PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, (PNA) -– In a bid to celebrate the distinct cultural identity of Palawan’s Batak indigenous community, as well as the Agta, Aeta, and Ati people of Luzon with whom they share a cultural bond, the 1st Batak Cultural Revival and Development Forum was held recently in the northern provincial town of Roxas.
The development forum dubbed “Kaambengan nga Buaten Ka Batak” was convened at the municipal gymnasium of Roxas as part of the celebration of the Indigenous People’s Month, said Abi Aguilar of the National Tribal Forum of the Philippines Task Force (NTFP-TF).
“The Indigenous People’s Month event will build on experiences, with a series of hugely successful festivals.
In fact, Batak leaders who attended the 2012 Tebewen Festival afterwards expressed their wish to have another festival/forum take place on their home island Palawan. “Now, it already happened,” Aguilar said.
She added that the different IPs with a hunter-gatherer background, collectively referred to as “Negritos,” represent the most ancient civilization in the Philippines, with uninterrupted presence going back more than 40,000 years in time.
“The ethnic groups – among which the Batak of Palawan, share a strong relationship with the natural environment in which they live and many cultural traits reflect this relationship, while relevant knowledge and skills are unsurpassed,” she said.
However, the distinctive culture and forest oriented way of life of the Batak and other Negritos have long been under pressure and is as yet little understood in much of mainstream society, Aguilar added.
That is why, and a good thing, too, Aguilar said, that Batak leaders themselves called for the first Batak Cultural Revival & Development Forum, which aims to: Celebrate the distinct cultural identity of the participants; Encourage cooperation among communities and create a platform for sharing their aspirations and concerns in relation to the development agenda; and have a productive dialogue with, and provide grass root inputs to LGUs and national government branches.
The Batak forum was hosted by the Nagkakaisang Tribu ng Palawan (NATRIPAL) in collaboration with NTFP-TF, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP), National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the local government units of Roxas and Puerto Princesa.