May is declared as the National Heritage Month in the Philippines. The celebration aims to create among the Filipino people a consciousness, respect, and love for the legacies of the nation’s cultural history. The Provincial Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office of Capiz has organized a series of webinar for this monthlong and I was privileged to have been invited to speak on the topic "Libraries and Cultural Heritage." You can watch my full presentation here:
Here is a portion of my talk:
Culture is an endless source of inspiration in whatever endeavour one wants to take. For every cultural worker, be it a writer, dancer, singer or performer, drawing on one’s culture and heritage is an opportunity to popularize and disseminate our rich traditions to the younger generation, who, more often than not, get absorbed into foreign culture. While reading popular literature, savouring international fare, or singing foreign songs are not wrong at all, one should not forget that our stories are as colourful as theirs, our food as tasteful as any other country’s and our imagination is as creative as any one else’s. Librarians are at a great position to effect cultural advocacy and literacy to fellow professionals, the younger generation and the community to rise up and embrace our own culture and heritage as Filipinos.
Nick Joaquin said, “identity is the history that has gone into the bone and blood and reshaped the flesh. Identity is not what we were but what we have become, what we are at the moment.” Whatever identity we have at the moment is the product of our culture and heritage.
You can download a full copy of my lecture notes here.
No comments:
Post a Comment