BAGUIO CITY – The National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) on Thursday urged stakeholders in the tourism industry, particularly the enterprises, to help educate their clients about the Indigenous Peoples (IPs) and Indigenous Cultural Communities (ICCs).
“We encourage all stakeholders, particularly owners of rental stalls and other business establishments frequented by tourists in Baguio especially those operated by ICCs/IPs to help us educate the tourists, the public as a whole about us, who the IPs are and what we are as people,” lawyer Roland Calde, regional director of NCIP-CAR, said in an interview Thursday on the sidelines of the Department of Tourism’s Fluvial Parade.
In a statement released by the NCIP-Cordillera on Wednesday, it also urged establishments to be more circumspect of their societal and cultural responsibilities.
The statement emanated from a vlog of media influencer “Diwata” that sparked widespread outrage. In the video, he wore the traditional attire of one of the ICC/IP communities of Cordillera, apparently accompanying it with demeaning gestures.
“While this office acknowledges that ‘Diwata’ likely did not intend to demean nor degrade, even the slightest possibilities, the ICCs/IPs of Cordillera, it is vital to recognize that his actions, either intentionally or unintentionally reflect a broader societal issue,” the NCIP-CAR said.
“This (left an) all too bitter aftertaste, igniting the ire of the ICCs/IPs throughout the region and awakening their five senses to the insensitivity of the cultural appropriation. Also from the vlog, ‘Diwata’ attributed the ICCs/ IPs’ native attire (merely) as costume,” it added.
The NCIP urged tourist establishments to educate and even police their patrons, in the most subtle way possible, about the appropriate use of ICCs/IPs’ cultural materials to possibly prevent controversial and culturally insensitive content materials by social media influencers in the future.
Calde said their office is exerting efforts to change public perception, especially outside the region, about the IPs.
“We wear our attire outside the region, we join events, we encourage our own IP people to be proud of their lineage and publicly show through photographs, videos of our skills, talents, beauty and how highly educated we are to show that we are not what they perceive we are,” he said. **Liza Agoot
