaray-a, was also a requirement. Pwede mo ba ako maisturyahan became the cultural mapper’s introductory greeting as potential informants gathered under a tree or in the community hall. It was a catchphrase that invited conversation, casual and unfettered, affirming the value of participatory modes, and avoiding the mechanical questionand-answer type of interaction between an interviewer and an interviewee.

Aside from key informant interviews, focused group discussions or FGDs, as it is commonly known in field research, were utilized especially when the team of cultural mappers were under time constraints. Unlike one-onone interviews, the FGDs allowed for more lateral discussions on cultural assets and resources, some of which may have gone unnoticed but may now be the topic of the discussion. FGDs were particularly useful in upland communities of indigenous peoples because the cultural mappers needed to engage with the community of elders as a group. Gathered in a circle, FGD participants made the cultural mapping process more engaging, in fact, as there was room for freeflowing storytelling. In Barangay San Ramon, an upland community of the Iraynun Bukidnon in the town of Laua-an, the FGDs allowed the elders to reminisce about the composo, a traditional Visayan musical form that anchors its lyrics on stories about everyday life. The actual singing of the rhythms of a musical form that is slowly fading from cultural memory regaled the interviewers. One of the ways by which the local perspective was ensured was to make sure that the cultural mappers were from the same locality and were familiar with the community’s activities. The cultural mappers avoided referring to earlier documentation work done by outsiders and entered the community with a clean slate as a way of affirming what is most essential in ethnographic practice— the foregrounding of local experience.

Conducting Community-based Cultural Mapping

The NCCA Toolkit (2020) provides the most comprehensive resources to enable the teachers to undertake cultural mapping of their localities and to use the data that can be generated as tools for learning and as information that can be used for cultural planning and policy-making. The NCCA Toolkit also illustrates the most significant data that must be collected and described in the process of cultural mapping. In the next page, you will see the objective-driven data fields enumerated and recommended by NCCA in the course of conducting culturally responsive mapping in localities. Before the actual fieldwork in the community, teachers were required to create initial listings of the cultural assets of their locality. Prioritizing the traditional practices that are unique to the area, as well as identifying the presence of culture bearers, particularly elders whose knowledge requires immediate documentation, are among the criteria to be considered.

a. Background Information

DATA FIELDS CONTENT

NAME

Common or local name and other names that refer to the cultural property

PHOTO

A photographic image of the cultural property

TYPE/NATURE What is the nature of the cultural property

b. Description

DATA FIELDS CONTENT

SUB-CATEGORY UNESCO has identified most of the categories and subcategories of significant cultural resources. This will be especially useful for assessing the value of the resource and in performing economic analysis.

DESCRIPTION

DIMENSION/S

OWNERSHIP/ JURISDICTION

This descriptive text should expand on the category and subcategory fields, providing a basic explanation of what the resource is; its purpose and background; and other important features.

This presents the measures of the physical dimension of the cultural property in terms of size, area, weight, and other specifications.

Who claims ownership of the property? Public or Private? Who has the jurisdiction in protecting the cultural property?

These data fields can be supplemented by asking the following questions: • What is its origin/history? • Who were the culture-bearers/ practitioners of this heritage? • Where and when was it practiced? • How was this used/practiced? (i.e., process) • What are the elements, activities, and meanings that are connected with this heritage? (i.e., local social context, beliefs)

c. Significance

DATA FIELDS CONTENT

SIGNIFICANCE An appraisal of the value or the levels of significance that may be historical, aesthetic, scientific, social, and socioeconomic, and that are attributed to the cultural property by the members of the community. This must be substantially accounted for by the mapper.

COMMON USAGE The unique and/or multiple uses of the cultural property by the community: e.g., basic needs, economic productivity, socio-cultural or religious rituals, and/or for other social events or functions

PEOPLE USING THE PROPERTY

Who and how many people are utilizing the cultural property as well as the people who install conservation measures on the cultural property

OTHER IMPORTANT DATA

Other information related to the cultural property and its significance

STORIES ASSOCIATED Narratives that support the significance of the property as affirmed by the members of the community

Assessing the significance of a cultural heritage clarifies why the item is important for the community. Here, the strong connection of the cultural item with its locality must be highlighted. Primary fields for significance are (1) historical significance; (2) social significance; (3) scientific significance; and (4) aesthetic significance. These data fields can be supplemented by asking the following questions: • What are the stories revolving around this heritage? (stories usually retold by the elders) • How is the item important to the community? • How is this importance demonstrated? • How does it contribute to the socioeconomic life of your community? • How does it contribute to our understanding of our local history?

d. Conservation Status

DATA FIELDS CONTENT

CONDITION

CONSTRAINTS/ THREATS

Current condition of the cultural property

Problems or constraints that affect and pose a threat to the significance of the cultural property or hinder the delivery of its multiple functions

PROTECTION MEASURES

Measures installed to maintain the good condition or desired wellness of the cultural property

OTHER ISSUES Other problems that indirectly reduce the significance of the cultural property

1. Proper coordination using letters and other communication channels with municipal offices, barangay officials, and other organizations that might be involved in the interview process 2. Presentation of the objectives, methods to be employed, participants, and time frame of the fieldwork 3. During fieldwork, consent forms must be presented to the informant. 4. Permission must be acquired from the informant/locals in using audio recorders and taking of pictures and videos throughout the fieldwork period. 5. Interviews using the native language of the area are preferred. Moreover, indigenous concepts must be reflected in the write-up. Here, local terms used by the informants are incorporated in the write-up with their English translations enclosed in parenthesis. 6. Name, age, and position of the interviewee must be recorded and must be included in the write-up as a key informant. This acknowledges the time and effort given

Exploring the status of the cultural item provides platforms that highlight the sustainable mechanisms employed by the communities, as reflected in TKS. Moreover, possible interventions and safeguarding measures will be undertaken through the identification of the challenges and issues faced by the culture-bearers, the transmission of their knowledge, and the vitality of the cultural asset.

