Theater production: TAKDER KORDILYERA! (Take a Stand, Cordillera!)
Takder Kordilyera of the Cordilleran Youth Center, Inc are under the Empowerment Accelerator grant, now focusing on artivism as an approach in furthering the rights of indigenous peoples, especially cultural workers and youth. One of their major outputs is the theatre production of Takder Kordilyera which was performed during the People’s Cordillera Day.
Takder Kordilyera is a theatre comeback of DKK and TABAK-Baguio. It combined three sub-performances including TABAK’s original piece, “Panalangin ng Dukhang Pinagpala”, a digital song cover of Khryss Arañas’ “Pesante” (peasant) matched with a 3-part monologue and an interpretation of Rico Blanco’s song, “Yugto”. The production weaves the stories of struggling farmers in the region threatened by skyrocketing costs of farm inputs while farm gate prices for local produce remains low. Moreover, it captivates the Igorot experience and challenges amid development aggression so as the people’s continuing resistance.
The soil mural design is inspired by Cordillera hero Macli-ing Dulag who was instrumental in leading the historic Chico Dam Struggle. It represents the Igorot resistance against development aggression projects pushed by the then Marcos Sr. administration. The mural was collectively made by children and youth aged 8-22 year old guided by DKK and Sulong Likha visual artists. As one of the young artist reflected,
“Paggamit ng lupa [sa pagpinta] para po maiwasan yung carbon footprints na sumisira sa mundo natin ngayon. Ginamit naming ‘yung lupa since, ito ay magandang halimbawa ng magandang pagkuhanan ng mga kulay sa ating environment at para maiwasan ‘yung chemicals na ginagamit sa pagpinta.”
(The use of soil [for painting] to reduce the use of carbon footprints that destroys our earth today. We used soil since this is a good example on how to get colours from our environment and lessen the use of chemicals in painting.)
