During the ethnic skills competition (minahlin di immipugo) in the recently concluded Gotad ad Ifugao 2025, revealed a setback in the preservation and passing on of Ifugao Indigenous skills knowledge. It was evident during the event that only half of Ifugao’s municipalities participated during the said event.
The ethnic skills competition is an open-category event, with no age limit. Some of the contested events are for both male and female participants, except for the munpaot (wood carving) and muntalakid hi atag (rattan mat weaving). These two events are exclusively for men by tradition. Meanwhile, the mun abor (Ifugao textile weaving) was an all-women category.
Since these skills are deeply rooted in the Ifugao’s traditional way of life and cultural practices, it is a vital part of every Gotad celebration. This year’s competition not only revealed the lack of participants but also showed that there are almost no youth participants.
Roscoe Kalaw, the Gotad Task Force Chairperson expressed his sentiments regarding this issue,
“We made it an open competition because we want the youth to participate as well. We made some coordination with the municipalities that we should also encourage the participation of the youth. But as we have observed, all the participants in the different indigenous skills competitions are the older ones.”
Kalaw acknowledges this issue as a challenge that the province now faces on how to preserve their indigenous skills.
“That is a manifestation that there is really a challenge on the transmission of the Ifugao indigenous knowledge to the younger generation. And that is a real apprehension because who knows, ten years from now, all the culture bearers who know the indigenous knowledge will no longer do the task, then who will do it?”
The president of the Ifugao Local Artists and Craftsmen Organization (ILACO), Johnny Dulnuan, shared the same sentiment. “The purpose of promoting the transfer of knowledge to the young generation is that there will be a continuous production and promotion of the art”, Dulnuan said.
He also mentioned that while there are culture bearers who are willing to train and there are concerned government officials who are willing to help, this should be taken as an opportunity to continue the promotion and preservation of the Ifugao indigenous skills.
Being the Supervising Tourism Operations Officer, Kalaw said that they are trying their best to conduct trainings to address this problem. However, according to him, there is still a challenge on how to encourage youth participation.
“We are utilizing this Gotad ad Ifugao as a venue to demonstrate this indigenous knowledge to the youth. So that hopefully, they will have a better understanding and appreciation for their cultural heritage, especially this intangible heritage. We all know that what we do not understand, surely, we will not appreciate”.
Dulnuan on the other hand, don’t think that there are enough young people applying these skills within the province.
“Just look at this one. It’s only during this Ifugao Gotad that we are having an ethnic skills contest but for regular practice, I don’t think maybe at Hungduan”, he said.
Dulnuan, as the President of ILACO with the support of Kalaw as the Provincial Tourism Officer, works together to promote and preserve these skills.
Dulnuan said that they have been trying their best to involve and train students.
“Actually, we invited Dep-Ed (Ifugao) through the Superintendent. However, I think there is a memorandum that the students shouldn’t be disturbed in their classes. That’s why they did not allow their students for the training.”
Nevertheless, Dulnuan said that they reached out to the Out of School Youth(OSY) instead, along with others who are interested in the indigenous skills training.
“We do not stop there. We still want to invite Dep-ed through the provincial government for the training. Because if we stop the training, then who will come after us?”, he added.
They planned that those who will be trained will also be the participants during the Gotad. Hungduan, among other municipalities, also conducts indigenous skills training targeting the youth.
While in Alfonso Lista, they plan to have an ethnic skills competition in their Ammung festival. The winners will become the participants during the Gotad.
Dulnuan suggests adding other skills to be contested in the event, such as soft broom making. While allowing demonstrators in these other skills.
During the competition, Kalaw observed that while it is the older ones who join the ethnic skills competition, the younger ones are more active in the other arts.
“Sometimes, we do not know where we stand because, in the on-the-spot painting, the youth really participated. The 11 municipalities were well represented. But for the other (events), especially the indigenous skills, we have less youth. I don’t know if they are not interested or they are not given the opportunity to be exposed to this indigenous knowledge”, Kalaw expressed.
The present youth are more interested in the performing and contemporary arts, but the culture bearers and concerned government officials will continue to attempt to revitalize the Ifugao Indigenous skills. With enough support to the culture bearers.
“We are a bit on the edge already, on how to continue this indigenous knowledge. So that hopefully, it would cut across the new generation. Because after this generation, we do not know already what will happen to the intangible cultural practices of the Ifugaos”, said Kalaw. By Peachy Clarisse L. Tillay
