If there is something to be said about Dumaguete these days, it is that things are going on in the background to soon burnish its standing as truly a Creative City. The foundations are being created, the seeds are being planted, the frameworks are being built.
It is my hope, for example, that Dumaguete will soon bear the stamp of being one of the UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network.
The UCCN was created in 2004 “to promote cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development,” and the 116 cities that currently make up this network “work together towards a common objective: placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans at the local level and cooperating actively at the international level.” These cities cover seven creative fields–crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, music and media Arts–all of which have become powerful creative industries spurring further growth and economic development, as well as providing humanistic uplift that no traditional business models have ever attained.
How could Dumaguete–an “artists’ haven,” as we locals so lovingly call it, among other things [“the city of gentle people,” “university town,” “city of literature”]–not be part of this network? We have the traditions, we have the mindset, we have the people. But of course, there’s also work to be done.
The “creative city,” as a concept, was developed by David Yencken in 1988 and it has since become a global movement reflecting a new planning paradigm for cities. Yencken has argued that “while cities must be efficient and fair, a creative city must also be one that is committed to fostering creativity among its citizens and to providing emotionally satisfying places and experiences for them.”
From Wikipedia, we get the following battlecry: “The creative city [is] seen as aspirational…a clarion call to encourage open-mindedness and imagination implying a dramatic impact on organizational culture. Its philosophy is that there is always more creative potential in a place. It posits that conditions need to be created for people to think, plan and act with imagination in harnessing opportunities or addressing seemingly intractable urban problems.
“This requires infrastructures beyond the hardware–buildings, roads, or sewage. Creative infrastructure is a combination of the hard and the soft. The latter includes a city’s mindset, how it approaches opportunities and problems; its atmosphere and incentives and regulatory regime. To be a creative city, the soft infrastructure includes a highly skilled and flexible labor force and dynamic thinkers, creators, and implementers.
“In the creative city, it is not only artists and those involved in the creative economy who are creative, although they play an important role. Creativity can come from any source including anyone who addresses issues in an inventive way be it a social worker, a business person, a scientist, or public servant. Creativity is not only about having ideas, but also the capacity to implement them.
“It advocates that a culture of creativity be embedded in how urban stakeholders operate. By encouraging and legitimizing the use of imagination within the public, private and community spheres, the ideas bank of possibilities and potential solutions to any urban problem will be broadened… The creative city identifies, nurtures, attracts and sustains talent so it is able to mobilize ideas, talents and creative organizations.”
Dumaguete City still has a long way to go with regards fulfilling this dream. Foundation-making is a tedious process that requires patience. But the seeds are being planted.
A new Heritage Council, for example, has now been formed, with Dr. Earl Jude Cleope as founding director. An Arts and Culture Council is in the offing.
One of the things that we consider foundational in making true the dream of a “creative city” is the upcoming month-long celebration of National Heritage Month this May.
This is in accordance to a constitutional mandate, and made more explicit by Proclamation No. 439, then signed by President Arroyo in 11 August 2003, which designated the month of May of every year as National Heritage Month, taking after Article XVI, Section 15 of the Philippine Constitution that states that “the State shall conserve, promote and popularize the nation’s historical cultural heritage and resources.”
It proclaims the necessity to “create in the people a consciousness, respect and love for the legacies of Filipino cultural history and to raise material support for the protection of tangible and intangible heritage,” as well as the “need to strengthen the people’s awareness of cultural heritage sites, structures and landscapes, and encourage their participation in the preservation of these cultural legacies through various activities such as performing arts at these sites and/or visual art and fashion exhibits, thematic culinary events, as well as popular folk food fairs, design retrospectives and competitions, media and literary events, and homage to living traditions and intangible heritage.” It also establishes the “need to project and promote, and celebrate our people’s multi-cultural traditions our indigenous people’s cultures,” including the traditions and heritage of our Muslim and Filipino-Chinese brothers.
It recognizes that “heritage” is very much a part of the life of a nation. And in this regard, the government of the City of Dumaguete is joining the rest of the nation in the celebration of National Heritage Month, a spark in the future dream of becoming a Creative City.
The Tourism Office, which will be spearheading the celebration, will coordinate these events with other heritage stakeholders of the City.
