Kalinga Culture Hour Radio Program launched
Opening an opportunity to learn more about their culture and heritage of the Kalinga people, the National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) in partnership with the Provincial Government of Kalinga launched a new radio program called the “The Kalinga Culture Hour.”
Scheduled to debut this March, NCCA’s Committee on Northern Cultural Communities Head Domingo Bakilan said that the program will be aired with live performance every Saturday from 6:00 PM to 7:00PM until December 2009 over DZRK Radyo ng Bayan of Tabuk City.
In a message during the launching held during the 2009 Ullalim Festival celebration, Bakilan underscores the “need to preserve the original forms” of the Kalinga heritage. He said that “with the advent of globalization and the modern technologies, the Kalinga cultural heritage is exposed to various external threats and internal neglect that threatens its preservation, promotion, dissemination and development.”
With this, he said that “efforts should be made to sustain the Kalinga heritage especially among the youth who are considered as the future bearers of tradition.”
With radio being the most popular media in the province, the project he said aims to promote awareness among radio listeners on the various traditional and cultural practices of the Kalinga Cultural Community; make listeners more aware of the values of the Kalinga traditions and their relevance as cultural practices and way of life in these modern times; and to make the listeners more aware of the originality and authenticity of the different Kalinga musical traditions, instruments, chants, songs and dances, and other forms of material culture.
To make the project more interesting, cultural masters, performers and musical ensembles from all over the province he said will be occasionally invited to talk about the culture and perform live at the station.
The project he informed will be themed according to content modules. Discussions for the first month will focus on the introduction and orientation on the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and History of Kalinga and its people.
The second module will be the lectures on the Kalinga gongs and the various ways of playing it. Live on-the-air dance performances will also be conducted to include the Pattong, Tuppaya, Tulayan and other Kalinga dances. The third module he said will be on the traditional and cultural songs and chants of the Kalingas.
Module four which will be aired from September to November 2009 will be on the discussions and playing of the Kalinga traditional bamboo musical instruments and Module five which will be aired on December would provide listeners live performances and demonstration of traditional music and dances, songs and chants and instrumental playing to be held at the premise of Radyo ng Bayan, Tabuk.
For the listeners to participate in the discussions, Bakilan said that a telephone hotline will be opened for the audience to also interact with the cultural masters and guests. Cultural Master Fred Pangsiw of DZRK and Commissioner Bakilan will be hosting the radio program.