These data fields can be supplemented by asking the following questions: • What changes are visible in the cultural item in the past and present? • What are the challenges/issues faced by the cultural item and its practitioners? • Why does it need to be conserved? • From your perspective, how can we safeguard this heritage? In addition, research ethics must be observed in the conduct of cultural mapping fieldwork in any community. These involve:

by the interviewee. However, it should be noted that some informants prefer to be anonymous. This must be respected by the mapper. 7. Validation of the data acquired from the informants which will be done after the write-up. Here, the mapper is expected to return to the community and present the output for possible errors, misinterpretations, and recommendations of the locals. 8. As mappers, it is important to note that during the conduct of interviews, invalidation of the local’s shared thoughts defeats the purpose of a culturally sensitive mapping approach.

From the Field to the Classroom

Teachers of arts, culture, and the social sciences are encouraged to establish linkages with their local communities. Connections can be built between local culture bearers, who can be key informants in the cultural mapping process, and the school institutions. With such connections, a teacher can equip herself with the skills of articulating information shared by the culture bearers and leverage these as parts of the syllabus. Connections established by local teachers and the community members can create a space for dialogue about culture and heritage, even about local histories, and how intertwined these are with the personal life stories of the people. The conversations and narratives should be about their place, on which their families have dwelled for decades, even generations, and how it shaped their lives, how they continue to shape the place; the meanings they attach to their cultural expressions; and the creativity with which they struggle amid threats to their livelihoods and well-being. How do we harness cultural mapping as a tool and as an experience that will enhance the learning of our students? Contemporary Philippine Arts for the Regions (CPAR) as a core subject in the Senior High School Program aims to decentralize the study of art away from the Western canon that has traditionally been the bedrock of

arts and culture education. As such, the intention of the course is to localize the arts and culture education by honoring what is found in their communities and immediate environments. The course also affirms that art and culture are best learned when they are anchored on context. In the case of CPAR, the context is the local that fairly extends to the regional, but definitely not the metropolis-centric creative practices that emanate from acclaimed institutions such as the Cultural Center of the Philippines or the major broadcasting networks and other well-entrenched structures of schools and universities. CPAR is about making our students appreciate that art and culture thrive in the everyday, in the familiar landscapes of the farms, the seas, the rivers, in the humble dwelling places of the katutubo, and in the community halls where people gather to build and strengthen their connections. These are the very same landscapes that gave birth and nurtured the Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan (GAMABA) awardees.

Incorporating cultural mapping in the curriculum makes our students turn to the immediate environment as a venue for a learning experience that is both self-managed and interactive. Teachers mediate learning by creating a classroom-community link. As they go along, the students will develop a more realistic impression of their community and how it reveals itself as a complex network. They can generate relevant questions such as: how do the landscape and the community’s physical features enable or constrain social interaction and social organization? How do traditional leaders (in the case of indigenous communities) and government leadership take care of cultural resources?

Furthermore, they can create a visual map and locate their school vis-à-vis the relevant cultural structures around the area. How does the school’s location enable cultural activities? Can they link their own school’s cultural map to the maps of other schools?

„ Most of the cultural mappers of the Antique Cultural Mapping Project were teachers who were very eager to learn from the experience of ethnographic research.

In doing so, will such task bring upon a realization of shared and different identities across the wider community that could be the town? Consider how students of an upland community in Antique will locate their school vis-à-vis the schools of lowland communities. What identities do they share with those in the lowland, and what cultural resources do they share with their lowland counterparts? What makes them different and what are the reasons for those differences?

Applying the foundations and participative nature of cultural mapping from the field into the classrooms shifts the teaching process: from textbook-centered, it becomes community- and context-centered. Rather than simply learning “about” the heritage, students are given the opportunities to learn “with” and “within” the contexts of their local arts and culture (Seo, 2020) and to interact directly with culture bearers, culture masters, and mentors. Heritage becomes a living concept, and soon we expect them to realize that the torch of keeping heritage alive will soon be passed on to them. Making cultural knowledge relevant is what cultural mapping strives for. Hence, by reconnecting learners with their local roots, teaching the value of contemporary arts, and the importance of safeguarding such elements, the teachers, students, and cultural communities are empowered to continue and promote local heritage. •

References

Duxbury, Nancy, W F Garrett-Petts, and David Maclennan. 2015. Cultural Mapping as Cultural Inquiry. Routledge. Magos, Alicia P. 1992. The Enduring Ma-aram Tradition: An Ethnography of a Kinaray-a Village in Antique. QC: New Day Publishers. National Commission for Culture and the Arts. 2019. Cultural Mapping Toolkit: A Guide for Participatory Cultural Mapping in Local Communities. Intramuros, Manila: NCCA, 2019.

“Republic Act No. 10066.” 2010. Official Gazette. https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph.

Seo, Jinyoung. 2020. “ICH Education for Homo Ludens” in ICH Courier: ICH Festivals on the Silk Road 42, edited by KEUM Gi Hyung, 42:24–27. Jeonju 5, Korea: International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Stewart, Sue, Creative City, and 2010 LegaciesNow Society. Cultural Mapping Toolkit. UNESCO. 2003. Text of the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. Accessed March 8, 2022. https:// ich.unesco.org/en/convention.