The activities of the National Heritage Month for Dumaguete City are framed by the definition of “cultural heritage” espoused by the UNESCO and adapted by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, which encompasses several main categories of heritage:1] moveable heritage, 2] natural heritage, 3] built heritage, 4] intangible heritage, and 5] creative industries and professions.
And Heritage Month in Dumaguete City, to be called Hugkat: Bulan sa Kabilin/National Heritage Month, will endeavor to stage at least one event that showcases an aspect of each of the five categories of heritage, to be distributed throughout the month of May.
For 2017, the spotlighted Moveable Heritage will be on the literary, Dumaguete City being nationally known as a City of Literature, a hub for Filipino writers and authors.
On May 4, Thursday, a Dumaguete LiteraTour will be held, taking participants on a tour around a city known for its literary heritage, with guided stops that showcase places in the City that can be found in passages of relevant texts from Philippine literature as well as the homes of acclaimed Filipino writers who are or were residents.
The participants will be on board a bus with a literary tour guide, and are provided a brochure and map, and each stop will feature presentations by assigned tour guides. It will culminate in an exhibit of Dumaguete authors, and the launch of Dr. Cleope’s book on the history of the Visayas.
On May 21, Sunday, there will be a screening of a short documentary film featuring elderly locals and their recollection of the Dumaguete of the past. The short film documentary, directed by Razcel Jan Salvarita, will endeavor to interview local Dumaguete residents [70 years old and above] where they will reminisce about their lives, and the changing face of Dumaguete over the years.
The spotlighted Natural Heritage will be the acacia trees of Dumaguete City, an immediate environmental icon for the City. On May 14, Sunday, an Acacia Picnic will be held at the Rizal Boulevard. The acacia trees of Dumaguete City has always been one of its most enduring icons, and a close inspection into their presence in Dumaguete reveals both environmental and historical importance.
Environmentally-speaking, the acacia trees speak to the bio-diversity of the City, as well as its reputation as a haven for birds in the country. At the same time, their slow death point to the importance of biological conservation.
Historically-speaking, the acacia trees are emblems to the religious development of Dumaguete, having been for the most part nurtured by the American missionaries who helped shape the City.
The spotlighted Built Heritage will be an open house one of the historic houses of Dumaguete, with corresponding curated exhibitions, guided tours, and exhibitions, with full details to follow.
The spotlighted Intangible Heritage will be the following: traditional textile-making, traditional games, and traditional fishing. A traditional weaving demonstration will be held on May 18-19, Thursday and Friday at Quezon Park, and an Olympics of traditional games will be held the next day, May 20, Saturday.
Filipino Games or indigenous games in the Philippines (known as Laro ng Lahi) are games commonly played by children, usually using native materials or instruments.
In the Philippines, due to limited resources of toys of Filipino children, they usually come up on inventing games without the need of anything but the players themselves. Their flexibility to think and act makes their games interesting and challenging.
On May 27, Saturday, a Birik-birik Competition will be held. Birik-birik is a method of fishing using sabiki, an artificial fishing bait, where a fisherman has a long single dropper line with multiple hooks attached to it, assuring him of a huge catch in just one haul.
Birik-birik is popularly used by the local fishers along the coastline of Dumaguete. The practice has since evolved into the annual Birik-Birik competition among Dumaguete fishermen, who are required to catch the long and slender balo (garfish or sea needle), a pelagic fish that lives close to the surface of shallow waters and feeds on smaller fish. (The balo is normally eaten fried, baked, grilled, or smoked.)
A creative industries summit will also be held on May 27, Saturday, to gather together the various heritage stakeholders of Dumaguete City. This includes relevant local people involved in the following: museums and galleries, archives and libraries, language and translation, monuments, historical research, heritage communication, cultural education, traditional cultural communities, dramatic arts, cinema, literary arts, visual arts, music, dance, and architecture and allied arts. The aim is to define and shape the creative industries pertaining to each of their field, for the future development of heritage in Dumaguete City.
The Santacruzan on May 31, Wednesday, caps Dumaguete’s Heritage Month.
Detailed information on each of these events to follow.
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Author’s email: ian.casocot@gmail.com
